SAG vs. Non Union Jobs

Video Transcript

"SCOTT DUPONT: Hi, Scott DuPont. Welcome back on behalf of Expert Village. Now, having been a member of Screen Actors' Guild and having been non-union, I know both sides of the coin very, very well. So, what this segment's all about is about the unions -- there's also another union called AFTRA. Okay. But primarily, I'm going to talk about Screen Actors' Guild or SAG which you probably heard on TV, the academy awards and there's the Screen Actors' Guild awards on TV, et cetera. Now, I think every serious actor should strive to be SAG eventually -- that's the -- the bar for professionalism. But, if you live in a market outside of New York or outside of LA especially, you want to start out and not rush to get your SAG card initially. Get some experience. Get some student films under your belt. Get some non-union commercials or some non-union independent films under your belt because once you pony up close to $2,000 now to join SAG, there's all of kinds of benefits. You get pension and health. You get higher wages. You get overtime. It's a great thing but once you're SAG, you cannot work on any of the other non-union jobs and in most markets, there's a lot more non-union jobs than there are SAG jobs. So, just really talk to many people in your community and take your time and know all the facts before you join the union and when you finally do, congratulations because you've earned your gold wing, so to speak. That's all for now on Expert Village. We'll be back in just a minute with another topic."