Next steps

• Join the Filmbase Supervising Art Directors WhatsApp group so you can keep in touch with your fellow Supervisors.
• The Bectu Art Department will be in touch with an update on the PACT negotiations and a suggested pathway for forming an Art Department Ratified Rate Card. (Update on this page)

• There was concern that there are less jobs currently and that more are moving abroad.

• This was countered by opinions that Construction rates and other increased costs would have far more impact than Art Dept rates on where a production is based; Art Dept is a relatively small part of the overall budget. Comparison was made between a current production’s Construction budget of around £11 million, with the Art Department budget of £1.6 million.

• The Special Effects budget, location fees and the cost of unit bases have all increased too - these costs will have a far greater influence on the decision of where to base a production than the Art Dept, even an Art Dept with increased crew rates.

• Opinion was offered that it was above our capabilities and also pay grade to try to make sure productions stay in this country. 

• If we had carried the rates in line with inflation from 2014, we would be getting paid as much as our US counterparts, however this does not take into account the amount north American productions have to pay on top for fringe benefits (30% for union and healthcare); so US crew are significantly more ‘expensive’ to productions than UK crew.

• ‘Tent pole’ productions that historically used to be in the USA are still coming to the UK.

Negotiating rates with Netflix 

• Several supervisors from band 4 TV series compared notes on recent dealings with Netflix. 

• On some productions recently, Netflix has come to the negotiating table with a set figure intended for each role - always significantly below the current Bectu ratecard and lower than other recent productions with Netflix. 

  

How to get a ratecard ratified for Art Dept?

• Currently PACT and Bectu are discussing a ratified card for Production and AD Departments

• For an Art Department card, SADs for each band would need to consult and compare recent budgets in order to create a ratecard (with one rate per role) to propose to PACT. This would also be compared to a survey of all crew. PACT would also propose rates, using Team Engine data.

• All of this work would need to be carried out in consultation with, and in collaboration with, the Bectu Art Department Committee.

• With a ratified card, inevitably rates for certain crew members would be lower that what they are currently achieving.  When Construction moved from their old system to what they have now, some people lost out in the short-term, because their rate went down. “But over the 5, 6, 7 years of guaranteed inflation increases, everyone was better off for it.” 

• Rates in the Art Department have not matched inflation for the last 5 years. (Please see linked Rate Inflation Calculator  to see what your old budgets would be worth now)

• In the US, IATSE has a base rate for members, and then they can negotiate higher. Bectu have said that it is not clear whether PACT would consider a base rate card or would only accept a single rate per job title, as per the Construction rate card. 

Are the Bands fair? 

• Expectations from job to job within the same Band can differ.

• Production sometimes say they are excluding the above the line costs when defining the band, which pushes rates into a lower band. Expectations are still the same as the high band. 

“Parity” 

• Productions are trying to impose rates parity between roles that are very different (Various HoDs).

• Having both a lower and higher rate on the ratecard was questioned. Not needed if the job roles themselves are tiered by experience (eg, Senior Assistant Art Director) and no one looks at the recommended rate. 

Can we be more transparent with each other? 

• “We should open ourselves up and share the rates that we're getting. I think it's really important that we negotiate hard for our rates to start with, because the whole department's rates are based on our rate. We're setting the top rate, and everything trickles down from there.”