Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1157135
actor Crispin Freeman, who portrays scientist Winston in Overwatch. "If you are looking for performers of color, if you are looking for young performers, if you are looking for performers from any corner of the globe, the union not only has a huge pool of actors to pull from, but also the systems in place to access them." That was the case for Sam Butin, a partner at iNK Stories, who sought Iranian-American voice and performance capture artists for his studio's game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. Butin was easily able to find the right performers for the parts and found the entire process of working with the union to be simple and straightforward. "It was important for us to use the best talent available, so obviously that meant working with [SAG-AFTRA]," he said. "The people at [SAG-AFTRA] were super- helpful; the process was super-painless." For actors, the contract provides guaranteed minimums, health and retirement contributions and secondary payments for bestselling games, so that performers can share in the success of the creations they helped to make. It also requires developers to divulge ahead of time whether the role will include the use of offensive language, extreme vocal stress or, for performance capture, demanding physical action. Many actors embrace the creativity of indie games, and for them, the Low Budget Agreement is a great way to work on trailblazing projects while ensuring their interests are protected. Sarah Elmaleh, an actor whose credits include Anthem, Final Fantasy XV and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, said she deeply values her work with indie developers. "I came up in indie games. I find them immensely inspiring, creative and imaginative. The idea of progressing in my career and getting to work on games that have more resources at hand and larger-scale triple-A games mattered to me — there are companies that I think are doing inspiring work at that level — but I never wanted to lose the small, scrappy experimental collaborators," she said. SAG-AFTRA's other new video game contract, the Interactive Localization Agreement, was created to cover games that were originally made in a foreign language but are being translated into English for the American market. Like the union's other agreements, it sets minimum scale wages, requires contributions to health and retirement, and puts limits on vocally stressful sessions. The contract has already received positive responses from the industry. In addition to signing a major video game franchise, a number of large Japanese video game producers have approached the union about utilizing the agreement. Meanwhile, the climate for actors who work in larger domestic games is also improving. The aftermath of SAG-AFTRA's video game strike, which ended in September 2017, was, ironically, better relations with the industry. At the end of the protracted conflict, developers were left with a deeper understanding of the issues important to SAG-AFTRA members, such as vocal stress, and have shown a willingness to work with the union to improve working conditions. In addition, members got an additional form of compensation in lieu of traditional residuals, an amount beyond the base rate that scales based on the number of sessions. That helped to bring the contract in line with SAG-AFTRA's other agreements so that performers' contributions are recognized and treated with the respect they deserve. sagaftra.org | Summer 2019 | SAG-AFTRA 41