working with SAG Actors

SAG isn't as hard as it appears. I recently worked with a S.A.G. actor for a short. Which is on the experimental contract.

The big hurdle for no-budget types is the Insurance. You have to have a real policy to be compliant.

Everything else is pretty straight-forward at least through the production side of things.

Payment can even be completely deferred (though we chose to pay the Experimental Rate) as well.

But, you definitely need to be prepared to be thorough.

Now, the Bond thing sounds like a nightmare so I'm glad I haven't faced that issue as of yet. Hope to need to though in the near future.

Good luck.

-Martin
 
Tom Marshall said:
The experimental contract is no longer around. It's been replaced by the newer contracts.
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Yeah, the Ultra-Low Budget agreement. My bad.

For a short film, I think S.A.G. is a little easier to work with than for features.

Less opportunity to mess anything up on a 2 day shoot relative to a 30 Day shoot.

-M
 
jls4 said:
Thanks filmman for your reply, but I think your concept is right, IF I were going for larger names like Denzel or Will Smith. But there are smaller names that are known in the Black Community that are not as well known in the White Community - people like Iris Elba who was in "Daddy's Little Girls" with Gabrielle Union. He's not that well known across the board, but well known among black people.

I've read several articles that encouage black filmmakers to make movies for around $500K or under, because there's a huge straight-to-video market that picks up movies from $250K to $5 mill. The Black market is not as strong in the theatres where it would have taken $12+ mill in publicity, but black people will rent and purchase almost any movie with a recognizable black face on it - and our distributors know it. So getting a few people like an Iris Elba to show up for 12 scenes that I can shoot in 4 days so here and there throughout the movie I have a face, should work for a $250K budget and still get me good results. - As long as my story and prod quality are good.

I think my group has about mastered most of what we can do with the equipment we have. Fortunately (and unfortunately) our quality surpasses about 70% of Black movies - even the ones with stars in them. So I feel like with better equipment and a little more money we should be able to get into the top 90% which would render our prod quality indistinguishable from the average major movie. That plus a few stars and I think we can make a few good sales along the black market.

It's kinda like Kirk Cameron, he's really not that importaint to a Hollywood movie, but to a Christian movie - he's the man.
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Just wondering, if you have a process on contacting some of these black actors. I'm curious to know. I'm pretty sure you can't just pick up the yellow pages and call them... :)
 
capitalP said:
Just wondering, if you have a process on contacting some of these black actors. I'm curious to know. I'm pretty sure you can't just pick up the yellow pages and call them... :)
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You have to go through agents, and "hookups". :) I actually contacted an agent for a few black actors/singers when I was trying to get an extra celeb for "Voices". I mean you'll have to do your due dillagence with any actor, I just think you can find a few black actors who haven't worked in a while that may be a little cheaper. It's a sad state of affairs, but it makes since - since the black population in America is about 12-14%.

I have heard that some-not all actors will respond through their websites to you. So if you email them like 2 months before you start shooting and ask them if they are interested, they may email you back. I did this for one actor - who in fact- did email me back. But he was WAYYYYYY out of my price range. :)
 
capitalP said:
Just wondering, if you have a process on contacting some of these black actors. I'm curious to know. I'm pretty sure you can't just pick up the yellow pages and call them... :)
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Sure you can contact Monique Dupree via her website. Just google her name and go to her site. She's becoming pretty popular. She's having a baby so I don't know when she'd be available again but you can check.

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-Nate
 
I hateSAG can't even stand them. I find their rules were extremely binding and paralyzing my production. All they care about is getting more to join them after a s#it load of SAG members left. They are a true waste of time and most of the talent we worked with were all talk and no game. There are so many places you can get talents in. I held auditions, invited people from backstage, craigslist, and other talent companies like slatecast etc... I got awesome people to deal with. Great actors that left my casting director in awe, and most important no freaking waiting for paperwork. Most of the actors I worked with I loved so much we threw a casting party in the end and became real close friends. Now pretty much I have the cast I want for just about any production I will ever think of. This to me is priceless and better then dealing with these arrogant bustards in SAG. In fact most actors that I worked with were SAG ellegeable and they told me they would never join because allot of indis will pay someone less money than SAG's rates and get the same or better actors. Most of them told me they hardly ever get them jobs and because they are binded to their contracts they can’t do nothing. SAGindi is just a sales pitch. Don't even go there.
 
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I may use the SAG- Ultra low budget agreement for one actor. I've counted the cost and it's not so bad. The question is how much will she charge and will she do the film. I'll have to talk to the shady SAG office here, but anyone know the process of SAG ULB contracts or got any heads up so I won't be taken advantage of?

-Nate
 
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