Writers Strike....paying actors?

Question

I have a two part question

A) With the writer's strike going on, are actors of sitcoms still getting paid?

B) What is the "chain" of paying all the way from the advertisers down to the actors (who pays who...director, producer, etc)

Answer 1

A) No, the actors are NOT being paid, neither are camera men, focus pullers, editors, nobody is getting paid.
Hense the reason why some actors have walked onto the picket lines to join the writers, they all want the strike to end as soon as possible.

(I am a screenwriter in the middle of the strike, I don't support the WGA after December 7th, the AMPTP (the studios) walked away from the table after making various offers, that the WGA refused.)

B) the answer is in two parts...
The producers are the ones who "produce" the television show, they hire the actors, director, crew ect. and pay them out of their own pockets. And make as many episodes of the television show as they want.

Then the producers put their shows onto a network (if the network agrees) and the commercials and advertisements that are in the middle of the show pay the network, and the network gives most of that money to the producers to pay for their show, otherwise they could take it to another network (if it turned out to be a hit) and ask for more money, and the more popular the show is, the more money advertising would cost to get on the show, and the more money that the producers get for advertising, they pay the actors more, (advertising can be as much as a million dollars per minute, during the superbowl or the oscars)

So it would be; (phase1)
Producers get an idea,
pay writers to write it first,
a director to direct the show,
then set staff to build the set,
then crew to set it up and film it,
then actors to act in it,
then background actors per episode ect...

After the show it made, (phase2)

The advertisers pay the network,
who in turn pays the studio (producers)
who in turn starts phase1 all over again, and perhaps at a higher price if the show goes well (because they make more money from advertising)

Answer 2

Of course the actors are paid. Sit com actors do not get a regular weekly pay check. They are paid at the end of the filming. Then if the episodes are shown again in syndication they will get residuals. (additional pay for their work)But all of the work for the sitcoms for the season are "in the can" and there will be no work on next season until the strike is settled.
Shows like Deal or NO Deal and other\s that have a large storehouse of filmed segments can go on for a long time. The actors and all of the workers including the writers for these shows are being paid in the regular schedule of payment for their work on them.

Answer 3

A) People don't get paid - but the talk show hosts are paying their craft people out of their own pockets for the most part.

B) Advertisers pay the network
Network Pays production company (which may be the network itself)
Production company pays director, producers, actors, writers and craft people. In some cases producers and writer-producers get a share of the profits.

Answer 4

Guess I don't watch enough TV to even realize the impact yet. My guess: A) no work, no pay - so if the cancel tapings, there's no paycheck
B) No educated answer there - commercials?

Answer 5

No and it's bothering some people the way they are being taken off work.

Depending on how the producers word the "layoff"

In some situations they are allowed to work in commercials or local stage but must return to work when the show starts

in some situations there were terminated and may or may not be rehired

in some situations there were put on leave but not allowed to do other work.

Some of them are very bugged by this.

There are probably trials through the union trying to get better terms from the producers on a case by case basis.

The chain of pay...

Mmmm

For a TV series in the first three years NOT owned by the network

New shows get the lowest possible ad rates and those rates then go up and down based on ratings which come out daily and weekly.

Sponsors have a lot of say in what shows and time slots they get and that also has a bearing on price.

First commercial after the opening credits of CSI commands a lot of money as does first break. Half hour is less.

6 PM night news also commands a high ticket

As ratings drop on a show sponsors pull commercials.

Anyway, Networks pay a flat fee for 1/2 hour sit coms and 1 hour dramas for the first 3 years.

For sake of argument let's say 1 million for a sit com and 2 million for a 1 hour.

They pay this months after the show airs, so the first check may not arrive on a September show until Jan or February

That first check may only cover 4 epsidoes.

They get two free runs. First and re-run.

Because of this financing is needed so the show is either under a very well financed production house like Jerry Bruckheimer, who has 15 years producting films and TV shows and makes gobs in residuals and licensing.

Or it is financed by a studio, such as Universal or Fox or Paramount or Warners or Sony

Sometimes by both.

Shows can be networked owned, but that is rare in prime time. Then it would be an NBC or CBS or ABC production.

Shows are usually owned by distribution houses like Fox, Warner, Viacom, Sony, Paramount with a stake in ownership by the production house.

The production house actually produces the show.

So Weintraub or Bruckheimer or David Kelley or Stephen Cannel or Rheisher or Studio Canal+ or some production house with their own buidling in Westwood ir their own floors in Westwood makes the show for the studio, for the network.

NBC sends a bulk check to Fox or Universal for all theri shows with a detail of what shows and episodes it covers.

NBC might send out $20 million in Janaury to cover 4 episodes of 5 shows.

The studio usually picks up the overage, but in some cases Bruckheimer may actually do that!

The production company's job is to bring the show in on time and on budget.

The studio has a say in what the budget will be and what they will finance. They will change this when they get a star like Charlie Sheen who might ACTUALLY be under NETWORK or STUDIO contract and get paid separately from the production.

This is often called an ABOVE THE LINE cost and it only happens in TV with shows like CSI, Friends, Cheers.

The Network and Studio each assign an executive or supervising producer to watch over their interests (and these guys can and do censor things, although they are not standards and practises).

The guy in charge of the show is the senior executive producer for the production company and is often the creator or co-creator (even if it's in name only -- you have a show idea and pitch it to me, I like it I buy it with the understanding you will make me top billing creator and I will get 70% and you will get 30% and take a position of Story Editor and I will be Exectuive Producer and steer the show because I have the studio and network connections).

The guy in charge has ususally produced for 10 - 15 years and worked their way up from free lance writer to story editor to producer to co-executive and NOW it's THEIR chance.

So, the Studio or Network often pay their own "producers" on the show (called guarantors).

