Deborah Lee Hall, Marla Price, Nancy Hall and Linda Rae Jurgens at the Arizona Film & Media Expo. Photo by SAG member Earl Smith.

Deborah Lee Hall, Marla Price, Nancy Hall and Linda Rae Jurgens at the Arizona Film & Media Expo. Photo by SAG member Earl Smith.

M2NM – A Better Outreach for SAG

Recently, the Arizona Branch Council met to devise a strategy for enabling our members to speak to non-members about the value of SAG membership and taking the step to join once a decision to go professional has been made. As a result, we are in the process of refining several approaches for members to use when they meet non-members on the set or on other occasions. Called M2NM, shorthand for member to non-member, the strategy will initiate the development of a speakers’ bureau made up of members willing to speak at drama classes and high school career days, hand-outs that trigger one-to-one discussion with non-members about why joining SAG is a good step for serious professionals to take, and participation at industry events, such as the Arizona Film & Media Expo that took place on January 23.


Expo team members at work. Photo by SAG member Earl Smith.

We need you. If would like to help in some way, please call Arizona Branch Executive Don Livesay at (480) 264-7696, or send him an e-mail at dlivesay@sag.org. Let us know how you would like to assist, and please share any ideas you think might help us.

Creating a stronger, more effective union in Arizona means members sharing about their union, about the industry and about their careers to prospective new members. Your own story about what SAG means to you is better told by you yourself than by anyone else. It’s a better outreach for SAG.

A Message From the Branch President

By Mark DeMichele

Happy belated new year!

We are looking forward to an exciting, and hopefully rewarding, year for our union: increasing our outreach and networking with local filmmakers, improving conservatory offerings, special SAG-only events like the New Mexico Casting Director Audition, a member to non-member education campaign, establishing a speaker’s bureau and much more.

This year may be a good year to consider getting involved with some or all of Arizona’s SAG activities. The economy is still slow, so if you have some extra time, why not make some new friends or reacquaint with old ones? Maybe serve on a committee or take that workshop to keep skills sharp? We’d like to start a list of members interested in speaking to students or interested filmmakers about Screen Actors Guild. (See “M2NM – A Better Outreach” above.)

Getting involved is as easy as sending an e-mail to me at ArizonaPresident@SAG.org or through our executive director, Don Livesay, at dlivesay@sag.org,  or by calling the office at (480) 264-7696. We have a dedicated group of leaders whose work can only be enhanced with your help and involvement.

I also wanted to mention the increasing SAG cyber-support for actors. I hope you are all aware of iActor and the recent service upgrades, and perhaps you’ve had a chance to click around the SAG.org and SAGFoundation.org websites to find the LifeRaft series videoes. (Click on the live stream schedule and plan to watch live!) Here’s a response from a Florida member:

Hello SAG Foundation Organizers,

I firmly believe this effort could help me hook up with SAG again, I moved away from L.A. in '74 to N.Y., Paris and London and in 'o8, to Florida. I am two and four hours away from Branch offices: Orlando and Miami. Just attending the various SAG Film Festivals has been a great learning and entertaining experience. This Internet SAG LifeRaft thing could be the greatest idea of possible SAG creative contacts for those SAG members who do not live in the immediate L.A. or New York City area any more. Thanks for your continued improvement of SAG.

And, when you’re online, please consider becoming a fan of SAG on Facebook or join fellow members on LinkedIn. I believe the increased connectivity could have a positive impact for professional performers.

Lastly, and I paraphrase council member Jon Simpson, “May we all live well and prosper in 2010!”

2009 Phoenix Film Office Year End Economic Impact Report

By Phil Bradstock
Film Office Program Manager and
Debbie Knoblauch
Film Office Program Coordinator

The Greater Phoenix film industry accounted for $38,089,441 in economic impact on the local economy during the 2009 calendar year. Film, in all its forms (including but not limited to: movies, television shows, still photography, commercials, documentaries, corporate/industrials, reality), employed a workforce of 4,795 skilled technicians and actors spanning a total of 362 projects accounting for 1,290 shooting days and occupying 2,080 hotel nights.

