1 Absolutely Crazy Demand SAG AFTRA is Actually Fighting You Won't Believe

Hey, in this video during the strike, I'm going to be sharing with you one absolutely crazy demand that SAG-AFTRA is actually fighting that you just won't believe it. Watch this to the end and I've got a special bonus which is really important, especially at this time for many, many actors, and it's 23 great side hustle jobs that many of them you probably never even heard of that would be really helpful to you, especially during this tough time. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center, where I share industry information with you based on my 38-plus years of working as a full-time actor. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click Click the subscribe button, the notification bell, so you always know when a new video is uploaded. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. That helps let other people know that the video is helpful. Look, this is a, this is a stressful time period for actors. We're on strike, and I don't know when you're actually watching this, but right now we are on strike, and this is the second strike. that I've been involved with. Back in 2000, we had a TV commercial strike that— it lasted for 6 months. And there was a 6-month period where you couldn't do any TV commercials. And at that time period, that was a good part of my income. I was doing more TV commercials than film and television. Things have changed. Over the years. And so now I'm doing more film and TV and less TV commercials. But on a side note, I just wanted to let you know one of the things that has been really helpful to me throughout my entire career, and that is diversifying. It's kind of like, you know, when people tell you about investments— diversify, don't put all your eggs in one basket. And that's what I've always done with, with with acting. And it's— look, it's not good, it's not bad, it's not right, it's not wrong. It's just the way that I've done things. And I've always wanted to open myself up and learn about many different aspects of the industry, of the acting industry, not like crew and production and that kind of stuff. But when things sounded interesting, I wanted to explore them. And so during the commercial strike because I had been doing a lot of commercial modeling work, which is modeling for real-looking people, sometimes beautiful people. I'm not in that category, but commercial print work, commercial modeling, those are the people you see in every non-fashion magazine, billboards, posters, sides of buses, on the internet, on packages. We're all over the place. And so during the TV commercial strike, I was still able to survive because I did a lot of commercial modeling work. Plus I did, uh, they're called industrial films or corporate films or training films. Uh, did a lot of those as well. And so although I couldn't do any TV commercials, I still was able to work and make, make a living. Not as good, uh, but I was able to make a living, pay bills and things like that. So right now, Look, we're in a different place. I can't work on TV shows or feature films because everything is just shut down. And once again, it's just my personal opinion, and I hope I'm wrong. I see this lasting for months. I really do. And so it's really hard. And that's why, once again, I'm fortunate I can still do industrial films. With commercial modeling, that has nothing to do with the union, so I can continue to do those. Anyhow, and I'm going to talk about the bonus video in a second, but— or not in a second, but at the very end, I'll share it with you because this might be really, really helpful to you, especially during this time period. Please make sure you watch it. So one of the, one of the fights that's going on with SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP, which is they're representing a lot of the producers and different platforms, and one of the things that they're trying to push, which it just seems absolutely insane and outrageous to me, and I'm very, very thankful that the union is there, and this might affect non-union Actors as well. It has to do with extras, and what they want to push is if they see an extra who they think has an interesting look, they want to use AI and capture your image and be able to use it in perpetuity, be able to use it forever. They could take your image and plug you into a character. Yeah. For another project or base a character on your image, your mannerisms. And what they're saying is they will pay the extras. I think what they're saying is, I think it's a day's pay of extra work. So I mean, you're talking about potentially under $200 of having your image used forever. It's just, it's outrageous to me. I mean, that's just one of the things. And like, I know, like, we're all talking about the strike right now, and so this is an unusual kind of quick tip video, but this is the one aspect of it that I did want to discuss with you and share because it's really important. We should not be losing The rights to our image for a couple hundred dollars forever. So I'm very thankful that the union is fighting very hard on this. We might be, you know, out of work for TV and film for quite some time, but you know what? Sometimes you do, you just have to stand up because we've really been behind the ball with, with a lot of new technology. Our last contract was a number of years ago, so it's It's