In The News

The International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees called on Monday for a strike authorization vote, setting in motion potentially the biggest labor showdown in Hollywood since the last writers’ strike 14 years ago.

Some 60,000 IATSE members could end up walking off the job, most of whom are based in Los Angeles. A strike, if it comes, would lead to a nationwide shutdown of TV and film production, because three of the locals — 600, 700 and 800 — are “national” unions.

“It’s coast to coast,” said Joe Martinez, a special effects specialist in IATSE Local 44, who said he believed a strike is increasingly likely. “They think they got us by the balls. We make the product. If we don’t show up to work, what are they going to sell?”

This year’s NAB Show had been scheduled to run between October 9-13, 2021. The festival’s organizers hope to reunite in person for a 2022 show that’s currently scheduled between April 23-27, 2022.

Select content from the show will be made available virtually through the group’s platform NAB Amplify. The cancellation comes after the group previously announced that attendees to the event would have to be vaccinated.

See the full statement from Chris Brown, executive vice president and managing director of Global Connections and Events at the National Association of Broadcasters, below:

To help keep track of the changing schedule, Screen is keeping this page updated with the latest film festival and market dates, postponements and cancellations. 

Festivals taking place online or as hybrid events due to Covid-19 are noted. If not specified, the festival is currently set as a physical event. 

Move over green screens, LED walls are here.

When the pandemic hit, productions scrambled to figure out logistics in the new normal. That’s when studios turned to an emerging aspect of virtual production: digital immersive environments capturing real-world settings (including lighting) rendered in real time using game engines such as Unreal. They are then projected onto LED walls made up of hundreds of high-def displays that serve as interactive backdrops for actors — like a green screen, but much more sophisticated.

IATSE, the major labor union for film, theater, and television workers, is mulling a possible strike amid ongoing negotiations with the AMPTP. The union, which represents 150,000 workers across 13 Hollywood locals, released a statement to members Tuesday indicating a vote on a strike could be forthcoming. The union’s major priorities include living wages, reasonable rest (turnaround between shoot days), better meal breaks, and sustainable benefits (e.g. pensions that reflect cost of living increases).

The major sticking point in the latest round of negotiations is over rates and/or benefits for streaming projects, which are currently slated at a lower rate under the “New Media” classification. IATSE argues that after 13 years, streaming can no longer be considered “New Media,” preferring the term “Not So New Media.”