Comments

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  Dan Harder September 13, 2011 at 12:05am

  Thank you Robert!
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  Robert Sciglimpaglia September 12, 2011 at 8:02pm

  Great news Kimberly!

   
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  Kimberly Geter September 12, 2011 at 7:55pm

  Finally got my payment from the client. It was almost 90 days past due. I wasn't charged as much as expected for the Terms of Service Agreement so I'll use my Terms for future payments. Appreciate the group.

   
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  Robert Sciglimpaglia September 12, 2011 at 2:42pm

  Hi Dan.  You are correct that if you join the Union you are forbidden by Union rules from doing Non Union work.  However, a couple of things to keep in mind here, first, you will not be Taft Hartley'd unless you actually selected for the job after you audition, and the producers may very well select someone in SAG already rather than Taft Hartley a non union actor.  In fact, SAG may want to know why there is not someone qualified already in SAG that can do the gig to justify giving out a Taft Hartley.

   

  Second, even if you do win the gig and get Taft Hartley'd, you are ELIGIBLE to join SAG, but that does not mean you HAVE TO. Once you receive a Taft Hartley, you can do as many SAG principal gigs as you want within 30 days after receiving the Taft Hartley.  But, after 30 days, you are then classified as a "must join", which means should you be offered a SAG gig at that point, you will have to join the Union in order to take the gig.

   

  Of course, all of this only has any meaning at all if you live in a Union jurisdiction and not a "right to work" state.  Half of the States, which are mostly in the Southern half of the US, are "right to work" states which means that you cannot be forced to join a Union to work, including performance Unions, so if you live in one of those States you will continue to receive Taft Hartley's if you don't join the Union.  Hope this didn't confuse you more.
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  Dan Harder September 12, 2011 at 2:14pm

  Hey Robert, 

  I've just been invited to audition for a job through an agency.  The stipulations are that I must be union, or I can "Taft-Hartly".  Are you aware of a thumbnail description of Taft-Hartley?

   

  Wikipedia says:

  The term Taft-Hartley has a special meaning in the entertainment industry. Specifically, for film and television actors, an actor not in the union who becomes a "principal performer" (says a line) is immediately eligible to join the Screen Actors Guild and is covered under the SAG contract with the production company for 30 days, at which point he or she must either join SAG or cease working on any union productions; this same provision applies to so-called "background actors" (extras) who work on a SAG covered production for 3 or more days. Once joining the union, the actor may not work on any non-union production, per the terms of the bylaws. This allows SAG to get around the rules forbidding closed shops by providing a mechanism for new members to join the union.

   

  Until now, all my work has been non-union, and the second sentence from the end of the above description confuses me a bit.  Once joining a union, can I ONLY do union gigs?

   

  Thanks SO much for any light you might shed.

   

  -Dan

   

   
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  Kimberly Geter July 6, 2011 at 10:31am

  This group so far is a favorite of mine, Mr. Sciglimpaglia. As stated earlier, I finally got my terms and conditions document set up by my lawyer. However, I had one client that I did not send it to that had not paid and it was a Net -30 invoice. I gleaned from past conversations and was able to hopefully keep a client by asking if the check was in transient. I was told that he would check accounts and get back to me today. I did a "follow-up" call a week earlier and learned that the project fell through although I voiced the project fine. There was a disconnect between the client and the contracted company so the project was discarded. I'm crosses my fingers. I'm wimpy, but this group has given me some backbone to work with. Geez. I think getting paid may be the hardest part, not the booking, if you don't know how to claim payments.
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  DC Glenn July 5, 2011 at 8:29am

  Are there any standard or past agent/vo contracts online anywhere I can look over.  Just want to have a heads up before this process starts.

  dcgottaeat@yahoo.com
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  Robert Sciglimpaglia July 4, 2011 at 10:59pm

  Great to have you DC!
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  DC Glenn July 4, 2011 at 9:49pm

  Very excited to be a new member of this group.
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  Robert Sciglimpaglia April 5, 2011 at 9:22pm

  In LA, my collegue Michael Saleman, Phone: (310) 553-1600, movielaw.net can definitely help out.