Producers of national and international commercial spots such as GoDaddy.com, Red Bull, Barbasol, University of Phoenix and Volkswagon selected Phoenix as their filming location. Television shows such as After Armageddon, America’s Most Wanted, Family Dynamics, Wife Swap, Supernanny and Sunset Daze also chose the Phoenix area as their backdrop.

Maneater, a two-part miniseries set in Los Angeles by Sony Pictures Television and 3 Arts Entertainment, which aired on the Lifetime network, was the largest project filmed in the Valley in 2009. The producers selected Phoenix because of the Motion Picture Tax Incentive Program (MOPIC), administered by the Arizona Department of Commerce and the visual similarities that Phoenix has to Los Angeles. The project employed hundreds of local crew members and actors during their three-month stay while frequenting local hotels, retail stores, car rental agencies, restaurants and building supply companies.

From July 2005 through June 2009 the film industry as a whole contributed $147,454,455 to the local economy. Of this total amount, approximately $82,413,174 was a direct result of the MOPIC program.

MOPIC offers production companies with a minimum spend of $250,000 in Arizona up to a 30 percent transferable tax credit based on Arizona spend and local hires. This has made Phoenix an attractive option to producers and led to the filming of major projects such as The Kingdom, S.I.S., Kids in America, Middle Men and Maneater. Clearly, the MOPIC program has been of significant benefit to the city of Phoenix and the local film industry. The MOPIC program is scheduled to sunset on December 31, 2010, but a movement is underway by local organizations to extend this date.

The 2009 Year End Economic Impact Report for Greater Phoenix marks the first time the Phoenix Film Office has published a calendar year-end report on the film industry. Traditionally, the film office’s annual report is published every July to coincide with the city’s fiscal year (July to June). While this will continue, it is important to bring the data in line with other agencies that track the industry based on a calendar year.

All data was compiled based upon surveys sent to productions that filmed in Phoenix and local production companies. En lieu of completed surveys, economic impact estimates were based upon the Association of Film Commissioners International’s “Tracking Production Revenue: Direct Spending for On-Location Production (U.S. Dollars).” No multipliers were used. Job creation and hotel nights are listed as reported, and estimates are not utilized.

Since You Asked...

By Don Livesay
Arizona Executive Director

I recently attended an industry event where there were a substantial number of non-members present. In fact, our people were outnumbered four to one. But that didn’t stop them from speaking. One SAG member after another got up to share how much Screen Actors Guild had meant to him or her. SAGIndie was on hand to share as well about how the contracts can be made to work for almost any budget.

Then a non-member raised his hand, someone who was known to have worked dozens of union jobs but had never joined.  He said, “I appreciate Screen Actors Guild for all it does. I just don’t know how to support you guys.” The response came quick in chorus of members all saying the same thing: “If you really want to support us, join us!” The message was loud and clear.

Arizona is fast approaching wild flower season, the time when our desert landscape explodes with color. With all the rain we have had this winter, this spring should be spectacular with wild flowers. But that beauty lasts only a few weeks as temperatures soon rise, the flowers dry up and our desert returns to its dry, barren state. Wild flowers are, after all, just weeds.

It’s much the same with non-union jobs. As attractive as they might appear to be, they wither away and eventually dry up when no residuals follow, when no health retirement credits are earned, and when no remedy for unauthorized use is assured.

Since you asked, Mr. Non-union Guy, here’s how you can support SAG . . .

How about refusing to take any non-union job that doesn’t provide the same protections that our jobs provide? It’s that simple. Refuse jobs that don’t pay use fees equivalent to ours. Turn down work that doesn’t offer health insurance and pension credits paid for by the producer like our jobs do. Walk away from any employment that doesn’t protect you when your performance ends up in a venue that you didn’t authorize. And turn away any job that would require you to pay more than 10 percent in commission to your agent.

And since you asked, refuse any booking unless minimum working conditions are in place, where you are respected as a professional, and where payment for working overtime hours, inadequate rest periods and late meals is understood as customary, not waived because you are supposed to feel some obligation to the director for hiring you. And finally, make my day. Turn your back and run for the hills unless your next non-union contract provides a support staff like SAG’s staff, dedicated to see that you get everything the producer has agreed to as a condition of hiring you.

If you really want to support us, do all that. And once you find out the obvious, that no non-union job comes close to matching what SAG provides, then follow the steps taken by many before you, and join. We’ll be here.



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