Personal Managers Association
At last week’s artists’ meeting agents spoke about clauses that are increasingly hard to push back on – the feeling being that we need to repeatedly and collectively stand up for “dignity at work” for actors. Issues included: contractual right to dub in the English language; demands for first call for publicity; and late contracts.
Today an agent sent a good news anecdote, so I thought you might appreciate hearing about a win, rather than just the battle….
‘ Some agents have been pushing back with the lawyers on Amazon’s THE PERIPHERAL. After many weeks of persistence, they agreed to only dub in the English language if the artist was not available to do so in a timely manner. They also agreed to remove all of the restrictive 2nd-call language in the contract. We moved from a position of the producer having the option to book or release the artist within 3 business days of a written, formal offer from another production (which we know is completely unworkable) to a position of simply being on 2nd call until the shoot dates were locked.
We reminded the lawyers and Amazon that what they were originally asking for could be considered a restriction of trade. We also reminded them that no individual production company or studio has the right to amend the collective bargaining agreement set out by PACT and Equity without their permission. They have the right to amend some terms in the Special Stips but not if those terms are considered less favourable than those laid out in the PACT/ Equity Agreement.’
Please do feel free to share the wins as well as the problems. Its good to hear about things going right!.
All best,
C