Just last week, I got a frantic phone call from a producer. (Most of the calls I get from producers are frantic.) "The unions are fining us $500 because we didn’t complete a Station Twelve. What [edited out] is a Station Twelve?"
I took a deep breath and started to explain: "When final talent has been selected, a Station Twelve must be completed by either the producer, the production company, the casting agency or the talent payment agency before the session takes place. Using the union local’s reporting format, you must send via fax to SAG or AFTRA a list showing the names of the selected talent, their Social Security numbers, on or off camera, their category, the commercial product, the commercial title, the location or studio, and the session date. The union will respond if the selected talent are members, not members, "must joins" or "not paid up." If any of the talent are not members, you must do a Taft-Hartley letter requesting a waiver for their performance. If they are "must joins," talent must join the union before the shoot—if they do not, they will have to be replaced. If they are not "paid up," it means they owe dues that must be paid up before the shoot, or they will have to be replaced. If these union regulations are not followed, a fine of $500 for each talent violation, each time, may be charged."
Did you catch all that? Don’t feel bad if you didn’t. Most people have a hard time with the often-complex language of talent payment.
Before the week is out, I’m sure to be getting a call (frantic, as well) from an agency business manager who will say, "They’re telling us we can’t run our commercial because we didn’t pay the holding fee. What [edited out] can we do about it?"
I feel sorry for the producers, the production houses and the agency business managers who have to handle—in addition to their other and often more important duties—the tangled web of talent payments.
Some in the business refer to talent payment as "the devil you don’t want to know." Whatever you call it, talent payment is very serious business, and mistakes can cost money!
Consider the poor producer who didn’t pay the holding fee. Had he read the union definition of "holding fee," he would have learned that:
"Upon the commencement of the first fixed cycle and upon the commencement of each consecutive fixed cycle thereafter throughout the maximum permissible period of use or any extension thereof, a principal performer shall be paid a separate fee, herein called a holding fee, in an amount equal to a session fee and payment of such a holding fee to each principal performer, whose services are utilized in the commercial, shall be a condition to Producer’s right to continue the use of such commercial."
In plainer English, the holding fee is the payment made to the talent which gives the advertiser the right to use the commercial. If the holding fee is not paid, the advertiser gives up that right. Holding fees must be paid on time. Period. No exceptions. No grace periods.
What’s more, Talent has the right to refuse a late holding fee and can do any of the following:
· Deny the Producer the right to continue to use the commercial.
· Ask for the minimum scale reinstatement (i.e., two back holding fees).
· Ask for a re-negotiation.
· Ask for a late penalty.
· Or any combination of the above.
The union has the obligation to enforce the talent’s choice. If the holding fee is not paid on time, the commercial cannot be used or reinstated without talent and union permission.
The moral of the story is that it’s important to know what the consequences can be when holding fees are not paid, or not paid on time.
Even for those of us quite well versed in the language of talent payment, new and challenging issues, terms, and questions still come up to stump us.
Here’s an abbreviated list of some of the terms we work with daily: sessions, signatories, pension and health, workers’ comp, SAG, AFTRA, AFM, Equity, ACTRA, union and non-union talent, membership and dues, reporting, contracts, wild spot use, network use, cable use, Internet use, industrial use, foreign use, print use, residuals, buyouts, W-4/1-9 forms and production/completion reports. And that just scratches the surface. Is it any wonder that producers and production houses are swamped by the morass of terms, forms, and paperwork?
During one of my more recent strokes of genius, as I sat behind a glass of wine at my favorite watering hole, I thought I could perform a great service to my friends in the business by writing a manual explaining talent payment in layman’s terms. I even thought I would call it "Talent Payment for Dummies," similar in spirit to the famous series of manuals that explains the complex world of computers, among other things, to those of us who are otherwise lost in the terminology and technology of just about anything—like, "What’s a Phillips?"
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the name would be misleading. If this opus ever gets written, it should be called "Talent Payment for Geniuses," because that’s what it takes to understand the language and procedures in this highly complex area of production.
