The Casting Director - SHOPPING THE DEAL

 September 29, 2009

My colleague whom I share an office with was on the phone with Producers about two films that the Producers wanted to hire her for. Sometimes, I sit across from her, because we like the energy between us and it can get lonesome in our own offices. On this day she was talking to the Producers, doing a lot of eye rolling and saying things like, “I think that you should talk to Matt (me) as he is more available then me right now.” My office-mate is in the middle of two big budget features and she was kindly suggesting that the Producers discuss the possibility of working with me on their films.

She puts them on hold (no doubt, listening to our new hold music, programmed by yours truly on our new super-duper phone system) and looks at me very seriously: “Matt, these Producers are on the phone, they are financed with two films to cast, I can’t do the jobs, they want you to do the deal right now.”  I ask, “Are they good scripts?” She smiles at me and says, “They are financed,” casting code for, “who cares, and it’s a paid gig.”

I get on the phone and introductions are made. They were very intense and they wanted to know if I would cast both films for a flat fee of $8,000 dollars each. For one script it would be “offers only” and the other would require offers and auditions. I explained to them that I would have to do both deals separately and that I am a member of the Teamsters Local 399 and that depending on how many weeks we expressed in the deal, there would be additional contributions added on top of the fee, something that they were not really prepared to comprehend. They told me that the budgets for both films were 2 million dollars each. Depending on the size of the cast and the requirements of the film, a Casting Director/Casting Department usually occupies 1%-2% of the total budget. This means that within that percentage a Producer should be looking at the (1) The weekly fee for the Casting Director (2) The weekly fee for the Casting Associate and/or Assistant (3) Weekly H/P/W contributions to the Casting Director and Associate based on the amount  of weeks that they are working on the film (Assistants are not part of the Casting Union and therefore do not get H/P/W contributions) (4) Office usage fees (5) Expenses, etc… All of this can fit within 1%-2% of a total budget. On a 2 million dollar film you are looking at between 10-15k for the Casting Director and the rest going to the other deal points outlined. This is in an ideal world and since we don’t live in that world, Casting Directors have to be creative about their deals. The one thing I am non-negotiable on is Union contributions.

Initially, they started the conversation with telling me what each film was about and where they were shooting and that, “There would not be that much work to do…” Producer-code for, “We are under-paying you and require your full attention for the next six months of your life while we put this film together that eventually falls apart or nobody ever sees…”  Without reading either script, I agree to do each film for $8,000 over a five week agreement, with the health, pension and welfare contributions. I did not ask for an assistant, office fees, phone usage: I was obviously high on crack that morning, but, what the F—, I could do it, I have done it before and I was happy to help out. I thought I was being more then generous! Usually when I donate my office fees, expenses, etc… I ask for a back-end and an Associate Producer credit in the end titles. I didn’t do that for this deal, again really good Crack that day. It seemed like the deal was done.

October 5,2009

An email comes in: “(We) are in meetings most of today and tomorrow, is there a good time for you to talk on Wednesday?” I give them times.

October 7, 2009

An email comes in: “Matthew, (We) are going to have to reschedule our call. I’ll let you know when we are available. I write back, “OK.”

Now in the meantime, I am casting three films, all of which are keeping me busy and I kind of know that when being brushed off, that, in general, it is not a good sign and I truly wasn’t that worried about the fact that I was not hearing from them, because (A) I was busy working and (B) the scripts were nothing to rush out and cheer about.

 October 23, 2009

I send them an email: “Hi, Anything further on the films?”

An hour later I received this: “Hi Matthew, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner, our investor was going through resumes of the casting directors we talked to and also had concerns about your Pension and Welfare requirements. Anyway we went with another casting director. Hopefully we can work together on something in the future.

Best regards, “Mr. Producer”

I write back: “Who did you go to? Just an FYI - if your film goes 399 - Casting Directors are automatically included in that deal. I am disappointed that you asked me to negotiate such a low rate and then did not have the courtesy to come back to me to let me know what was going on, as I did agree to work well within what you were asking for in your offer to me.

 An hour later, I receive the following email:

 “Matthew, I’m well aware of the 399 requirements, it had more to do with experience and I did send you an e-mail, lets leave it at this and perhaps we can work together in the future.”

 Ouch!

Well, I get on the phone to my agent friend and ask him to look up if any of the two films are listed in their grid. They were and the Casting Director is a colleague of mine.

Please understand that, yes I admit on some level my ego was bruised, but truthfully I was more distressed about the fact that another Union Casting Director, according to the Producer’s email, allegedly took the gig and agreed to do the job non-union. What you have to understand is that, Casting Directors fought for a long time, long before I became a Casting Director, to join a Union and receive benefits. If a member of the Union agrees to do a film non-union there had better be a good reason for that agreement to happen. Usually Casting Union members are paid their benefits on anything with a $500,000 budget or higher. But I have negotiated benefits on a short film and on budgets well below 500k. On a two million dollar feature, there is no reason why a CD should not be receiving benefits and every time a Producer gets away without paying the benefits, this only hurts the collective bargaining power that Casting Directors may or may not have in the future.

So, I was confused by the email from the Producer, because initially it was about the benefits and then it was about my experience (again - Ouch!).

Well once I found out who the Casting Director was, I called him and told him my story. I started out by saying, “I am glad that you are working, and this isn’t about that they picked you over me, I am just calling to make sure that you are getting benefits with your deal.” We had a very friendly conversation and he said that, yes in fact the deal took a while to negotiate, but that he was doing the films for 10k each and receiving 5 weeks of benefits on both films and that the Casting Union was copied into the emails about his deals. They told him that one of the films budgets was five million dollars, they told me 2 million.

WAIT—10k each?! Mother-F—ker! Now here is the thing: The Casting Director that got the job is someone whom I consider a peer. In fact, I know that we both have a mutual admiration for each other’s work and that we look at one another as having equal experience. I am the first to admit that I am no Bernie Telsey, but my colleague who got the job is defiantly in the same casting strata that I am in, we go up for the same gigs all of the time. So, honestly I am happy that he is working and getting more then I negotiated. What I am learning and what we had a laugh about was that this Producer felt the need to express to me that the reason I did not get the job was because I wanted Union contributions, which ultimately they did agree to and that I had less experience; something I am not going to argue here.

What I think happened is that I negotiated a deal and where they where, at the time, they were not prepared to give the Union contributions and that when they went to another Casting Director and negotiated the deal, when he asked for the Union dues, they realized that they were going to have to budget for that and instead of coming back to me (and paying me less overall) they went with the CD that they were negotiating with because they would rather close that deal then admit by hiring me that I was being reasonable by asking for the Union contributions on top of my fee. What is not cool about the Producers (and this happens a lot with Casting Directors) is that they thought it was okay to negotiate a deal and then see what they could negotiate with another Casting Director at the same time. Essentially they are lying to the Casting Director they are negotiating with by not telling them that they are non-exclusive on the offer, because why would they be negotiating with someone else at the same time? This is called “Shopping The Deal” and some Producers think that it is negotiating, but in fact it is being dishonest and because it is clouded in the word, “negotiating” they think that it is okay to behave this way. Well, it’s not. If you think it is, please don’t call me to do your film. I don’t want to work with people who behave this way, it’s not cool and it just means that you will be dodgy when dealing with agents and managers and talent and I’m not into that…

 October 24, 2009

I just negotiated my deal for the most amazing script! I am getting my Union Contributions, 2% of Producers Profits and Associate Producer credit. It’s good to feel appreciated and it will inspire me to work hard on the film.

Tags: Filmmaking, , Movie, Film, Hollywood