On Aug. 1, 2018, SAG-AFTRA began offering the Short Project Agreement to independent producers of short entertainment content. This agreement represents a new approach to independent production in recognition of the changing patterns of exhibition of low budget short projects. In order to educate members and producers, the National Theatrical and Television/New Media Contracts departments have created a brief summary of the agreement:
Historically, when independent producers wanted to sign their short project to a SAG-AFTRA agreement, they had a choice to make prior to being able to start the SAG-AFTRA signatory process: Were they intending to exhibit at film festivals or on a free-to-consumer new media platform? The answer was often along the lines of, “I don’t know. Either? Both? Wherever I can!” This new agreement takes away this threshold question by allowing producers to initially exhibit their content at film festivals, free-to-consumer new media (like YouTube or Vimeo), for Academy Award consideration, and/or for one year on public access television. If and when the project goes beyond these platforms (we call this a “subsequent use”), such as to subscription video on demand like Netflix or Hulu, television, DVD, or movie theaters, residuals may become due to principal performers.
There are some qualifications for a project to film under the agreement. To start with, the project must have a budget of $50,000 or less, a running time of 40 minutes or less, no more than 30 days of principal photography and, like all of the low budget agreements, must be shot entirely in the United States and its territories. Additionally, this agreement is generally not applicable to things like student projects, series, public service announcements, commercials or animated projects.
On a short project, all principal performers should be covered on a SAG-AFTRA contract, as well as the first 10 background actors per day when filming in background-covered zones (FYI: Oregon is not one of the covered zones). The initial compensation rate is negotiable; however, if the project is exhibited on a “subsequent use” platform, any outstanding deferred amounts will become due.
Many of the working conditions you are used to under predecessor agreements still apply, such as a 12-hour nightly turn around, meal breaks every six hours, consecutive employment on overnight locations, and mileage reimbursement to and from location at a rate of 30 cents per mile.
The introduction of the Short Project Agreement marks the retirement of the Short Film Agreement. This will also take the place of the Low Budget New Media Agreement for non-episodic projects. These predecessor agreements had a good run, but times have changed, and we are excited for the future with new agreement.
The Short Project Agreement is co-administered by the Theatrical Contracts and Television & New Media Entertainment Contracts departments. For more information, check out the page on the website by clicking here. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the General Inquiry Line at (323) 549-6680 or email SPAinfo@sagaftra.org. If a production is ready to start the signatory process, please direct them to the preliminary information form available as Step 1 on these easy to follow instructions.
So, there you have it! As always, if you have questions about this or any other contract-related issue, please reach out by phone, fax or email.
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