time. And look, there are other issues, and I don't want to turn this into just a strike video. You can go to the union, sagaftra.org website, and learn all about the specifics. But that is one of the things that they are fighting, and I wanted to make sure that you all know about this so that if you— if that thing ever comes up and it's brought up to you, just understand. If they allow it to happen. I don't know if they will. I hope they don't. But you got to protect your image. You really do. And, you know, you could be— your image could be used in something you don't feel comfortable with. Just like we go to auditions, you know, we are sent auditions and we have the right to turn it down. And now, after doing almost 1,300 jobs, I can tell you, I think I've turned down 5, maybe 5 things for various reasons. But there are people who turn down auditions because, I don't know, maybe they're strict vegetarians or vegans and they don't want to do anything that supports eating meat or wearing leather or wearing furs. Or maybe it's a political spot and you don't want to promote a particular politician because of what they have to say, or there's something that goes against your beliefs or your morals, whatever it is. It doesn't matter. You have the right to say no. However, if your image is captured on AI and permission is given, you could be— your image could be involved in projects that you really don't want to be connected with. And that is— this is perpetuity. This is forever. And that's not something that you want to live with. So anyhow, I just— I know this is kind of short. I wanted to share it with you. For the video that I'm suggesting you, you watch, you'll see it in the upper left-hand corner here. Just click on it. And this is— these are side hustle jobs. It's not just, you know, waiting tables and bartending. These are, these are actual jobs where you can use acting skills. Not every single one, but some of them are, and some of them are just great. As far as the timing and the commitments go and the pay goes. But I'll just tell you one of them, something you might not have ever heard of— standardized patient work. Most people have never heard of this. I know people do it full-time. It would be hard, honestly, it would be hard to make a living doing it full-time, but it's a great side hustle for actors. So here's the story. Once again, you'll read all about it— read all about it— you'll see it and learn all about it in the video, the bonus video. So Many teaching hospitals, and there are medical schools that hire actors to be standardized patients. So what they do is they— it gives students, medical students, an opportunity to practice doing exams. Or maybe there are residents, new residents at a hospital, and they— what they do is they go in to exam The actor. Now, first of all, it's nothing crazy. They're not prodding and poking and giving you injections and stuff like that. What happens is you are told what disease you have, and you're given a whole history, and you're going to read, and you're going to know a lot about that disease, and you're going to know what medications you take, side effects, the amounts, how long you've had it, what is preventing you from being able to do in life, what you are able to do now. And it's all improv, and you're— because you have no idea what the student or the resident is going to ask you, but you are going to be incredibly knowledgeable and you're going to respond and you're going to have this conversation. And at the very end, when everything is done, you the actor, you're going to write up a report talking about whether the student or resident did a good job, what they could improve on. Did they listen to your questions? questions carefully? Were they, you know, did they ask you nicely? Did they seem to care about— you're going to write up a whole report and grade them. So, um, yeah, the pay varies from place to place and also depending on your experience. But yeah, you can watch the video and you can, you can see, uh, how you can find, uh, different places in your area that, uh, hire standardized patients. So That's one of 23 side hustle jobs. So anyhow, I hope this was helpful to you. If you have any comments about the union, the strike, please share it in the comment below. I hope for all of us that this is a quick ending to the strike. There was one strike, I think it lasted a certain amount of hours. This is like back in 1986. I think it was like a 6-hour strike. 6-hour strike. Unfortunately, my intuition is telling me I think, I think we're going to be sitting out for a pretty good amount of time on this one. But just to, just to end things here, this is the perfect time to get better prepared, to do work on home auditions, making sure that everything looks great. Continue to memorize, continue to practice auditions, maybe this would be a really good time if all your materials are ready, your headshot, your resume is all there, to start finding other agents. Because if they do a lot of work with film and television, they're probably not very busy right now. So this might be a good time to try to go out and make new contacts, but use this time wisely. Anyhow, that's what I wanted to say. I wish I had better information for you. But anyhow, I did want to be very honest and share something very specific about this, right, with you. So I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.