We Need Your Stories!

We Need Your Stories!

It’s been more than a year since we launched the Washington-Mid Atlantic Corporate/Educational and Non-Broadcast Waiver and we need to hear from you. Send us a quick email with details of any time you’ve used the waiver in the past year. That includes:

• A job booked as a half day on-camera narrator*
• A job that paid Cat 1 rates that previously would have billed as Cat 2
• An industrial in which the producer took advantage of covering only professional performers
• Even an audition you scored for a non-union job

You can email the details to WMAWaiver@sagaftra.org. It’s very important that we get this information, as we have to track the value of the waiver to keep it in place in this market. Currently, it is in effect until April 30, 2018.

The feedback we’ve received from producers and our local talent pool has been very positive. Our staff created a web page detailing all the provisions of the waiver at https://www.sagaftra.org/wma/local-production-information. That page has been updated with the new rates that went into effect November 1, 2016. We also have updated rate cards in the office if you’d like to request some.

In the Washington-Mid Atlantic market SAG-AFTRA actors can now be hired on Corporate/Educational and Non-Broadcast videos (a.k.a. industrials), even if the rest of the cast is not covered.

Rates are simplified. Under the waiver, all co/ed work falls under the Category 1 rate, which includes unlimited non-broadcast, internet and new media uses. (If you want to negotiate above scale for Category 2, you should do that upfront.)

There’s a new half-day on-camera narrator rate, and new terms for government projects. Producers can purchase supplemental uses with the performer’s consent.

Now that we have the waiver in place, we need the whole community to support it.

SUBMIT yourself for corporate video work that is advertised as “non-union” (while making sure that if you book the job, it’s under contract). 

MARKET yourself and the availability of the waiver. And SHARE your stories - even if you went in for an audition but didn’t book the job.

If you have any questions, email WMAWaiver@sagaftra.org.

*Important note: A performer is an on-camera narrator if his/her primary function is to, “explain, demonstrate, instruct, or promote, substantially in monologue.” Giving a performer a character name is not relevant to determining whether a performer is a day player or an on-camera narrator.