14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that the members of the Screen Actors Guild, which represents the interests of actors when it comes to licensed work, has rejected a deal offered by the videogame industry related to how actors will be paid when providing voice work for future titles. Members of the SAG are said to have voted the contract down 73 to 42 after caucus members from Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Hollywood had about a week to evaluate it.
The Variety trade magazine is saying that the main problem was with the newly introduced category of the so-called “atmospheric performer,” which would see some actors paid “to perform up to 20 voices of up to 300 words at the daily base rate.”
SAG is saying that this will actually lead to a reduction of payments made to actors working on future videogames. Scott Witlin, who is representing the interests of the videogame companies, like those of Electronic Arts, has said that negotiations might not continue after the SAG move.
The impact to those of us who play videogames might not be too great. More than half of voice work done on productions like the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 or any other big release is performed by people who do not belong to the SAG. The big impact might be that high profile voice actors, like Tim Curry or Claudia Black, will probably not be willing to work on videogames if the publisher does not have a deal with the Screen Actors Guild.
Another big union, The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, has a working deal with the videogame industry at the moment and the rejection of the SAG deal could jeopardize a plan that aimed to bring pay for members of both entities on the same level, with a bunch of contracts set to expire in 2011.