FEATURES
The Fine Print
Whether You Work Low-Budget or The Fine Print Indie, You Need the
Correct Contract
West Coast by Catherine Cusimano East
Coast by Annie Ballard
West Coast
Here on the West Coast, Editors Guild members work under a wide variety of different contracts, the most common of which are the Majors Post-Production Agreement, the Indepen-dent Post-Production Agreement, the Single Production Signatory Low-Budget Agreement and the National Low-Budget Agreement.
The Majors Post-Production Agree-ment and the Independent Post-Produc-tion Agreement are the contracts with which most members are familiar. With the Single Produc-tion Signatory Low-Budget Agreement and the National Low-Budget Agreement, the IATSE has been able to negotiate with producers of shows that traditionally would not sign Collective Bargaining Agreements. In turn, these contracts provide benefit contributions and address the working conditions of individuals who would otherwise be working non-union.
In fact, according to a recent IATSE Bulletin, there are now over 950 national contracts in the motion picture, television production and commercial industries when almost none existed in 1993. This number doesn’t even take into account all the shows that have signed the Single Production Signatory Low-Budget Agreement or stand-alone agreements.
Following are brief descriptions of the contracts:
The Majors Post-Production Agree-ment is reserved for the major studios such as Sony, Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, etc. Only these studios can use the wages and conditions contained in this contract.
The Independent Post-Production Agreement is reserved for companies
that are not subject to the Majors Post-Production Agreement and do
not have a stand-alone agreement with the Guild or have signed any
other agreement with the IATSE. Many of the wages and conditions of
this contract reflect those in the Majors Post-Production Agreement;
however, there are several significant differences.
The Single Production Signatory Low-Budget Agreement covers features
from a production company that signs an agreement for one particular
project that falls within a designated budget range. These agreements
are usually subject to the Independent Post-Production Agree-ment
but include different provisions covering conditions such as wages,
vacation and holiday payments.
The National Low-Budget Agree-ment is used when a studio or company signs a term agreement with the IATSE. Every project this company produces is considered union and is subject to this agreement with variations on wages dependent on the production’s budget. Many of the wages and conditions in this agreement are different from our other agreements.
If you are unsure as to the contract to which your particular show or facility is subject, call the office. We will answer any questions you may have.
Specific contract provisions and wage scales are available to members for all of these contracts, as well as for the East Coast contracts. In the accompanying chart is a brief comparison of the key differences in the Majors Post-Production Agreement, Independent Post-Pro-duction Agreement, Sin-gle Production Signatory Low-Budget Agreement and the National Low-Budget Agreement.
No matter what contract you are working under, always make a copy of your deal memo before you turn it in. Always write your start time, meals and stop time on your timecard. If you only write “worked,” you could be giving up payments for such things as night premium, meal penalty and golden hour. Also, make a copy of that timecard before you turn it in and compare it to your pay stub to insure you have been paid correctly.
Please keep in mind that the above information is very general. Members can always go to the Guild website for detailed information on contract provisions and wages scales. And finally, call the office if you have any questions. We are here to help you and are happy to do so. k
Catherine Cusimano is a Guild Field Representative in the Hollywood office.
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East Coast
On the Eastern seaboard we share some of the contracts of the West Coast, but there are also big differences. There is a wider variety of independent agreements, and contracts like the HBO Films Agreement have different rate tables for New York. In general, the distinction between national, project-only and term agreements can be very confusing, so please don’t hesitate to call the office if you have any questions.
The only contracts in which the scale rates and the work conditions are common to the East and West coasts are the IATSE National Low-Budget Agreement, the Single Production Signatory Agree-ment and the Videotape Supplement Agreement. But it is important to remember that even with these contracts, while the terms for people working in New York and LA are the same, they can be different for other regions of the country, depending on where the crew is hired.
The New York Majors contract has different wages and conditions of employment from its Western counterpart, even though the signatory companies are the same. So make sure that you are looking at East Coast provisions if you live or were hired within 250 miles of Columbus Circle.
The more fundamental difference between the coasts is seen in the concept and execution of independent agreements. In New York, the Independent Feature Agreement is a template document that may or may not be used for a non-studio deal; in other words, it is a starting point only, and one should never assume that two independent producers have signed the same contract. Each project-only contract is individually negotiated, either by the East Coast Council, the New York Production Locals or the Editors Guild New York office.
You’re probably wondering who these entities are that negotiate your contracts. The East Coast Council and the New York Production Locals are essentially the same group with two different names. They are both made up of the seven IATSE locals that represent film and television workers in the tri-state area, but they are referred to differently depending on what type of agreement they are negotiating. Whichever type it is, it is always for a job that’s shooting in the New York area (even just for one day) and which isn’t already covered by another IATSE contract.
The East Coast Council meets to negotiate for feature films whose total budget is under $8 million. ECC contracts differ from other project-only agreements in that they have a wage-deferral built into the contract. Deferred wages are paid when proceeds from the film reach a predetermined level. An example would be box office returns of two-and-a half times the original budget; but again, this is a negotiated item that can vary from contract to contract.
Because any ECC wage deferral and its accompanying rates are based on the estimated budget, a major component of ECC contracts is monitoring the progress of the project to see if it appears to be going over budget. If it goes over by a large enough margin, usually five percent, there are provisions for the crew to receive retroactive wages higher than those stipulated in the contract.
New York Production Locals contracts generally have bigger budgets and cover a much wider range of products. They are more conventional in the sense that they don’t have the wage deferral or the budget override penalty.
As I mentioned earlier, there are many independent contracts that are negotiated just by the Editors Guild and don’t involve the production Locals. If a job shoots outside the tri-state area, but is posting in New York or elsewhere in the jurisdiction of the Guild’s New York office, we will often negotiate directly with the producer for a contract for the editing crew. We also execute stand-alone deals for documentaries or other projects where our members need a contract but none is in place at the time of post-production. If you are on a job like this that you think the producer might be willing to sign a contract, please contact Assistant Executive Director Paul Moore at 212-302-0700 ext. 207 with any questions.
Finally, there are also several term agreements in the Eastern Region that are unique in that they cover multiple projects with one employer over a few years, and therefore are not “project-only,” but they are negotiated by the Guild as opposed to the IATSE or another combination of Local unions. Examples of these contracts would be the staff agreements at places like Florentine Films or the freelance agreement at Granada USA New York.
There are so many types of contracts out there that, when in doubt, your best bet is to call the office and find out the specific terms of the job you are bidding for or working on. If you have an agent, it is also very important that he or she does the same. We have seen instances where agents have negotiated deals that are less than the minimum terms of the job their client is going to edit. The contract prevails when this happens, but it can be a shock to learn that you could have negotiated a better overscale deal when the ink is already dry on your deal memo.
Annie Ballard is a Guild Field Representative in the New York office.
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