Negotiators for the SAG-AFTRA strike returned to the table today with new proposals for the second straight day, continuing the 104 day strike.
The actors are seeking wage increases, protections against A.I., boosts in compensation and improvements in health and retirement benefits.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, known as the AMPTP, represents the studios and pitched new reforms in hopes to change the future for actors.
The effects of the strike are looming over USC students in the cinema school, as they prepare to enter an already unstable industry.
Mott: I feel really nervous about it, um, it’s already a very intimidating industry to go into, especially as a college student, um, it’s kind of up in the air.
Students like Jasper Mott, a senior acting major feels the weight of the stress having to choose between not having a job, or facing backlash and potentially being canceled in the industry.
Mott: I have no agent I’m not SAG, um, and so there is even more uncertainty about um, whether or not I will get employed, or get roles, or do what I love post graduation.
But, students like Riley Buchanan, a senior film major, says overcoming obstacles is just apart of what it takes to get in the industry.
Buchanan: It’s just a stress contributor and it kinda goes hand in hand with the benefits of being in this industry. You just kinda have to roll with the punches if you really wanna stick it out in the long run here.
Students like junior Micah Slater, a cinema media studies major says the stall in negotiations still comes down to the use of A.I. in Hollywood.
Slater: Actors and background actors could have their likeness scanned and reused in perpetuity. They wouldn’t own their own faces. Digital reconstruction of their bodies could be owned by studios, um, and that’s just abhorrent to me.
But hope could be on the horizon... as more actors like George Clooney, Emma Stone, and Ben Affleck push union leaders to come up with a strategy to end the strike.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Piper Vaughn.