Banner Sage and Journey Composer (Austin Wintory) To Be Fined $50 000

Tim_Harbour

http://kotaku.com/journey-banner-saga-composer-might-get-fined-50-000-1589048563

This is a very ridiculous situation as it seems to me.

Elyaradine

Yeah, his Youtube video had me wondering what the other side of the story could possibly be.

Tim_Harbour

Well as far as I can tell it's illegal to work on video games according to the composers union...I don't see how there could be another side, unless I'm missing something

Elyaradine

As in, it being illegal for union members to work in video games sounds like it's bad for everyone, but somebody proposed it and it got passed somehow. Let's assume for a moment that the union leaders aren't absolute dicks, and that somehow there's a good reason for it. I can't think of any, but I'm not ruling out that I'm just ignorant.

LexAquillia

My understanding of the situation is this:

If you are member of the union, you must use the union contracts (theoretically this protects your interests), this is "union work"
You cannot do non-union work if you are a member of the union
The videogame score contract is shit, so shit that no developers will sign it
As such no "union" work can be done, since no employers will agree to the work.
Some union members are now doing non-union work so they can keep, ya know, working (and are being threatened with fines now).

The solution seems to be fix the shitty contract, why this hasn't been done in the two years since it wasn't approved mystifies me, but it maybe that the union doesn't see game work as a major industry for its members and so it is lower priority? Alternatively couldn't he leave the union?

francoisvn

LexAquillia said:

Alternatively couldn't he leave the union?

As a composer he needs to work with many other musicians, and I assume he and the before-mentioned musicians might want to do other non-game work which would effectively require them to be a part of the union.

Tim_Harbour

I'm guessing leaving the union would be detrimental to his other composing avenues, but that's just a guess ;/ . It seem's weird that it wouldn't be fair to all types of media composition. I don't really get the legal side but it doesn't seem fair on the composer to me.

TheFuntastic

Alternatively couldn't he leave the union?

I don't see why that option isn't exercised. If I understand correctly the fine mostly relates to him working with non-union musicians - something about a dallas wind ensemble used for the banner saga. But the exact details are very sketchy and I may have understood wrong.

dislekcia

As I understand it: He started working on The Banner Saga before the contracts changed, as a member of the union. Then the contracts changed and any existing agreements needed to be re-ratified with the new contracts. That's when shit hit the fan...

Before this point he was already in contact with the union leadership about the video game composing contracts and what those should be like, after they changed and put both Austin and The Banner Saga in precarious positions, he pushed much harder. That's why this fine seems to be a punitive response to the union leadership railroading a bunch of poor legislation.