[Fmpro] LSO isnt the eastern block

[Michael S Patterson]

Jason,
The issues with Œinternational co-productions¹ is not something
new...it¹s a theme in the 1963 film CONTEMPT by Godard.
Look at the Spaghetti Westerns.

I do not agree with studios setting up situations in that
a US studio financed film, shot in US and is posting in US
doesn¹t use union labor...specially in California.

By the way, are we talking about Lion¹s Gate?

Michael S Patterson


 

On 9/13/07 12:10 PM, "Jason Poss" <JasonPoss at aol.com> wrote:

> 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.
> 
> 
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