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What is copy-credit-meals?
Answer: When starting off your career as an actor, you might find it a bit difficult to get that series regular role right off the bat. It happens, but more likely, you’ll start with… (continued in David’s answer below)
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Answer: When starting off your career as an actor, you might find it a bit difficult to get that series regular role right off the bat. It happens, but more likely, you’ll start with low- or no- budget indie, student and peer projects that promise a great time, but no pay. In money – they do usually offer copy, credit and meals. Here’s what that means.
Paid acting gigs are great, but often, you’re presented with non-paid gigs from friends, students and producers whose projects have little or no money behind them. Not only do you not get paid, you don’t have any of the niceties you’ll have when you get on a network set: a trailer, a PA, wardrobe and makeup and so on.
Often, early in an actor’s career, when you’re trying to build up your credits, thicken the resume with work that shows a casting director you can be trusted on the set or stage, you’re going to be attracted to anything that gets you near a camera. You not only want to build your resume, you also want to build your reel.
That’s where the value in a copy-credit-meals project is – a chance to build the tools you need to get acting jobs that pay you well. But those three words can mean different things to different producers. And sometimes, you have to do a bit of chasing to get all three.
Let’s start with “copy.” This doesn’t mean the same thing as voiceover or narration copy, as we discuss here. Rather, it means that part of the compensation for you performing in this project is that you’ll get a copy of the finished film or episode, on DVD or in a digital file, once the project has been completed.
This seems pretty straightforward, but it can end up being a very tedious process to actually accomplish: producers go AWOL with their projects and their addresses, students drop out of film school or never quite get around to finishing their projects (or getting them to you) and so on.
Most of the time, students and low-budget film producers get the copy to you, often before it screens or on the night of the premiere. In particular, if a student you’ve shot a film with isn’t prompt about getting you your copy, and you’ve tried being as nice as possible to make it happen, a call to the student’s advisor or the office of the Dean of the film school can be remarkably effective in getting that copy sent your way.
The “credit” part of copy-credit-meals is usually the easiest to accomplish – this means that you’ll be listed in the credits of the final produced piece. You negotiate these credits exactly the same way you’d negotiate credits in a paid acting job – above the title, “as [character name],” “with,” “and,” separate card, and so on. Make sure the spelling of your name is correct when you talk to the director or producer.
Finally, that last word, “meals,” can mean anything from fully catered meals plus a kraft table (yes, that actually happens) to a package of crackers and warehouse store soda (sadly, that’s far more likely) on set. There are no set rules for this, other than to give you a break every six hours for a meal, provided by the production or not, When they say they are going to give you meals, be prepared the first day with a bag lunch just in case – then be pleasantly surprised when you’re actually served a hearty lunch and dinner.
Also remember that union rules allow for your participation in copy-credit-meals projects, f the production entity has negotiated a waiver for pay; this is usually the case with film schools, colleges and university film production programs. Those projects are worth doing, if only for the footage you get: my audition for HEROES came about because a casting director saw a clip of me in a copy-credit-meals film.
What’s your answer to this acting question? Let me know in the comments below.
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LikeDislikeI was on a show as an extra i appeared for literally 5 sec and would like to know how i can get credit or how do i get proof that i was in that show as uncredited actor/extra
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LikeDislikeUnfortunately, unspoken appearances and background work do not get you credit. You have to have been cast as a character called out in the script, not a background player. You might get upgraded on set, but you’d know – and your pay would change drastically. Just being visible for 5 seconds is not an acting part.
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LikeDislikeI filmed a scene in a SAG film; was contracted as “Edna” (speaking role) and paid as actor, not an extra. In the final cut, I was still in the scene, but my lines were cut. Since I have a contract saying I was cast as Edna, I was paid SAG rate and since we actually shot the scene; should I still be in the credits as Edna instead of as an extra?
You’ll probably get this advice from SAG-AFTRA (who you should contact to confirm), you’ll be paid as contracted, but you won’t be given credit for a character that is cut.
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