M+E Daily
Hollywood IT Summit To Tackle Residual Payment Challenges
Story Highlights
by Lyndsey Schaefer
Residuals management is an issue that has been at the forefront of Hollywood’s entertainment industry for decades. On Friday, March 2, at the Hollywood IT Summit, leading digital technology executives representing studios, industry guilds, lawyers, and technologists will address the changes in IT being implemented to better manage the residuals process.
Erin Griffin, chief information officer for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), will share her perspective on the residual payment discussion. SAG is responsible for receiving and verifying residuals payments, and then distributing them to SAG members. Griffin estimates that SAG handled 2.2 million residuals checks in 2011. During the panel, Griffin will address the logistical challenges of handling paper checks, making claims for unpaid residuals, and dealing with different file formats from studios. She says that in order to improve the system, industry-wide IT solutions must be implemented.
Entertainment attorney Jonathan Handel has a wealth of knowledge on the topic to share with HITS attendees. Handel is also a writer, adjunct law professor, and media personality. Handel has researched the history of residuals going back to 1933, and is nearing completion of a book called “Entertainment Residuals: A Full-Color Guide.” He also wrote “Hollywood on Strike.” Handel notes that residuals have been the cause of every Hollywood strike in the last 30 years. “There are a dozen arguments for residuals and a dozen against,” Handel says. “They’re not about wages, working conditions, or rollbacks. They are specifically about how, from management’s perspective, to incorporate new technological developments into the residuals.”
