Understanding per diem rates for SAG and IATSE

When your cast and crew are traveling and shooting away from their home - whether it's Los Angeles or New York or anywhere else - it is appropriate to offer them a per diem.

A per diem is daily pay so that they will not have to dip into their own pocket for their living expenses while they travel. It is different from salary. To learn about SAG salary rates see previous posts. Micro-budget filmmakers frequently have questions about what they should offer for per diem. If you are operating under a SAG contract you are required to offer SAG's standard per diem. Also, if you are using one of IATSE's low budget tiers, you will need to use IATSE's per diem rates. It doesn't matter the level of your contract (from the SAG Ultra-Low budget contract or the Standard Contract) the price of the minimum per diem is the same. People can negotiate for a higher per diem, but you are under no requirement to pay anything but the minimum.

If you are neither SAG or IATSE, I would still recommend using these rates for your cast and crew. It will improve your relationship with your team and is just the right thing to do.

Per diem is determined by meals not provided. In other words, if you provide breakfast and lunch on set, you are only required to provide per diem for the dinner. I calculate it this way: Each day worked I provide just dinner per diem (because I provide breakfast and lunch on set). On days off and travel days I provide the full daily amount. When I budget, I budget for the full day for each person - this allows some cushion in my budget and allows me a place I know I will be over... it also leaves space for extra days or changes in schedule.

The SAG per diem rates are:

Breakfast: $12.00

Lunch: $18.00

Dinner: $30.00

The total SAG per diem daily rate is $60.

The IATSE per diem rate is:

Breakfast: $10.00

Lunch: $15.00

Dinner: $29.00

The total daily IATSE per diem rate is: $49.00

Distributing per diem is handled in different ways by different companies. Some payroll companies will pay per diem through bi-weekly paychecks. I prefer to hand it out as cash on the person's arrival on set. This way they have it to spend and don't have to dip into their own money. However, this brings up some tax issues. I have historically not reported per diem payments to taxes, which is probably not cool with the IRS. I recommend consulting with your payroll company for their advice.

Today's Tip: SAG Weekly and Daily Contracts and Consecutive Employment

One way to save a little money on any SAG project is to sign your actors to a weekly contract as opposed to a daily contract.... Wait! Not ANY project, as there is no Weekly Performer option for Ultra Low Budget projects.

For all other contracts the cost of scale for a Weekly Performer is slightly less than the cost of paying a daily performer for four days of work. Therefore, unless a performer is working three consecutive days or less, it makes sense to sign them to a weekly contract. This gives you some freedom as well. If someone is being paid weekly, it won't be a problem to bring them in for a shot where they are just in the background, or a scene that they are in only a moment. If you're paying them a daily, and you are like me, you will stress about spending the money for such a small moment and try to squeeze them into a different day when they're already doing something else. It also creates flexibility (and saves money) for when you miss a day and have to throw another day onto a performer's schedule.

It will also save you as you work with Consecutive Employment. On the standard SAG Contract and Low Budget Contract ($500,000 to $2,000,000) a performer must be paid for down days between their work day. So if I hire an actor to work Monday and Friday I have to pay them for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well. While it would be preferred to shoot them out in two consecutive days, it is frequently impossible. Therefore, hiring the actor as a Weekly Performer will save you about a day and a half's worth of pay.

SAG's Ultra Low ($0-$200,000) and Low Budget Modified ($200,000 - $500,000) contracts do not require Consecutive Employment payments.

Understanding SAG residuals (part 1) -- SAG Final Cast List, Time and Salary Units

Residuals are income due to SAG performers (or other union members such as the DGA or WGA) as your film makes money in its various ancillary markets. I will now attempt to explain the residual process over a series of blogs.

I'll breakdown from what you pay residuals on in another blog. We'll start now with how SAG calculates what percentage of the total residual payment each actor gets. We'll do this because it's the first thing you have to deal with because it's calculated on the SAG Final Cast List that you turn in at the end of production. Your payroll company may fill this out. A recent company told me they'd charge an additional $100 to fill it out, so to save a few bucks I took the opportunity to learn how it works and do it myself.

In calculating who gets what we work with what's called "SALARY UNITS" and "TIME UNITS." These units measure the distribution of residuals based on the amount of money they made and time they spent on your project.

They are calculated differently for performers on a weekly or daily contract. SAG sets a different rate for weekly or daily performer, with a weekly performer rate being slightly less than the total of five days worked on a daily contract. Unless a performer is only working a few consecutive days they should always be scheduled as weekly performer. Unless, you're shooting with the SAG Ultra Low Budget contract, in which case there is no option for weekly performers.

Weekly Contracts (See the chart below for examples).

Weekly Salary Units: For each week worked a performer working for the weekly scale rate receives one Salary Unit. Weeks are calculated by five days, so if they worked six days, it's one week plus one day. Each day is equal to .2 units, so a person on a weekly contract who works six days will receive 1.2 salary units, and so on.

If, however, the person makes any more than scale, due to a higher rate, or even over time, then the weekly scale is divided into their total salary to determine units.

