June 22nd, 2009 The Committee
=DON’T FORGET THE JULY 27th GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING!=
I. IRONIES
II. WEBSITE HOSTS AN ONGOING SPAT.
III. LETTER FROM LOCAL 47 MEMBER CHARLES FERNANDEZ
IV. COMMENTS
V. EVENTS
Colleagues,
Mark your calendar now for the Monday, July 27 general meeting.
We need a quorum so we can raise:
–What’s up with the Referral Service and the backsliding of the RS Website?
–Why is the board stonewalling Studio 47
–Why does the Executive Board let the Secretary do so many Local 47
jurisdiction jobs? Who votes for it, what excuse can they offer?
–Is it true that leaders who use the rehearsal studios are penalized if
there’s a non-union member at the rehearsal? If yes, by what authority?
Are the President buddies getting a break on rehearsal use suspensions?
–At $90,000+ per year, why is President Trombetta still not showing up
to work on Wednesdays?
Unless enough of us show up for a quorum, we won’t be able to ask the
questions or get the answers.
=================
I. IRONIES
We’ve gotten a report of a six hour demo session at Warner’s
last week. That a demo was done there is not unusual,
that it was done with the YOeist of the YO-cats (Those
who one of the COMMITTEE members calls the YO-YO’s as in -
what goes up, must come down)) was until recently, unusual.
So where’s the Irony?:
-It’s ironic that many or most of the players on that session
would have turned their noses up at a demo five years ago.
-It’s ironic that these are some of the same players who
used to call members who did demos “weekenders” or
“amateurs”.
-It’s ironic that it was their own leaders whose business
model drove so much work out of town that they find
themselves needing to do demo sessions.
- It’s ironic that we’ve been warning them for years what
their business practices would do, and it has happened just
as we said it would.
-It’s ironic that many of these players continue to demonize
those members and entities who warned them what would
happen (and continue to be proven right), while continuing
to blindly follow the leaders directly responsible for their loss
of work. We looked at their watch and told them what time
it was, their own leaders broke the watch.
So is it irony?,… or tragedy?,… or poetic justice?
It certainly is tragedy for those players who used to do those
sessions.
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June 17th, 2009 The Committee
=LOCAL 47 MEETING ON AUGUST 27th!=
I. RECORDING MUSICIANS FILE APPEAL
II. COMMENT ON THE FUTURE
III. FMA NEWSLETTER: GRAMMIES
IV. COMMENTS CONCERNING THE SECRETARY
V. MORE COMMENTS
VI. CONCERTS AND EVENTS
Remember that you can always read new and past
COMMITTEE mailings at www.responsible47.com,
and even search previous mailings by word or phrase.
Colleagues,
Mark your calendar now for the Monday, July 27 general meeting.
We need a quorum so we can raise:
–What’s up with the Referral Service and the backsliding of the RS Website?
–Why is the board stonewalling Studio 47
–Why does the Executive Board let the Secretary do so many Local 47
jurisdiction jobs? Who votes for it, what excuse can they offer?
–Is it true that leaders who use the rehearsal studios are penalized if
there’s a non-union member at the rehearsal? If yes, by what authority?
Are the President buddies getting a break on rehearsal use suspensions?
–At $90,000+ per year, why is President Trombetta still not showing up
to work on Wednesdays?
Unless enough of us show up for a quorum, we won’t be able to ask the
questions or get the answers.
====================
I. RECORDING MUSICIANS FILE APPEAL
As you should all remember, a few weeks ago the
recording musicians lawsuit was dismissed WITH
PREJUDICE.
On June 5, musicians David Parmeter, Anatoly Rosinsky
and Andrew Shulman (and funded by the rank and file
RMA membership through Fareplay) filed an appeal with
the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit regarding their lawsuit against Local 47 and
the AFM.
To the RMA rank and file: You thought Rishik and
his handlers would give your money back to you?
——–
MEMBER COMMENT CONCERNING THE RECORDING LAWSUIT DISMISSAL
Wow this dismissal is a great judgment for the AFM.
I read it quickly and went snow blind from all the legalese.
A couple of things caught my eye
Page 15, line 13 Plaintiff Shulman & the RMA act jointly and had
correspondence with the AFM’s counsel on the same issue for a
period of time previous to the case being filed. Then when the case
is filed by 3 musicians they say that they are just three independent
members, not in behalf of the RMA. Technically correct, but the
previous correspondence tells the tale.
Page 17, line 11 Lewis Levy established as the recognized
counsel for Local 47. While, as printed in the RMA Directory,
he is also on the advisory board for the RMA, and was
their counsel for years.
Such an obvious conflict of interest.
This has been going on for years. Levy has been instructed by
the Executive Board to ‘direct’ the Election Board during an
election when the Executive Board members were partisan
political candidates running for office. And recently he represented
the Hearing Board when a charge was brought against his main
client, the Local 47 Executive Board. Imagine a judge hiring the
defense’s lawyer to guide the judge through a case!
How he keeps getting away with it is a mystery to me.
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June 9th, 2009 The Committee
I. MEMBER COMMENT ABOUT VIDEO GAMES
II. DAVID FINCK RESPONDS AGAIN
III. COMMENT FROM RICK BLANC
IV. OFFICER JURISDICTIONAL WORK CONTINUES
V. COMMENTS
VI. CONCERTS AND EVENTS
Remember that you can always read new and past
COMMITTEE mailings at www.responsible47.com,
and even search previous mailings by word or phrase.
