Personal Managers Association
After a quite frustrating conversation with BBC Talent Rights and subsequently speaking to Ian Bayes I thought Id drop round a quick message to try and clarify some of the issues surrounding the use of single-day engagement fees. All those older and wiser than me please do interject if Im making some glaring omissions/errors.
Talent Rights seem to have settled into a pattern of offering actors their negotiated weekly engagement plus a lower payment for a single day outwith that weekly booking. There is a precedent for this contained within an old side-letter between Equity and the BBC which allows the use of the minimum weekly fee (currently ã588) for that single day (although of course still negotiable). Despite being subsequently superseded by updated agreements this has now been pretty much accepted as standard and not worth the argument it seems.
However, there seems to be a new trend within the department of trying to pay actors their weekly fee plus the one-day fee (ã400) for that single day. That one-day fee contained within clause 106 is only to be used for a minor contribution that can be reasonably rehearsed and recorded within one day and doesnt amount to more than 10 mins aggregate screen time within the ep. After having a booker insist that because what the artist would actually do on that one additional day amounts to a minor-contribution (actually mental?!?!) so therefore they could pay it, its clear there is some confusion amongst the department as to how this works. To clarify, it is not acceptable to use this one-day minor contributions payment if an artist is booked for any other days on the production.
Ian is going to speak to Nicola Hill to reiterate and make sure Talent Rights are aware of the agreement but its well worth being vigilant.
Ive managed to succeed in getting two weekly fees for my client but only managed to get the booker to concede to agree to disagree which is worrying for the future and the attitude in Talent Rights.