For the past few years I have been doing live weekend workshops – sometimes in a flurry and sometimes spread out over time. The biggest hurdle is scheduling the location and time. Not just for me, but for you all as well.
DILEMMA
It’s a dilemma. Some of you want more than I have on the Agendas, some less, and some want more emphasis on related areas, etc. For example, some want the full detail of how to do Hot Cost, and some want only enough to know how to budget for Screen Actors Guild costs. I will continue to do live workshops, but it’s tough on all concerned to arrange their schedules, their travel, hotels, etc. So, my dilemma has been how to get what you want out to you all in a way that works for you and can fit into our busy schedules.
SOLUTION
So, I have decided to start doing a series of advanced online training webinars that can offer a wider variety. Some will be Live – and recorded simultaneously for you to review at your convenience. Others will be pre-recorded and made available with all of the materials. In each case I’ll keep the webinars ‘bite-sized’ so that you can zero in on the material you need to know in order to advance your career in film.
EACH RECORDED ONLINE TRAINING WEBINAR HAS ITS OWN SPECIALIZATION
One series will be general and the next series will have more details.
One series will be for those interested in Managing (i.e. Line Producers, Unit Production Managers, etc.) and the second, more detailed series, for those who want to know how to The topics that can be done.
RECORDED FOR PRIVATE UNLIMITED VIEWING AND FILE ACCESS
Note that each recorded webinar has attached to it, through an ingenious web site called Screencast.com, all of the materials used in that webinar and all files are easily downloadable – such as template budgets in Excel and MMB, Guild/Union agreements, vital links, gross payroll calculating templates, actual cost reports, template cost reports, etc.
Today I spoke with a representative from Quebec who has asked me to deliver film production payroll training in Montreal. I knew that this was a need in the newer tax incentive States, but I didn’t think it was so prevalent in other more established film production centers. This has also occurred in Georgia, Louisiana and Toronto.
I’m aware of the lack of payroll accountants in many places but I was surprised about Montreal. I have worked in Montreal about 8 times and I’ve always been impressed with the level of competence of the film accounting assistants in that city. So, it got me to thinking – what’s with the dearth of payroll accountants that keep hearing about? Is it the demand from the financiers to have more skilled payroll accountants or is it just that we of the old guard are retiring? Or, maybe it’s just that the productions are leaving Hollywood more and more and need a more local film payroll people?
Probably a blend of all the above, with special emphasis on the last point. At any rate it spells opportunity to you guys out there who want to get into the ‘biz but haven’t found a foothold.
Film Payroll is just learning the rule of the specific unions and working out the Overtime, Meal Penalties and Rest Period Violations. You don’t need to know anything about the various producer and employee withholding and contributions to unions and governments. It’s really the easiest payroll accounting job anywhere when compared to other big businesses – well paid, too.
I do a lot of film payroll training. Come to my next one? See my web site for details.
As in any job in the film industry, you need to find a way to reach potential employers. For film accountants one of the most common methods of finding jobs is to check-out Emily Rice’s posts on her Google Group – many of us refer to it as “Emily’s List”, although technically it is the Rice Gorton Pictures Google Group.
As you’ll see when you go to the web site, you can either “Subscribe” to posts, or simply put the link on your Favorites and check it out whenever you have a moment.
I was talking to an old friend who had moved to Atlanta many years ago. I called her up to ask her about doing a workshop in Atlanta and what the film production environment was like there. Right away she said, “Local Payroll Accountants are really needed – just look at Emily’s List, they’re always asking for locals who know how to calculate payroll.”
So … I did a little home work. I checked out several pages at the top of Emily’s List and several pages at the bottom of the listings. Out of a sample of 120 listings, 52 were for a Film Payroll Accountant. That’s over 43% of the listings are for local Film Payroll Accountants.
As you can see from my other posts, film payroll accounting is all about knowing how to calculate the “Gross Pay” – that is, the Overtime Hours multiplied by the contracted rate, plus any meal penalties and rest violations. You won’t need to know about government and union withholdings and contributions – all of that nasty stuff is done by the payroll service.
So, the task becomes knowing how to calculate union payroll, and that’s all we do for 2 full days – right from beginning to end. You will be left with all of the reference material, as well as on-line access to the full courses and materials for future reference.
I did a screen recording to give you a better idea of how the Film Payroll workshop works – see this short YouTube video: http://youtu.be/GcwXoq0cRE8
The payroll workshop is over the weekend of Oct 15th and 16th in Atlanta.
About 2 or 3 times a month I get a comment on this blog asking me if I can send a copy of a Hot Cost. From the tone of the request I sense that I am the last resort and the Hot Cost is a matter of getting the job as a key accountant or not getting it. I always oblige, but with a cringe because I know that without the background understanding of film and television payroll the Hot Cost won’t mean a whole lot to them.
