[Fmpro] LSO isnt the eastern block

[Jason Poss]

On 9/13/07 10:46 AM, doc_absynthe at yahoo.com (Michael S Patterson) spoke thus
eloquently:

> Doesn¹t the AFM have agreements with the studio and major networks?
> Aren¹t those big budget films and network shows ³union gigs?²
> 
> I assume that you feel that priced out projects just shouldn¹t have live
> musicians at all.


One of the real problems we're seeing is the way these union signatory
studios try to weasel around their agreements.  I don't have a problem with
genuine low budget projects trying to find economical solutions.  The
problem is when big projects masquerade as small projects.

Things do happen like, "The production office for this project is not on the
lot, so we're not bound by our AFM agreement."  There is at least one studio
which has built an entire building where they can quietly do non-union work
off lot, including recording for both films and television.  They claim it's
not a violation of their agreement since technically it's a separate
company.  I won't get into the tangled mess of corporate ownership trees.

I've personally been involved with one major studio that had assumed control
of a film from an overseas production company for quality control reasons.
They moved all editing and directing onto the LA lot, meetings were there,
etc.  When it came to music I was told that since the "official" production
company was in country X, I'd have to deal with that company for any budget
concerns (like my paycheck for my services).  I was told that if I wanted to
do my work on a union contract, they couldn't work with me.  However all the
footage and instructions to the composer and me were coming from the new
editors, studio execs, and ghost director in LA.  By this point he foreign
company was just writing the check and handling coordination -- with money
they were receiving from the studio in LA!  This was a film that was set to
be a major release for the studio, and yet in certain situations was a
"non-union" foreign, independent, film.  Technically, the studio was just
the distributor!

This goes way beyond just small, independent productions, folks.  The issue
is much more complicated than just cutting the little companies a break.