In the wonderful world of acting and modeling, at times the talent waiting for the actual location, time, and many other details must wait for that final email before they know their final instructions before their shoot, Usually the call sheet is sent out the night before At times the call sheet may be sent out earlier, especially if the project is only scheduled to be a total of a one day shoot.
If the production is a shoot where there are several days of different actors working, at times even a few on one day, then that required the production company to have everyone involved in the shoot to be assigned a date, times, locations, and every other detail that may be required. The call sheet can not be sent out until every individual has a full schedule, because revising this sheet before everyone is accounted for could call for revisions. If you receive your call sheet at 10pm, you read it and set your alarm and think you’re set, what would happen if another revised call sheet goes out two hours later, and with this change your planned travel or wardrobe may have to be changed, which could make you extremely late for your shoot.
The job of sending out call sheets should be sent out by production, not your agent. Most call sheets are sent out to everyone in the shoot including agents, so everyone can receive and review the sheet at the same time and ask any questions if anything is unclear. If by chance you are receiving messages from production for only a few items, you may ask production to send out all notes directly to you and to cc your agent. Keep in mind with any agent job, said agent handles all of the financial portion of the project. A talent who books a job under an agent never, ever sends an invoice out otherwise that is very taboo and your agent will not be pleased that you do not know the etiquette for handling payments. All payments should go directly to your agent, made out to talent’s First name Last name c/o agent name. The address on the check will be the talent agent’s address. You may be required to fill out a check authorization form that your agent sent to you, this is common practice and frequently needed, especially for jobs using a paymaster, whether the job is union or non-union. In the end, the only time you as a talent invoice if you booked the job. The exception is paymaster jobs are not invoiced, they require the talent (whether an agent booking or individual) to provide the following forms with you SSN on them:
I9 Form
Legal Photo ID to be submitted with the I9 form, examples include passport, driver’s license, legal ID, or even a Social Security care if you only have limited ID’s to match the requirements on the I9 form.
W4 Form
Check Authorization form
Signed contract
Possible state tax forms
Possible Signed NDA
**If you sign several forms on a monthly basis, it is good to have a paid program to use to expedite these forms and not have to print out paper. Some great and resonably priced programs are Adobe or Dochub.com.
The more you hassle your agent for things that cannot realistically be sent to you when you want them, the more you will not be a priority in submissions if you get known as a high maintenance talent. This same mentality goes for reaching out to your agent asking if you booked a job every time you receive an audition from your agent. Agents rarely receive feedback and they only receive information if the production company reaches out to us. We never ask if we booked anyone on a job, that is very unprofessional and also the agent will not put on an act as they will then sound desperate, which could mean said company may not submit to us again if said production is continually hassled by the agent, the talent or anyone inbetween.