Anyone who has been working in film production accounting, or as a Unit Production Manager, knows that “Hot Costs” exist, and they may have seen them. But it’s the key production accountant who prepares them. They’re a bit of a pain to set-up; however, once in place they’re easy to maintain.
I have written only one other blog about Hot Costs, mainly because it requires a pretty good understanding of payroll, as well as Excel, to really understand the background of it all.
For those of you who missed my earlier blog, I’ll start out by defining, in my own words, what a hot costs is:
- The Hot Cost is essentially daily report which compares the actual variable labor costs with the budgeted labor costs for every person on set. A few other variable costs are compared to budget on the topsheet of the Hot Cost, especially if it’s easy to measure them on a daily basis – like the costs of catering, or, if shooting in 35mm, the cost of raw stock, processing and work prints. Since 35mm is seldom used anymore, that’s gone by the wayside.
Boiled down, the, the Hot Cost is really all about measuring the daily cost of labor (Cast and Crew) with the budgeted amount of daily labor.
The Ivory Tower:
The Film Production Accountant prepares it, and usually the assistant accountants are too busy to get involved – or, if they have some time, the key accountant is too busy to show them. This task is seldom allocated to an assistant (unless the film production is obscenely huge). It is the one task which mystifies most assistant accountants, simply because they are seldom involved directly in preparing it. Another drawback that I’ve noticed with assistant accountants in the last 10 or 15 years is a tendency to specialize in one area, such as running the general ledger duties, but ignoring the payroll duties; or, being pigeon-holed as a payroll accountant only, and not understanding the cost report duties. I have had some pretty nervous requests to explain Hot Costs as a 1st Assistant starts to reach toward being a Key Production Accountant, mostly because of their continuous specialization, rather than understanding all facets of film accounting.
The Daily Production Report (DPR):
Each day the Assistant Director’s prepare a “Daily Production Report”. The In/Out times, as well as the lunch break, is recorded on the DPR. Every person who worked on set is named along with their title. In addition, the DPR shows all the times related to each and every actor, the number of lunch plates, the page count shot (per the Script Supervisor),any notations of accidents/delivery of major equipment/illnesses, etc.
Click on the link to see an example of the front and back pages of a DPR:
Once you get a grasp the union rules you’ll start to wonder what all the fuss was about. No matter what union contracts you’re dealing with, each Union has broken down their rules into the following 4 categories:
1. The “Basic Day” and Overtime Rules
2. The penalties associated with “Rest Violations” (also called “Turnaround”).
3. The penalties associated with violating Meal Periods (called “Meal Penalties”).
4. The various circumstances associated with Travel – whether to a “Distant Location” (i.e. staying in a hotel), or travelling outside of a defined “Studio Zone” (also often referred to in each locale as “The Circle”).
For those of you newly exposed to Screen Actors Guild, the various IATSE (crew) Locals and the Teamster (driver) Locals, it may seem a little too much, it’s MUCH easier than learning to use Excel – so, have a little patience, do a lot of practice time cards, and you’ll have it.
Conversely, for those of you who have had to hide behind being a Payroll Accountant, but never had exposure to the Cost Report, have no fear. It’s much easier to learn than the other way around (check out my blogs that begin with #1 of 7 through to #7 of 7).
The Excel Task:
Once you have a grasp on the SAG and crew payroll rules, the task ahead of you is to set-up a hot cost format that can quickly estimate the cost of labor for the day and compare it to the budgeted cost per day – for each and every person working on the set. Kind of a tall order “right out of the box”. If you’re using Excel, the only efficient way to do a Hot Cost, you should be able to copy paste the previous day’s time out, enter in the In/Out times of the day your analyzing (i.e. yesterday) for each person, then have the Excel formulas do the rest. I’ve recently done this for a feature. An example of it is on the link below:
The solution to understanding any Hot Cost is to find a central source of contracts for SAG, DGA and IATSE then summarize the four rules mentioned above. Then have someone show you their version of Excel formulas which comply with these central rules. At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I have done that, one union at a time for each of SAG, DGA, IATSE National Low Budget (any feature or TV production in North America less than $13Mil) and IATSE Area Standards (any feature or TV production greater than $13Mil outside of the Los Angeles and New York zones). I have a general Teamster contract for the non-LA/NY areas, but, honestly, it’s child’s play to understand after learning the above. Actually, it is not a problem for me to say that if you understand SAG, DGA, IATSE Low Budget and IATSE Area Standards you can work anywhere in America or Canada – it would only be necessary to get a copy of the local contracts in those higher production centers and you’d be ready in a day or so.
The Training and the Practice:
I’ve found that a full weekend practicing the film and television payroll rules, followed up by on-line links to all the materials, is plenty for your average person to learn how to calculate the union/guild payrolls to “gross” (i.e. to the gross amount of pay due before union and government benefits/deductions). I also supply templates (yes, with the formulas) which are “helpers” ad which you can use to develop your own Hot Costs, no matter the circumstances. I leave you with on-line links to all of the materials – see this link to get an idea of what I mean.
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