IATSE Agreements

[Tom Chase]

Hey all, I'm helping a friend of mine gather Ultra Low Budget agreements for his upcoming sizzle reel and to help him prep for the follow on feature. We got a hold of SAG-AFTRA easy; but I can't seem to get any love from IATSE. Does anyone have a POC/Number/Email or even know if their is a producers site (like SAG).

Thanks again

Tommy

 

[Marc Wielage]

Here it is:

http://www.iatse411.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2014-2016-Low-Budget-Agreement.pdf

You can also get pre-built budgets that have some (but not all) of the line items filled out for specific budget ranges. The local IA offices also sometimes can give you cost ranges, but equipment rental varies widely.

Note that the DGA, the WGA, SAG, and IATSE all differ slightly in how they define "low budget."

 

[Tom Chase]

I saw this one - I guess I read it as it was only for Canadian productions.

Thank you for the link.

Yeah I noticed that about each organization having their own definition of low budget and wow they can vary vastly.

Thank you again

Tommy

 

[Marc Wielage]

No, this IA agreement covers the U.S. and Canada.

I see your point that IA does not make it easy enough for low budget productions to get copies of the current contract to get a handle on rates for all the different departments. (It's a testament to SAG that they have all of these documents readily available on their website.)

I have had confused producers call me up and insist they were doing a "Tier 0" production, which has no meaning in IA. There is an "Under $250,000" Agreement for SAG-AFTRA, which is here:

http://www.sagaftra.org/files/ultra_low_budget_agreement_1_9.pdf


The "Modified Low-Budget Agreement" for SAG-AFTRA (under $700,000) is here:
http://www.sagaftra.org/files/modified_low_budget_agreement_1_7.pdf

SAG-AFTRA considers "low budget" anything under $2,500,000:
http://www.sagaftra.org/files/low_budget_ageement_1_5.pdf


Rule #1 for SAG is that you have to pay the minimum for union actors, along with their pension & health fund payments, but it's a bit looser with IATSE. For one, some of the job positions for low budget films are "STN" (subject to negotiation), and there are positions that can be eliminated or reduced. There are still guidelines for legal overtime, insurance, and so on.

I've been surprised by producers who claim they're doing a union shoot but then offer absolutely ridiculous salaries, maybe somewhere between near-starvation and minimum wage, totally unaware of the realities of what the contract actually says. I think there are pictures out there that ship with the IATSE logo in the end credits that did not even come close to toeing the line for real-world rates. Compromises I can understand, but there is a point below which good people can't go.

 

[Tom Chase]

agreed