In most instances, if a talent books a job through an agent, the proper procedures occur, passing the wand of communication from agent to talent and talent being responsible to show up on time and being prepared for the shoot date and/ or record date.
If you are an adult, you are fully responsible for yourself and must manage your time to be where you need to be before the time requested and have everything packed/prepared for the day. If you are a parent of an actor/talent then you are fully responsible to get your child to set with everything needed and scripts memorized and packed as well as clothing, props that may be requested and of course vaccination cards.
But things happen. You as the talent need to know exactly what the USAGE of this project is and how many spots are going to be made for your work. Here’s a few items to be on alert and to potentially call your agent if these occur:
- You show up for your shoot and upon arrival time you are assigned a role paying less than the agreed upon amount.
- You are requested to sign off on a contract with less than 5 minutes to review said contract. Never ever sign off of any document without full review, what’s hidden in this contract could cause you to lose your rights for your role, could affect your pay or could extent the use of the project without being obvious.
- Being held for fittings and back ups. Even back up talent need to show up on set, in case the main actor is not able to work their role on the scheduled day. If you show up and are held beyond an hour or two please notify your agent. This also ties into fittings. If you having a fitting, whether for a principal role or a back up role, you should be in and out within an hour. If production holds you for an extended amount of time, notify your agent with the time you arrived, and also them time you leave, hopefully the agent can contact the production company to expedite your time waiting. This is a serious situation and it could get the talent to receive additional funds.
- You are shooting or recording one script per your agent’s details, and when you start to work they want to add multiple scripts/spots. Never work these without reaching out to your agent first because you should be compensated for each specific project you work. It is not fair to you as the talent to read scripts for 12 commercials and only be paid for one. Your agent is there to make sure you get what you are entitled to receive.. Call them if anything is questionable.
- If at any time you are replaced for your role suddenly, alert your agent. There needs to be a valid reason why and the communication needs to go through your agent since they are the ones who manage the money for these productions.