MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2023 North Bay Business Journal 5

STRIKE Left: Rocky

Capella is
continued from page 4 an actor and
stuntman. He
IN OUR OWN BACKYARD believes the
studios are
On a relaxing weekend day, you’ll find seeing green
Sonoma art director and set designer in terms of
Doug Freeman, 68, throwing nuts across money saved
his shop’s patio to the birds and squir- with the
use of AI.
rels. Freeman is using the downtime A longtime
in his Jet Sets business to prepare for a SAG member,
yard sale. Capella says
Freeman has been in the movie indus- holding out for
the end of the
try for more than 50 years, working on strike is worth
such film projects as “American Graffi- it based on
ti” and “Towering Inferno” to “Magnum his principles.
Force” and “Star Trek IV.”
COURTESY PHOTO
He attributes his background to get-
ting his career off the ground. His father
worked in lighting and his grandmother
in costumes. Freeman got his start in the
business as a teenager hauling cable for
the 1968 movie “Bullitt” starring Steve Below: A
McQueen. statue of
“It’s a small niche, but I love what I an alien
stands at
do,” he said. the entrance
Freeman manages the set design to Doug
of high-tech events as he awaits the Freeman’s
outcome of the SAG-AFTRA strike that prop
warehouse in
by some accounts could last through the Sonoma on
year. Aug. 7.
As a Screen Actors Guild member,
CHRISTOPHER CHUNG
Freeman supports the union for howev- THE PRESS
er long the strike goes on. DEMOCRAT

“(The union is) not going to give in.

They can’t,” he said. “I might have been
affected because I could have a cool
project, but they’re not calling. So who
knows?”
The actors and writers, who are part
of the Writers Guild of America, are
negotiating over two major issues be-
sides pay: Payouts for streamed content
and a defined artificial intelligence (AI)
policy that protects the creative work of
writers and images of actors.
The WGA is requesting the studios
“regulate use of artificial intelligence”
that may not “write or rewrite literary
material.” The union said the studio
alliance rejected the proposal.
“It’s here. Big Brother is here,”
Freeman said, taking aim at the po-
tential that major movie studios have
in “making a lot of money” and using
computer-generated images to make
more at the expense of actors.

IT’S GETTING REAL

AI has become a hot topic for a variety
of industries in which workers feel their
jobs are threatened. Almost half of
Americans (45%) express concern about
the impact of AI on their jobs, according
to poll results published this month in
the Los Angeles Times.
“They can pay them $300 a day, then
have their likeness forever. It’s totally

See STRIKE page 21