To find out what their total Salary Units would be you'd divide the performer's gross salary received by SAG's designated scale for whatever particular contract you are working with.

For instance, if someone in a low budget modified project (which has a $933.00 scale for weekly performers) received a flat guarantee of $5,000 the equation would be:

5,000 ÷ 933 = 5.36

Or, in other words: salary units = total gross ÷  weekly scale

So the performer would receive 5.35 Salary Units. However, to prevent uneven payment among performers, Salary Units max out at ten (10). So, in the example below (see the chart), the top performer received a flat guarantee of $20,000 for twelve days worked. Applying the formula results in this:

20,000 ÷ 933 = 21.44 

But, since Salary Units max at ten, this performer receives 10 Salary Units.

Weekly Time Units: Each week worked is equal to one Time Unit. Because each day is worth .2 units, the performer working six days would receive 1.2 Time units. This will stay the same whether they're working scale or being paid a million dollars a day. For instance, in the chart below, the person on the first line is working for a high flat rate, but their time units still reflect the amount of days they actually worked.

Daily Contracts

Daily Time Units: Daily time units were laid out above: .2 units for each day. So an actor who works four days receives .8 units and an actor who works fifteen days receives 3 units.

Daily Salary Units: Daily Salary Units are, like their weekly counterparts, a bit more complicated. You take the performer's TOTAL GROSS SALARY divide that by scale, then multiply that by .2. The equation looks like this:

salary unit=total gross ÷ daily scale x .2

Consequently, a player who works one day at scale without overtime will always have a total salary unit of .2, because (using the SAG Low Budget Modified contract) $268 (total gross) ÷ $268 (scale) = 1 x .2 = .2.

If a player is making more than scale, then this formula will remain the same and work fine. As in: $1000 ÷ $268 = 3.73 x .2 = .75.

Once you've calculated the Time and Salary Units you simply add them up to get the Total Units. You then add up the Total Units for the Total Cast Units and then calculate what total percentage each performer has of the total, which will show you how to divvy up those residuals when it's time to pay them out.

For an example look at this copy of a Final Cast List from a Low Budget Modified film that I produced. The Weekly players are above the middle black line, and the daily players are below the middle black line.

An screenshot from an actual Final Cast List for a Low Budget Modified project (scale = $268)

We'll get to how to calculate what needs to be paid from what income in a later post. So, stay tuned for that and happy shooting.

In the meantime: 

I've worked with several payroll companies in Hollywood and elsewhere, but not many of them will also handle Residuals. Entertainment Partners are one of the largest that does, and my experience with them has been great. They have my recommendation.

Working with Flat Rates on SAG Ultra Low Budget

In an earlier blog, I talked about offering a higher scale to your principal actors if your shooting Ultra Low Budget, as a way to entice agencies to submit more experienced actors.

Once you do this, you can turn that into a flat rate and avoid having to deal with Over Time. SAG's Ultra Low contract is for $100 a day, BUT for an eight hour day. If an actor works 12 hours, with their four hours of OT, they are due $175. If you offer a performer the rate of SAG Low Budget Modified ($268 a day) OT will still be calculated at 8 hours as per your SAG contract. However, you can set up your performer on a flat rate. If she is working ten days, you can negotiate with her agent to set her up on a flat rate or "guarantee payment" of $2,680 (based on $268 a day for ten days). When calculating her daily rates your Payroll company (or yourself, if you're winging it) will still calculate her salary based on SAG scale ($100 for an eight hour day), plus overtime... meaning after ten days she will probably be paid around $1,750 if she's worked ten twelve hour days. On her final day you would give her the additional guaranteed amount ($930), for the total flat rate guarantee (the agent may prefer this amount up front, but it works the same way). If you do this, you're following SAG's Ultra Low Budget rules, and paying your performer your agreed amount. You must be sure to state this in your negotiation with your performer's agent however. If you tell them you are offering a guaranteed payment of $2680 based on ten days worked at $268 a day, they will understand.

Hollywood veteran Pepe Serna recently worked under a similar deal for Dave Boyle's
Man From Reno, which I had the pleasure to Line Produce.

FORCED CALL; don't do it

 I've been on a lot of non-union projects where forced calls were very common. My recommendation is that unless you want to work with very unhappy people don't do it. A FORCED CALL is when your call time is fewer than twelve hours after your release the evening before. It essentially allows a cast or crew person a chance to drive home, eat, visit briefly with their loved ones, shower and sleep for about six hours. Continual Foreced Calls is a recipe for a mutiny.

On a union shoot you will pay dearly for a forced call. I recently had what I think was my first intentional Forced Call. Sometimes it just can't be avoided. We had a location with a night exterior, which we would normally schedule toward the end of the week, but because of talent availability, location availability, etc. we had to start our week with it. So we went to 10:30 PM and started at 8 AM the next day. None of our crew were working under union constraints and we only had one SAG actor that it would affect, so we gritted our teeth and went for it. SAG penalty for a forced call is a full day's pay. At an Ultra Low Budget contract (for films budgeted at less than $200,000) that means just $100. If you do a Force Call under ten hours the talent is contractually allowed to refuse. I'm not sure if the penalty is the same for higher contracts, but I suspect it is. Imagine if you had four SAG actors on a Force Call with SAG Low Budget Modified contract (projects under $650,000) -- at $268 a day, you're looking at over $1,000 just for the luxury of bringing them in early.

