Directors Guild of America (DGA)

From ForcaWiki, the simple encyclopedia

Imagine a group of kids who all do the same job, like mowing lawns around the neighborhood, deciding to team up and agree on a fair minimum price together, instead of each kid negotiating alone and maybe getting talked down to almost nothing. Banding together like that gives each of them more bargaining power than they would have on their own.

The Directors Guild of America, usually just called the DGA, is a labor union that does something similar for film and television directors, working alongside assistant directors and other members of the directing team. A labor union is a group of workers in the same profession who join together to negotiate things like minimum pay, benefits, and working conditions with the studios and production companies that hire them, instead of each person negotiating completely alone.

Fun facts

• Directors are usually part of Above the Line talent, and the DGA is one of the reasons their minimum pay and working conditions are protected no matter how small the movie's budget is.
• The DGA has sister unions for other film jobs, like the Writers Guild of America for writers and SAG-AFTRA for actors.
• Most big studio movies are required to hire only DGA directors, which is part of why the guild has so much bargaining power.