====================
I. MEMBER COMMENT ABOUT VIDEO GAMES AND LOCAL 47 SECRETARY
re: Leslie Lashinsky’s column (June 2009 Overture)
Ms. Lashinsky claims with no supported evidence that LA
has BY FAR the most recorded music for videogames. I am
sure Seattle, London and Prague would beg to differ. She
has no access to data from these locations nor from the
myriad of game publishers that create and distribute the
games. So she is either psychic, or engaging in hyperbole.
Also noteworthy is that while she begs for residuals and
re-use for the use of music in these games, she doesn’t
report:
1) the game designers themselves are work-for-hire and
receive no residuals.
2) the SAG actors who record the voice-overs for these
games receive no residuals.
3) the composers who write the music for these games
receive no residuals via ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. And, the
AFM doesn’t represent composers.
I quote Mark Sazer, who is vice president of the RMA-LA:
Employment is actually half of what it was in 2007, and
declining. Annual AFM videogames wages - from everywhere,
all together - are less than a couple of weeks of film scoring.
may 30 2009
This quote seems to refute her commentary.
Also, regarding music recorded for videogames and the
possibility of it being re-used in a motion picture later:
I would like to see any examples where the music recorded
under a buyout agreement (or combined use) was used in
any other medium. Especially for motion pictures. It does
not work that way. Music is scored specifically to picture
and if producers wanted to use pre-existing music, they
have always had the choice to use music libraries. The option
is already there. It’s just not common in any case. If producers
did choose to use music that was originally designed for some
other medium, it disallows that music from award consideration
in most cases. That alone is a huge reason this is not a concern.
Does Ms. Lashinsky do any research? ever? Maybe interview a
few videogame composers and see what their takes are on
this issue. That is something I would like to see. Her opinion
alone is useless otherwise.
Anonymous
——
[Editor's note: Colleagues,
As the member makes clear above in excellent detail, the Local 47
Secretary is wrong and or/misinformed on many points. In the
same June Overture on page one, Linda Rapka has no problem
giving the fuller answer that our Local appears to have the bulk of
the UNION video game work. The Secretary missed out on
the UNION part of that statement, stating as fact that LA does
the majority of the Video Game work, period. It's misleading
and simply not true.
As the writer above makes clear, there are no back-end payments
for video games, never have been. His statements have been
confirmed to us by several VG composers. According to these
same video game composers, more of their work is done in
Seattle and San Francisco, and in some cases specifically refuse
to work in LA because of the remaining fear of another
Simpsons situation.]
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June 1st, 2009 The Committee
I. DAVID FINCK RESPONDS
II. DAVE POMEROY RESPONDS
III. COMMENTS
IV. CONCERTS AND EVENTS
Remember that you can always read new and past
COMMITTEE mailings at www.responsible47.com,
and even search previous mailings by word or phrase.
====================
Below you will find responses to our previous mailing from David Finck
and Dave Pomeroy from New York and Nashville respectively.
I. DAVID FINCK RESPONDS
Dear Mr Committee, (or Ms. - I don’t know who you are- why don’t
you put your name on this?)
You must be a graduate student at Tom Lee University. You are
masterful at avoiding the tough questions. For starters, what do
you suggest we do about representing the card carrying members
who don’t play anything? Here in NY, two of them have snaked
their way onto the EB.
The sad truth for this administration is that we don’t have an industrial
union like the United Auto Workers. Musicians are hand picked;
Either by contractors or more often they are recommended by fellow
musicians. THAT is how work always was and always will be distributed.
And unfortunately, no matter how many low scale contracts the AFM
approves, it will never create more work for more players. The same
musicians will continue to get the calls — just for less money under
the new agreements. So who benefits here? Nobody calls the union
and asks for a union trumpet player who’s dues are paid up. Producers
and contractors want to use the best players they can get. Any good musician
knows this. Any good musician also knows what he or she is good and not
good at. I am an asset in some musical situations and a total liability in
others. And recording technique is a refined skill. Sure, anyone that has
a union card and can hold a musical instrument can also hold it in front
of a microphone. But what producer or composer wants that as a
prerequisite for recording on thier CD or soundtrack?
No fantasy here Mr. or Mrs. Committee-It is one of the hardest things for
musicians to face— ‘Is it my playing? Am I really as good as I think I am?
Gee, I have a union card! Doesn’t that mean I’m good enough to work under
the contracts?’ Of course the sad truth is: NO. IT DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING!
And that my friend, has nothing to do with the RMA.
The RMA represents some musicians that are very good at what they do. And
frankly if all of those ‘YO CATS’ (as you call them) disappeared from LA, scoring
may not continue in the same way. Sorry to crash that possibility into your fantasy.
David Finck
New York
[Again Mr. Finck, living in New York, you have no clue how many great players
there are in Los Angeles. We live here, we DO know.
As for your complaint about card carrying members who don't play anything?
We agree.
Mr. Finck--- meet Sandy De Crescent,
a non-playing card carrying Local 47 member (Well, depending on the story
teller, she auditioned on either triangle or castanets.) who had a strangle
hold on big budget film recording for years. She controlled and was a driving force, for
good or ill, on 1000's of recording musicians' careers for the last few decades.
If not for her, your buddies may not have been able to have the monopoly they
enjoyed for decades,... and in many cases still do.]
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