[NEohioPAL]SAG indie is oxy-moronic

[Christopher]

Having tried using the SAG experimental contract, I feel uniquely
qualified to break wind on this topic.

First, I was asked to buy a $250 worker's comp certificate for each day
I would be working with a SAG actor, a noble idea in and of itself until
I learned I can buy a 1 million dollar bond for under a hundred bucks a
day to cover ANYTHING, not just one person.  Then I was told I would
have to put in $250 into a retirement fund not for that actor
specifically, but to the guild.  You want a donation?  Hold a dance
party.  Anybody know when THAT thing is going to be insolvent?

If I had $500 and the actor's choice on the matter, I think that actor
would be treating themselves to some Christmas in July, since the actor,
from my understanding, sees none of this money directly.

To make matters worse for those producers who don't have a giant sound
stage where they can build city blocks, or Pleasantville weather
forecasts, these certificates have to be paid for and assigned a date 30
days in advance, with the implied promise that I drop ANOTHER $250 if
the date changes for any reason other than the actor's inability to show
up (so keep the rocks in your hands, cuz that's one BIG glass house
ya'll seem to live in).

And how many years did the SAG office here share space with a casting
agency, in wild violation of SAG's own bylaws?  Financial core is part
of SAG's bylaws too.  For everybody in SAG who wants to hate on its own
members who choose to exercise the right to enjoy the bylaw its own past
members apparently CREATED, don't you feel conflicted?

Evidently not, since the only movies anybody wants to make around here
are vehicles for once-famous washups with predilictions for recent drug
addled high school dropouts.  Oh wait, am I being too specific?  I don't
mean to, because that umbrella's got LOTS of coverage.

Do I have a problem with SAG?  Not at all (until maybe now).  SAG was
vital in breaking the iceburgs that held actors in "studio loyalty"
contracts that committed actors to work with one employer, under that
employer's rules, making that employer's typically $#!tty pictures.
They have their place now.  I just wonder what SAG has against US?

Christopher K. Young
www.shallowfocus.com