What do you do if a paid actor doesn’t show up?

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey John,

Insurance, insurance, insurance – as a production company, depending on the size of your production, you should be covered for the re-shoot under your general production company policy – anyway, that is what we have in the UK.

Also draw in the agent and the casting director to take responsibility for not “vetting” the talent properly.

All the Best
Mads
London, UK

Latest video to watch here:

Mac Million Ltd. – HD Production & Editing
Blog: https://macmillionltd.blogspot.com

[Todd Terry]

In this particular case, I think you’re stuck… UNLESS the client themselves cast, hired, and will be directly paying for the talent themselves. Then they might bear some of the responsibility and production cost for the talent that seems to have flaked out on you. BUT… sounds like in this case that although the client approved and/or picked the talent, they were still your employee and your responsibility.

Sadly, I don’t know of many suggestions to keep this from happening. It just does, now and then. As a former working actor myself, I can tell you from both sides of the camera that actors are a flaky bunch. The best you can do is work with people that have a known reputation for reliability. We always try to cast people that we know, have worked with, or know people who have worked with. That’s the best insurance that we have. “Real” production insurance is often difficult or expensive on something as small as a commercial shoot.

Still… things happen.

We had a shoot last week for one of our major clients, part of a fairly big mid-five-figure campaign. We hired a an actor (young teen boy) that was needed for a specific role. He was coming from about four hours away for the shoot. His mom was driving him up, but when they were about a half hour out of town his mom gets very sick, and has to pull off the interstate and call an ambulance. The whole ordeal delayed our shoot a bit, but we scrambled and got the kid in anyway and by juggling some things got it done (after making sure his mom would be ok and he was able to work, of course). It cost us a bit, but we had to eat it since even though the client approved our actor, he was our employee and getting him on location was our responsibility.

Semi-amusing side note… our client that day was the area’s largest hospital. The same hospital where the actor’s mom was taken. We literally had a PA pick the kid up at the ER, drive him to our studio for wardrobe/makeup, and then back to the same hospital for the location shoot. It all went well… and fortunately in the end mom was fine, too.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Richard Herd]

I see this, experienced this, as a cash flow debacle in 2005. Fortunately, my producer was a bad @$$ and got us paid anyway — after two phone calls, a “paid” invoice of only half the amount because we only worked half the amount before the cancellation, and another phone call. By phone call I really mean heated discussion.

Here’s the fine print from an Association of Independent Commercial Producers contract (AICP). More at aicp.com

Cancellation and Postponement: Digital Production
A. If notice of cancellation/postponement is given MORE THAN HALFWAYTHROUGH the production schedule of the job, that is between the award or start date and the final delivery date, the Contracting Client will be liable to the Production Company for the full cost of the job as a bid.
B. If notice of cancellation/postponement is given IN THE SECOND QUARTER of the production schedule of the job, that is between the award or start date and the final delivery date, the Contracting Client will be liable to the Production Company for:
(1) All out of pocket costs, including the expense of all staff and free-lance labor attached to the project. This expense will include full payment through the original completion date if that labor is not re-booked by the company, or, in the case of the free-lance labor, not able to re-book itself on another project.
(2) Full creative fees as bid.
(3) Full production fee on the job as bid.

[Todd Terry]

All well and good, but that doesn’t mean bupkus unless you’ve actually been able to strongarm a client in advance into signing a contract that has all those AICP stipulations in it.

I personally can’t imagine a client going for such a contract… I know I sure wouldn’t if I was on the other side of the desk. It is extraordinarily weighted on the side of the producer, and I can’t see any reason why a client would have any inclination to agree to such stipulations. It basically says the producer can do half the job, decide to walk, and still get paid in full.

If you can get a client to agree to those terms, more power to ya.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Richard Herd]

The other reasonable option to guarantee funds is a Purchase Order.

Surely there’s a middle ground then between such strong language and loaning the client money, ergo producer on the hook for the talent, the camera, the edit — a 30 day no interest loan.

[Todd Terry]

[Richard Herd] “Surely there’s a middle ground then between such strong language and loaning the client money, ergo producer on the hook for the talent, the camera, the edit…”

But that’s just it… like it or not, the producer is on the hook. If I had an incomplete and undeliverable production — whether because an actor I hired flaked out on me, or had a technical problem, or a vital crew member had an emergency — I would never expect the client to pay anyway… which is exactly what the AICP contract stipulations and the PO idea suggest. My wallet might not like it, but if a project can’t be delivered because of something within my responsibility, we’d never expect or even ask a client to “just foot the bill anyway.” Why should they be expected to?

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Grinner Hester]

Don’t pre pay.

[David Roth weiss]

[John DeMaio] “I get a call late in the evening on Tuesday (after my shoot) about Wednesday’s studio day. The call was from my casting agent saying that she received a voice mail message at 5:30pm from my female talent for Wednesday. The female talent explained that she was in the hospital and she “might” not make it to the shoot.”

John,

Is your company signatory to any of the unions?

I ask because, just as there are union rules about producers pulling the plug and paying kill fees to actors and technicians, so actors and technicians must abide by rules of professionalism as well. If there is actual negligence involved, it’s certainly actionable by an attorney.

So, I would definitely find out if this actor this actor is affiliated with union, and I would certainly find out if this actress has an agent. Even if the shoot is completely non-union all the way around and no agent is involved, I would still think about getting your lawyer involved, and having your lawyer chat with the actress, her agent, or her lawyer.

The circumstances do sound very suspicious, and it is entirely possible that your actress was knowingly negligent. She probably doesn’t have two nickels to rub together, but it’s certainly worth investigating.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Richard Herd]

I’ve done it both ways with good success (AICP and PO). Not only did the clients not mind it, but it literally saved my butt when the you-know-what hit the fan. I was not out any money and I got paid for the cancelled day & reimbursed for travel expenses. This was 2005 — a much different economy mind you — and it was a big client.

I’ve also turned down jobs when the risk shifted too far into my burden, even though potentially represented good money and reel.

[Richard Herd]

I thought of an analogy. Maybe it fits, maybe it doesn’t.

When we go to a restaurant, they’ll serve us because the risk of serving 1 or 2 people isn’t too bad.

But that same restaurant requires a deposit when catering a wedding, because the risk is much greater.