With the SAG-AFTRA Strike now officially two days old, film and TV sets across The United States are shuttering and going dark for an unknown future, as no one is quite sure how long the conflict might last. As part of the union guidelines, actors have stopped doing promotional work, pulled out of conventions and hit up picket lines. Many of the more famous have also released pro-union statements, but on the set of House Of The Dragon, the cameras will continue to roll thanks to some location-specific technicalities.
Productions in The United States that involve union actors operate under the SAG-AFTRA guidelines. As SAG-AFTRA is striking, that’s effectively put an end to shoots that use members of that guild, but across the pond, productions in The United Kingdom operate under Equity, which has an entirely separate contract and relationship with the major movie studios. Equity has put out a statement saying it supports SAG-AFTRA and shares many of the same issues and concerns, but as its members are not currently striking, everyone involved in those productions is expected to report to work. In fact, according to Deadline, SAG-AFTRA sent a memo to actors involved in those productions telling them they should continue to report.
It’s a bit of a strange situation since House Of The Dragon is an American show that’s produced for HBO, but the production of both Game Of Thrones and its popular new prequel have always used a high volume of British actors and shot extensively in Europe. That’s why the working conditions and bylaws operate under the Equity agreement and not the one negotiated by SAG-AFTRA. As such, sources close to the set are reportedly saying they don’t envision there being much disruption at all.
At this point, it’s impossible to tell how long the strike might go on for. As the Writer’s Guild of America is currently striking, as well, you’d expect the duel pressure of so many being out of work would bring everyone back together to negotiate. Some of the issues being fought over, however, are so new, it’s a whole lot more complicated than just they’d like to be paid more. That’s why some experts are thinking this could go on for months or even longer.
Over the last decade, the streaming business has exploded in popularity, which has largely upended the entire industry and greatly complicated how actors get paid. There are agreements in place for actors to be compensated when episodes they were featured in air a re-run on television. There are agreements in place for things like Blu-ray sales. Some actors even see a small percentage of box office grosses, but with more entertainment consumption now taking place over streaming, there’s a need to figure out how things like residual payments should work in this new consumption model. Add in other issues like AI and using the likeness of background actors over and over again, and there’s just a lot to figure out.
But amidst all this, the set of House Of The Dragon will continue operating. All involved will work to produce another season, and if the strike ends up lasting for longer than expected, it’s possible when the show is ready to hit screens, it could be amongst the only options of new content we have.