Even if you're not using SAG actors or IATSE crew, frequent Forced Calls is nothing more than a sign that you don't know how to schedule and don't respect the lives of those working with you.

Lynn Chen, the lucky first recipient of a Brainwave Films forced call penalty fee
(and a good sport), on the set of Daylight Savings.

SAG Meal Penalties Can Make You Lose Your Appetite

I recently had to pay my first SAG meal penalty. Wasn't sure how much it would cost and had to look it up: talk about sticker shock.

SAG meal penalties incur every half hour after six hours from previous meal. There is a 15 minute grace period, so if you're just ten minutes over, it's no big deal. Afterwards, though, it's $25 each performer for each of the first half hours, then it's $50 for each half hour. On our shoot we kept two SAG actors an hour and a half over lunch -- that's three meal penalties (2x25 and 1x50=$100 for each actor). Since this was an Ultra Low SAG project the actors were just making $100 a day. So by keeping them over lunch we essentially paid them for a whole extra day of shooting.

The penalties are the same for all SAG actors, from Tom Cruise to extras. Technically, your crew should be given a meal penalty too. I'll talk about crew unions later.

The penalty is paid to the actors, with the usual percentages taken out for their agents, SAG pension and health, etc.

Lesson: Lunch at six hours. End of story.

UPDATE: Hey, I just checked my Ultra Low Budget contract and realized that it's just $25 each half hour, it doesn't increase. Also you're to pay a percentage, so if you're only ten minutes after the grace period you just pay that percentage, whatever that would be. Now, each SAG contract probably handles this differently, so the above scenario is for Ultra Low Budget only.

The SAG website states the breakdown is thus for the basic agreement:

for the first half-hour, or fraction thereof $ 25

for the second half-hour $ 35

for each half-hour thereafter $ 50

Check your own contract for specifics. It's there. Also, while they do expect you to pay P&H on meal penalties, they don't want it reported on the final cast list (for whatever reason -- probably because they don't assess dues from penalties).

What IS Low Budget?

            Every year the Oscars seem to select one “Low Budget” movie as its flavor of the month. When Brokeback Mountain was all the rage no one would stop referring to it as a “Low Budget Movie.” Oh, wow, they made it for such a low budget. Everyone took super low salaries so they could work on it. On and on and on. Well Brokeback Mountain cost $14 million dollars to make. The Hurt Locker was ten million. Little Miss Sunshine was $8 million. Even Winter’s Bone was $2 million (which gives you an idea how independent film is trending).

Low, Ultra-Low, No are budget categories loosely based on the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) various contracts for independent film.

            SAG’s independent arm (SAGindie) has three levels: Low budget (for films with a total budget of under $2 million and above $650,000); Low Budget Modified (for films between $200,000 and $650,000) and Ultra-Low Budget (for films under $200,000). I have produced two Low Budget Modified films, one Ultra Low Budget film and currently have two additional ULB films in preproduction. I also produced a feature under SAG’s previous Ultra Low Budget style contract which at that point was called their “Experimental Contract.”

            I want to give a huge shout-out to SAG for creating SAGindie and these three contracts. It is a testament to both the way the world of independent film is changing and how SAG is providing the best opportunities for their members. Prior to these contracts no SAG performer could work on any project that wasn’t fully SAG, with a minimum scale of $750 a day per performer. Back then I made a short, and a SAG actor was desperate to get the lead. I would have given it to him, if SAG had allowed me. But there was no way I could pay him, and he wouldn’t work behind their backs. 

            No-Budget is not an official term by any recognized union or guild but should be taken fairly literally. A production budget of $15,000 or less is essentially No Budget, but others are making very credible films with even less than that. In this blog I will talk a lot about making films at this level. Though there are clearly disadvantages to working so low, there are also definite advantages.

            A filmmaker friend of mine recently was laughing about someone trying to raise $2 million for their film. He said, “They’re never gonna get it. I would be more confident if they said they were going to make it for $200.” I agreed. If you plan on making it for only $200, I’m not sure you can actually make the movie, but I’m sure you can at least raise the money. There has never been a time when raising money for films has been easy. Our current economy makes it nearly impossible. Instead of just waiting for the money to fall out of the sky, however, savvy filmmakers are now making films for what most people just a few years ago would have said are impossible numbers, and creating business plans and strategies that ensure their Return of Investment.

            Remember: You’re not a filmmaker if you’re not making films. You’re not a film producer if you’re not producing films. I would rather make five $50,000 films a year than one $5,000,000 film every five years.

Updated rates: In 2015 SAG raised the rates of the SAGIndie contracts to: Ultra Low Budget: $125 (for budgets from 0-250k); Low Budget Modified: $335 daily or $1,166 weekly (for budgets from 250k-700k); Low Budget $630 daily or $2,190 weekly (for budgets from 700k-2.5 mil).