Mad Men director on coming up in the new golden age of television
If you've watched any of the leading television shows in the past 25 years, it's likely Lesli Linka Glatter had a hand in directing them.
Lesli Linka Glatter is also the president of the Directors Guild of America; the second woman to ever hold that position with the guild representing more than 19,000 members.
Glatter is visiting New Zealand just as the Copyright Act 1994 is currently under review.
Kiwi screen directors are advocating for economic rights over their work, directors here only have moral rights with no control over their work after it's created, while producers have copyright.
TV production peaked in 2016, Lesli Linka Glatter says.
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Directors are calling for a change to bring New Zealand in line with the UK and Europe.
It's a different set-up in the US where directors don't have copyright or moral rights, but gain economic rights through collective bargaining to ensure creators have an income stream from their work, she told RNZ’s Culture 101.
“We do this every three years. That is how we get our economic rights met. It's how we deal with creative rights, everything from safety to inclusion.
“It's all dealt in the collective bargaining. We represent all of our 19,800 members to get the best possible deals, so that when we're going from job to job, you have residuals to help you cover that interim when you aren't actually on a set directing.”
Mad Men and Homeland director Lesli Linka Glatter
Directors around the world are facing similar challenges, but Los Angeles has been hit particularly hard in recent years, she says.
“Part of it is the, we call it certainly in LA, the triple whammy, but going from Covid, finally recovering from Covid, going into the strikes, which have had huge impact on production, and in Los Angeles, the fires were like more than anyone could bear.
“But I think the superpower of our community is in community. That's our big superpower.”
The industry is coming down from “peak TV”, she says.
“The studios were making so much, they have cut back. The peak was like 2016, and it's been a decline since then because so much was being made.
“But now, with Covid and the strikes, it's gone down drastically, and that is affecting so many people's livelihoods.”
The guild is also heavily involved in discussions about the impact of AI, she says.
This is a tool, or should be seen as another tool, in the creator's arsenal, not the creator. And it should never be the creator.”
At this stage there is some protection, she says.
“And as well, copyright, thank goodness, you cannot copyright something that is made by machine, that is AI generated.
“So for the time being, that is some kind of protection, but things are changing so quickly that we have to be very, very alert on all fronts all the time.”
Guilds worldwide standing together on AI is the only way to effectively secure creators’ livelihoods, she says.
“I think the power is all of the guilds coming together, which we hope that will happen, to have a very firm stand. In our last round of negotiations, in our contracts, it's very clear that our jobs cannot be done by anyone but a human being.”
