The Generations Soapie / SABC stand off

rza said:
Generations is not selling a product, it's selling a story which is told by actors. Without actors there is no story told, and there is no Generations. So bad example you used.
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No, it is a selling product.

The actors are contracted at a rate to act out a given set of lines, that are provided to them by the script writers. The actors have no claim on the product or the earnings from said product.
 
rza said:
Royalties. That is how artists get paid, they get paid based on the success of their production, amongst other things. They are not selling software! Even if they were selling software, they will still get maintenance fees.
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No, they are not paid via royalties. They are contracted to a production company at a rate. Did you not read the article?
 
ToxicBunny said:
No, they are not paid via royalties. They are contracted to a production company at a rate. Did you not read the article?
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Yes they are paid at a rate, but they still have a right to royalties that flow from their production, i.e when the episodes are rebroadcast or sold to another tv station they have to be paid in accordance with the profits made by SABC.
 
No they do not... Their contract does not afford them rights to the royalties therefore they have no rights to the royalties. They are producing a product for the sabc, what the sabc does with it after they're finished is none of their concern commercially.
 
They're right to push for as much money as possible. Acting is an erratic, unstable form of employment. What they can demand will depend on how replaceable they are. If their leaving would kill a hugely profitable show, then they'll ultimately get what they've asked for.

ToxicBunny said:
Since when is the money a company makes on a product etc tied to a random persons job?

That is bollocks logic in the extreme in my opinion. You are paid what the company feels you are worth, if you don't like it then find a place that will pay more.
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Well that is the human as piece of disposable machinery attitude. It is however quite clear that actors can get paid in relation to the money the product they make earns. This is something actors in other countries fought hard to get.

ToxicBunny said:
No, it is a selling product.

The actors are contracted at a rate to act out a given set of lines, that are provided to them by the script writers. The actors have no claim on the product or the earnings from said product.
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Quite clearly the actors are part of that product.
 
I heard the SABC or the producer say that of the 20 highest paid actors in this country, 12 are on Generations. I wonder what rate this "highest" is?
 
rza said:
That's peanuts, although we understand that this is a soapie.
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In context its a decent wage.... it might be peanuts in the USA but in SA, on a soapie, watched mostly by lower to middle income groups, on a national broadcaster, that is massively in debt.... its pretty decent.

Its also a part time job...meaning that if they are so good then there are other gigs they can do as well.
 
Oh Generations....they should have ended that show a long time ago...its so repetitive :( 15 of them got fired didnt they?? And some of those fired where what was keeping Generations together, so I am wondering how the show is going to continue when the main people are gone.

Oh well, there is Isidingo and Scandal! to keep us company :D
 
rza said:
Is not about whether R40k is a lot of money or not, it's about whether they should be getting R40k a month considering the ad revenue they bring to the SABC, and its in that context that I contend that R40k is very little. Generations is a money spinner so SABC is making a huge profit on it. The problem for SABC is that Generations' revenue is used to pay for other non-performing programmes in their line-ups so they refuse to give up the profits. That is unfair to these actors. Another issue they are striking about is that SABC is getting revenue from international flighting of Generations, yet the actors are not being paid anything from that portion of revenue but only paid from the local revenue. Mnet had actors refusing to sign contract when the Wild started because of the same issue. Another issue is that SABC is rebroadcasting old episodes and making revenue from them, yet the actors are not paid a cent. There's no way you can agree to that as an employee, and there's no reason for these actors to agree to it either.
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If they felt it was unfair, why did they agree to it and sign the contract?
 
The actors need to understand Supply and Demand. Unfortunately actors in SA are in high supply, and the generations product will launch the career of any actor lucky enough to land a role within a few months.

If the actors don't like the contract, they should leave and grab onto all of the other opportunities that are available to them. Oh wait....there is nothing for them outside of Generations.

Unfortunately nobody is bigger than the show, and they know that. Otherwise the top two or three actors would band together and demand silly salaries like the cast of Friends and Big Bang Theory.

Their last roll of the dice was to treat the senior cast like a union, and the producers called their bluff. Now they must bugger off into the sunset and let the owners of Generations get on with the job and put a new cast in place.
 
rza said:
Royalties. That is how artists get paid, they get paid based on the success of their production, amongst other things. They are not selling software! Even if they were selling software, they will still get maintenance fees.
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All the money (maintenance contracts etc) goes to the company who own the IP. The same for actors.. they can be replaced easily (has happened lots of time).. but the story (IP) belongs to the company.

Artist gets paid for their music they wrote and perform (they might own the IP, so they get royalties) . The record companies take a huge profit too. An artist can go alone (indie).. but then have to front the money for all expenses... can actors do that? If they had the money, they can...


edit: heard on the radio one of the previous actors said hollywoord/Bollywood actors make huge money, they need to do it here too (something like that). I lolled hard...
 
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Seriously?

Our government is intervening in a bloody labour dispute over a soap opera, but couldn't be arsed to do anything constructive about the mining strike or the metals strike? :wtf:
 
ToxicBunny said:
Seriously?

Our government is intervening in a bloody labour dispute over a soap opera, but couldn't be arsed to do anything constructive about the mining strike or the metals strike? :wtf:
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Soap operas distract people from important things, like how much money the ANC is hoovering from tax payers :whistle:
 
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This is more entertaining than the actual show.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Seriously?

Our government is intervening in a bloody labour dispute over a soap opera, but couldn't be arsed to do anything constructive about the mining strike or the metals strike? :wtf:
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the important stuff meneer! when they get home from sleeping in parliament they relax with generations in front of the telly.
 
akescpt said:
the important stuff meneer! when they get home from sleeping in parliament they relax with generations in front of the telly.
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But they all have DSTV and watch American shows...

None of them want to watch the locally made crap do that?
 
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