WandaVision background actors say Disney scanned them, didn’t say why
The argument over digital replacements of background actors and extras is a major sticking point in the SAG-AFTRA strike
Aux News WandaVision
Today, in Marvel/techno-dystopia news: Background actors who appeared on Disney+’s streaming success story WandaVision revealed in recent interviews that, at one point during the show’s filming, they were herded over to a “tractor trailer” filled with cameras, scanned and photographed for 15 minutes from multiple angles and with multiple expressions, and then sent on their way—no explanation given.
And while the scans happened way back while the show was filming, between 2019 and 2020, the issues raised by them have moved to the forefront of late. The issue of studios using digital scans of actors—and who owns those images—was one of the more worrisome points SAG-AFTRA raised right when it first went on strike, with chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland noting that the studios’ proposed solution on AI was, from the union’s point of view, woefully inadequate in terms of protecting background actors and extras from being scanned once, and then having their likenesses used, for free, in perpetuity.
The reveals about WandaVision come courtesy of NPR, which interviewed Alexandria Rubalcaba, a background actor on the series, about her experience. “Have your hands out. Have your hands in. Look this way. Look that way. Let us see your scared face. Let us see your surprised face,” Rubalcaba said of the instructions she was given, adding that she never explicitly granted Disney permission to use a digital replica of her. “What if I don’t want to be on MarioVision, or SarahVision?” she hypothetically asked “I fear that AI is eventually going to weed out background actors. They won’t have any use for us anymore.” (Rubalcaba says she was paid $187 per day for her time on the series, the SAG-AFTRA standard rate for background actors.)
The NPR report also says reporters talked to five other regular background actors who say they’ve been “surprised” by scans while filming on shows or movies, dating back to at least 2019; all said they acceded to the requests without asking questions because they were worried about being labeled “difficult” or otherwise retaliated against.
But, hey: At least studios have said they won’t use scans of background actors for anything but the projects they’ve been hired on. Another sticking point comes down to the matter of consent to use the scans: The unions are pushing for the studios to have to ask for it every time they decide to use the scans, while the studios say that once—at the time of acquisition—should be enough.
24 Comments
Time to retroactively knock some points off old reviews, eh?
Weird, every single review on the A.V. Club is now an F.
The seemingly petty grade reductions on Secret Invasion were easy for people to make fun of (“Hardy har har, the AV Club is taking a useless, self-righteous stand that will change nothing!”), but I really don’t think this is the gotcha you think it is.This story proves that, given their way, the Marvel/Disney execs DO NOT want to stop with just AI opening credits that “fit the themes of the show” or whatever they claimed. They want to erase as many people’s jobs as possible. It’s butt ugly credits now, but it’s ruining the careers of the people who make the things we love tomorrow.Maybe you think this proves that the Secret Invasion review docking was useless and it probably is (most individual action against capitalist overreach is doomed to fail). But, to me, this story shows why we SHOULD call that shit out in every fucking instance, no matter how small it may be.
Thanks for that case study in over-extrapolating someone’s beliefs from examining a half-assed joke.
Happy to help!
I could see how these scans could be potentially useful for all kinds of media, but each actor should retain ownership of the scan. Use it any way you want in WandaVision, since you already paid them to be in it. Want to use it in Agatha: Coven of Chaos, though? Better pony up, at the usual rate. If it stops being cost effective to do that for most productions, then maybe that’s a good answer to why they’re striking. And yeah, studios might be saying they would never right now, but if they’re looking for universal one time consent, you can bet that won’t last long.
Use it any way you want in WandaVision, since you already paid them to be in it.This is not how paying actors works.
You’re right, I don’t mean any way they want in the sense that they can just create all their background characters from scratch. I was thinking more along the lines of having shot a scene, but wanting it from another angle, or to do some weird VFX shit. Nothing that would substitute for actual shooting if that can be done instead.In truth, actor pay has always been a little inscrutable to me. I tend to think of it as a one time contract fee, even though I know most working actors don’t get that. I’ve worked jobs for salary and for hourly wages, so daily wages seem weird.
They’re daily wages because of how production schedules works hour to hour, but the daily wages tend to include provisions for overtime once they hit a certain number of hours on set in a day. Paying a day rate makes sense because if you’re shooting on one project, they effectively have taken your whole day (as far as doing work on another production is concerned) regardless of how long they use you.
It’s how paying extras works
I can see using it on the same project, as long as the terms are clearly delimited and agreed to. Hopefully there will be a union negotiated agreement for that at the end of the strike.
EDIT: nvm misunderstood
Well.. I only scan things when I want to keep a digital backup I can easily access later.
But surely no parallels to be drawn from that..
Disney has assured the actors that they have no intention of using this technology that they paid for. They just want digital keepsakes of all their background actors for sentimental reasons.‘Remember this guy?’ an elderly Mike Eisner will say from his wheelchair, rotating the image of a man grimacing theatrically. ‘Wasn’t he the third injured citizen from the left of the car wreckage in the Avengers 15 intro?’‘Yes, that’s him,’ Bob Iger will reply as the flickering light of a digital fireplace catches on the folds of the blanket over his knees. ‘Good times.’‘Good times.’
I both thank you and am concerned that your writing is the best I’ve read on this site in weeks.
Thank you and I share your concern.
But these people didn’t sign anything saying they could use the scans in other stuff, without paying them right? Wasn’t that the issue?
Calling extras “background actors” doesn’t make them actors.
Calling boring trolls “edgelords” doesn’t mean they’re actually lords of anything other than their own sad bitterness.
What is Disney if not bullshit persevering?
Michael Biehn said once he was paid more for allowing this photo of him to be used in Alien 3 than he was paid for all his work on Aliens.Did the producers have to pay him or were they just being nice? Is there already some contractual obligation for payment when a likeness of someone is used? Is this just because he had a speaking role and was not background/extra?
It has everything to do with the fact that he had a speaking role and was not an extra.I don’t live or work in California so I don’t know how background workers are compensated there, but productions have flocked to places like Atlanta where extras aren’t unionized. Extras are only paid for their labor and have no control over things like how their likeness is used.
Too bad the movie/series in question wasn’t about trapping people in an unreal environment without their consent. Given the nature of this highly sketchy situation, that would have been a really neat irony for a pop culture writer to point out.
This is interesting. I was just watching some extra features from wandavision the other day randomly and Debra Jo Rupp talked about this scanning process that she went through as well. she seemed excited about it though.