All posts tagged: IATSE

MrBeast’s ’Beast Games’ Voluntarily Recognizes IATSE Union

MrBeast’s ’Beast Games’ Voluntarily Recognizes IATSE Union

Published by Daniella Wilson

MrBeast, the YouTube superstar known for his challenge videos, has a new trial on his hands: negotiating a union contract with IATSE. The YouTuber’s Amazon Prime Video competition show Beast Games has voluntarily recognized an IATSE union and is negotiating a labor contract, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Negotiations are taking place after a group of crew members on the set of the show’s third season began organizing with the crew union. Filming is primarily taking place in the hometown of Mr Beast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson: Greenville, North Carolina. Beast Games, a spectacle of over-the-top competition, offers 1,000 contestants the chance to win a $5 million prize with other high-value prizes being doled out in the process. THR has reached out to MrBeast and Prime Video for comment. The unionizing push is a high-visibility one for IATSE, which has sought to adapt to a changing entertainment landscape by targeting YouTube and new media content, video games and visual-effects work for organizing. While Beast Games is in effect a traditional competition show produced …

Motion Capture Workers at 2K Studio Ratify First Union Contract

Motion Capture Workers at 2K Studio Ratify First Union Contract

Published by Daniella Wilson

Motion capture workers employed by the video game company behind NBA 2K and WWE 2K have ratified their first labor contract in a move that union IATSE is calling historic. Workers at 2K’s motion capture studio in Petaluma, CA have unanimously ratified a deal with management at parent company Take-Two Interactive, IATSE announced on Tuesday. The crew union represents stage technicians, engineers, animators and recording and audio specialists at the studio. The new deal establishes wage minimums as well as annual wage increases and bonuses. The contract additionally enshrines work-from-home and leave policies, staffing and subcontracting language and “an enforceable promotions framework,” IATSE stated. The contract also creates guardrails for the use of scanned likeness and artificial intelligence. IATSE international president Matthew Loeb said in a statement that the deal “shows what workers can achieve when they stand together and bargain for the future of their craft.” Loeb added, “These workers made history when they organized, and they have made history again by ratifying the first union contract for motion capture video game workers in …