The exective producer hires in friends they've worked with from the past on other shows who are unemployed and give them approriate positoins:

Story Editor (entry level)
Script Editor
Associate Producer
Co-Producer
Producer
Supervising Producer
Co-Executive Producer
Exeuctive Producer.

Share credit people are lower on the totem pole

Senior producer in such a hierarchy usually takes LAST CREDIT at the end of the episode (Executive Producer David E. Kelley).

All the low guys get credits over the first 2 minutes after the main titles or at the ending crawl.

Salaries and titles are negociated, often yearly, starting in January.

Jobs run from Late August to May or June then you go on Hiatus.

The producers job is the create an episode. To do this they either assign scripts to writers they know, accept pitches from writers through their agents or write it in house at a writers meeting on Monday.

How the duties are divied out varies from shop to shop.

Sometimes one producer is assigned to steer an episode and they see it through re-writes, casting, director selection, editing and upload to the network, plus re-edits called for by the network.

Sometimes its a chaotic group effort and who is ever avaiable at a given moment handles the dung that hits the fan

You generally have 4-6 weeks to crank out a 1 hour episode. That means write it, re-write it, cast it, pick a director, scout locations, build sets, shoot it, edit it, re-edit it as the senior producer and network and studio boys so say, upload it to NY who reviews it and may want something objectionable changed, so you re-re-edit it and re-upload it.

Under the best of times they have a backlog of scripts, four producers are all writing at the same time and you know what the last epsidoe of the year will be by January. Sometimes you don't know until Mid April what the Mid March episode will even be and the script may not be finished until the second shooting day.

Writers/Producers are management, under contract, hense you work 24/7/265 days if you must.

Writers on Freinds would be working all day saturday and into Sunday morning ironing out a script to be used on Monday.

This wuld be 7 people in a confrence room

Salaries can be as little as $1,500 a week for a Story editor to as much as $50,000 a week for a more senior producer.

A starting show uses cheap people.

Maybe three top ones are high paid. Maybe on their last show they got $25,000 a week, so now they get $30,000

The free lance writer who talked his producer buddy into making him story editor gets $1,500 a week which is $30,000 a year If he normally only sells one script a year he's doing $5,000 better a year

They buy scripts for minimum if they can. That like $25K a script. $12.5 K is paid up front to the agent and $12.5 K is paid after delivery of the 2nd draft.

Starting directors make $35K

Maybe they elevate a 1st assistant AD from a show they worked on last year to full director if he agrees to do at least 5 shows for $35K each

Director of the Pilot and Creator of the show gets a minimum salary fee PER NEW EPISODE AIRED

This amounts to union minimum.

So from the budget the Studio Provides, which could be $2,250,000 per episode (NBC is paying only 2,000,000 flat) all below the line costs are paid.

Actors, director, assitatns, producers, story editors, camera people, editing.

And YES Universal pays yu 2.25 Mil to make it and when you edit it at Universal or have the sound mixed at Universal you have to PAY THEM BACK hourly rental times, typically $2,000 an hour to mix sound.

Universal supplies the room engineers and equipment.

It might cost $50,000 or $80,000 to mix sound per epsiode.

Universal charges you to rent their studio space.

Universal charages you to rent their cameras.

Universal charges you to rent their lights.

If a show goes over budget they have to cut back in a future epsiode

One trick is to do a FLASH BACK dream episode.

One of the lead characters falls off a roof during a chase scene and the rest of the episode is in the hospital with everyone praying for him.

one day shooting for all the actors. Send them and the camera crew home.

The editor then uses flash backs from previous episdoes to craft a story line.

This is how you do a 1 hour show for $924,000

On shows over the three year run mark and network owned shows the network picks up ALL COSTS

On a show like Freinds where in the last year EVERYONE was getting like $12 million a year NBC had to pick up the $2 million per episdoe cost (for the writers, director and producers who were all making big $$$) plus the $70 million a year salaries of the stars.

So that would be $120 + Million a year for the last season VS.

$20 million a year for the first season.

The studio/distributor (Waner, Fox, Viacom) has to pay the residuals to all writers, producers, directors and actors as per the union contract.

Stations and networks pay the music costs out of their ASCAP and BMI licenses (and Pete Carpenter is getting $10+ per station in prime time airing the Rockford Files or Hill Street Blues as a title theme, if 100 stations in the US air this he is making $1,000 each week per show plus another $200 per incidental music on each show, which is why Glenn Larson co-writes all the theme for all his shows and why Gene Roddenberry contracted to get 50% of the Star Trek original theme)

First run syndication of CSI or Friends pays UNION MINIMUM to all actors, directors, writers, producers.

That's typially $500 a day for a day player to $2,500 a week for the stars, to $15,000 for the writer, to $25,000 for the director.

This is often paid on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Since writers only do a few epsidoes as do directors they won't get a terrible lot

But the lead actors get like $50,000 each per year in residuals from a show.

The studio pays for this by licensing the show to local regions or stations, overseas.

Then there is DVD sales which pays minimally, a lead actor might get $5,000-$25,000 per season for the initial DVD offering and nothing after that.

Then comes INTERNET which is what the writer's strike is about and NONE of the unions have solved this problem adequately.

For Internet re-broadcasts by the network, they are trying to work out a formula and the writer's guild wants a cut of the advertising dollar.

They are not going to give that

They are offering like $3-12 an episode posted.

That is being rejected.

This will be a sore spot with all the unions.

Everyone will look at the writers's guild to see what they finall get and use that as a template.

Once a show breaks costs (which almost never happens) net profits people get a share.

15 years after The Rockford Files ended first run James Garner, who owned 30% of the NET sued Universal because they claimed the show was still in the red.

Universal paid him a lump sum to shut up and go away.

See

EVERYTHING is negociated!