SAG
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Producers, Rework Your Budgets: SAG-AFTRA Ups Low-Budget Contracts 25%
For low-budget filmmakers, the cost of hiring SAG actors has just gotten higher. Yesterday, as reported by Deadline, the SAG-AFTRA national board of directors approved a new contract paying actors working under three low-budget agreements a 25% raise. The ultra-low-budget agreement, for films under $200,000 dollars, such as Dan Mirvish’s Between Us (pictured above), now requires producers to pay actors $125 a day, up from $100. The modified low-budget agreement now has a daily minimum of $335 and weekly rate of $1,166 (up from $268 and $933, respectively). And the low-budget contract, covering films less than $2.5 million sees rates […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 11, 2015 -
13 Steps to Directing Famous Actors in a Microbudget Film
As I wind up my festival and theatrical run of my film Between Us, it’s gratifying to see the amazing reviews for our four-person ensemble cast, with critics using blurb-ready adjectives like “brilliant,” “razor-sharp” and “career-best” to describe the performances of Julia Stiles, Taye Diggs and Melissa George. David Harbour, in particular, just won the Best Actor prize at the Woods Hole Film Fest, and many reviews agree that he steals the movie in his breakthrough film performance. Naturally, all credit is due to the actors themselves. But a couple people nicely said that I couldn’t have screwed up the […]
by Dan Mirvish on Oct 21, 2013 -
What’s So Controversial About Beasts and the SAG Awards?
I’m a little perplexed by the mini-controversy that has erupted over the Screen Actors Guild determination that the actors in Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild are ineligible to receive Screen Actors Guild Awards because the film was not made under a SAG contract. (In other words, the film did not employ professional actors.) From Scott Feinberg in the Hollywood Reporter: Director Benh Zeitlin, out of financial necessity (he had a budget of just $1.3 million) and a desire for the greatest possible sense of authenticity (his film revolves around eccentric characters who populate a remote part of America’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 2, 2012 -
SAG, AFTRA CALL ON IMDB TO STOP PUBLISHING AGES
A couple of weeks ago on this blog Randy Astle wrote about an unnamed Texas actress’s lawsuit against IMDb for printing her age on her professional iMDB Pro profile. Many scoffed at the suit, wondering how an actress could sue an industry database for publishing accurate information. While they haven’t gone so far as to join the suit, Hollywood’s two unions representing actors have made a public statement supporting its aim. Reports The Guardian: In a joint statement, the Screen Actors’ Guild, Sag, and Aftra, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, said IMDb had a “moral and legal […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2011
