Do you have contracts for your actors?
- Thread starter FilmBoy77
- Start date
Filmbuff28
Well-known member
Deferred payment Form
Deferred payment Form
There are a few forms like the one you mentioned. I used some SAG actors on my last short and they required all sorts of forms for everyone. I also used a few different forms that I found in various places. I've attached a deferred payment agreement, it's an interactive PDF so you can type into its lines but you cannot save it but print a few with the basic info (prod. name, company, etc.) and make as many copies as you need. I have quite a few useful items, liability wavers, employment forms, rental agreements stuff like that. Let me know if there is anything else you are looking for and I see if I've got it.
Deferred payment Form
There are a few forms like the one you mentioned. I used some SAG actors on my last short and they required all sorts of forms for everyone. I also used a few different forms that I found in various places. I've attached a deferred payment agreement, it's an interactive PDF so you can type into its lines but you cannot save it but print a few with the basic info (prod. name, company, etc.) and make as many copies as you need. I have quite a few useful items, liability wavers, employment forms, rental agreements stuff like that. Let me know if there is anything else you are looking for and I see if I've got it.
Filmbuff28
Well-known member
Location contract
Location contract
Yes I do. Here you go. Sorry I was out for a couple days.
Location contract
Yes I do. Here you go. Sorry I was out for a couple days.
jcoxshooter
Well-known member
would attaching your rental agreement form? thanks
Jackson Miller
Well-known member
How did you get SAG actors in your short? I thought that ALL of the actors had to be SAG if you wanted to use some. Am I wrong? I forgot who told me that...
Steve House
Veteran
Better be careful with that - the tax people do not let you treat people as contractors instead of employees just because you and they agree to it and sign a form. It's not a matter of choice. There are very specific conditions that must be met and it can get very VERY expensive if you get nabbed for it. This is one place you definitely don't want to try DIY - talk to a lawyer.
Duke M.
Veteran
People try to do that all the time, but it's not binding on the courts. In fact there is a presumption that they are employees. Don't rely upon those.
JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
Everyone says that, yes it's good advice to talk to someone professional, but no you're not right about all of that.
I have one professional accountant myself, a fairly large accounting firm, and my dad's CFO, and both advised me in a conference call, nah, screw it, 1099 'em all. You can treat them as contractors, and everyone does in production, even mid-level companies do this, and nobody gets busted for it. The danger is if you're paying less than minimum wage -- that's a problem. You can't break labor laws like that and be totally in the clear, because if the workers come back later and say well yeah this guy stiffed me, I mean he paid me $50 for two 12 hour days of work! That's a problem, you're breaking the law there. But if you pay someone $150 for 10 hours, screw 'em, 1099. Make them deal with it, they are making above minimum wage, they agreed to the pay, it's not your problem from that point forward.
And no I don't care if someone wants to jump on me, you go talk to your own accountants, I have two and I brought this up repeatedly that it was a concern to lots of people, both said it is not a concern, there is no problem, and it's too much inconvenience and makes no sense to treat someone as an employee if you work with them for a day or two. They did say, however, if it's someone you hire regularly, then may as well pay them as an employee to be safe. But for day workers? No way.
Just a general note that it's incorrect to assume always, also, that if you do something wrong the punishment is worse. Often times that is not true. It's sometimes worth the risk, if there is one, because the penalties are basically whatever you would have already done, if you did it "right" in their minds, and if you don't get caught, better for you. So there's no reason then NOT to do it your way. But in my case, I'm not a professional, don't take my advice. All I'm saying is I've gotten two accountants who both said this is how I should do it, when I brought up these concerns, several times, they still insisted that's not correct, you should 1099 them, and when it comes down to it I will follow the advice my accountant gives me, not someone on a forum who thinks they're the 1099 police or something.
Entity -- not true. You don't have to have all SAG, not at all. We just shot SAG Ultra Low Budget and we had about half SAG, half not. It is a bit funny, though, because you have to get the two groups to fill out different paperwork, and SAG really isn't very nice, they don't seem to care about non-union actors, their rules only apply to how to treat SAG actors. I didn't really know that at the start, I thought, well, they're an actor's union so I'm sure they're looking out for all actors and these rules apply to everyone I have on my shoot who is performing. But then I realized, nah, they could care less about you if you're not in their union.
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Steve House
Veteran
Everyone says that, yes it's good advice to talk to someone professional, but no you're not right about all of that.
I have one professional accountant myself, a fairly large accounting firm, and my dad's CFO, and both advised me in a conference call, nah, screw it, 1099 'em all. You can treat them as contractors, and everyone does in production, even mid-level companies do this, and nobody gets busted for it. ...
Before you go to the bank with that notion, see http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html. The IRS has very specific guidlines that distinguish between an employee and a contractor. See especially http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15a.pdf It is NOT simply a matter of arbitrary free choice on the part of the employer (or on the part of the worker, for that matter). Some states are more lax than others, true. But if you're audited or if a worker is injured and files a worker's compensation claim or is let go and tries to claim unemployment benefits and the nature of their employment falls into what the IRS defines as an employee rather than independent contractor, you're screwed. And if you're caught, the penalties can be massive.
By the way, the way it's usually done for crew and most of the cast is the production company doesn't pay them directly - instead it pays them through a payroll services company. The payroll company is the employer of record for tax purposes. They take care of the withholding, worker's comp, FICA, etc instead of the production company doing it. The person being paid is still an employee, just not of the production company. The service bureau then becomes legally a vendor of crew services, much like Kelly is a vendor of office temps etc, who is sending its staff to the set.
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Nathyn
Low Budget Ninja
Simply do a letter of intent and add in that the pay is deferred. Have the actor sign it.
-Nate
blumenstar
New member
thanks all for your info! i'm shooting a pilot and for the pilot we are planning deferred contract i saw the contract that you post and its great...but when the project is sold how much would be the rates to pay to the actors for the original pilot and do i need a release form as well?
thanks
thanks
Blaine
Mr. Hollywood
SAG has an "arm" called SAGIndie that tries to help make it easier for small independent productions to use SAG actors. On the Short Film Agreement and the Ultra Low Budget Agreement they allow you to mix SAG and non-SAG actors; and the day rates are very reasonable. In the case of the Short Film Agreement it can basically be free since the $100/day can be deferred. In fact, SAG was surprised once when we told them the actors were actually getting paid. (Of course, your actors have to agree to the "deferral".)
Even if the payment can be deferred, it's always a good idea to pay the actors at least $100/day if you can.
El Director
Veteran
filmmakeriq.com has a HUGE list of every type of form you could think of... well, most of them =D