Paying cast and crew: per call or on contract

Two ways to be paid on one film

Most of a unit is paid per call: a rate for each day they are called, and a call slip for every one of those days. Your lead actor, your director and often a head of department are on contract: one fee for the picture, however many days it takes.

Each booking on the production's roster says which. When you add someone on Crew & Casting, choose under How they are paid:

The same person can be on contract on one production and per call on the next — it belongs to the booking, not the person.

Building pay from a call sheet

On Crew & Pay, Build from the Day N call sheet writes a slip for everyone per call on that day's sheet, at the rate on their booking. People on contract are counted and skipped — the message tells you how many — and anyone per call with no rate is named, because a slip with no rate reads as a free day.

Hold days

On Schedule → Plan, each production sets what a hold day pays: nothing, a quarter, half or a full call. When it pays something, Write hold days to crew pay on the day writes a hold slip at that fraction for everyone held and booked per call. It never writes a second slip for someone already paid for that day.

What is not built yet

Paying a contract fee in instalments — on signing, at the start of principal, on delivery — is not built. Record those payments against the budget for now.