Thread by @DavidHSteinberg

Welcome back to my deep dive into a Writing & EP Services Contract and welcome to page 3. Paragraph 6, PILOT SERVICES. Networks that make pilots will have a separate provision for your producing services of the pilot episode which may be more or less money that your episodic fee.

(Link back to the first page of this thread)

https://twitter.com/DavidHSteinberg/status/1458131000907550721?s=20

Producing a pilot is hard! But thankfully you get paid to do it because you're a producer now! Note that you are pay or played (in this contract) if you wrote the pilot on your own (or people did minor punch up/polish work).

But if you got rewritten you may still be called in to EP the pilot, but now at it's the network's option, not your guarantee. Note also how much time is spent rehashing your term of commitment. They do NOT want you taking other jobs if this goes! Next up, SERIES SALE BONUS.

Paragraph 7, SERIES SALES BONUS. This is kind of self-explanatory: If they order the series you get a bonus. This is often equal to your pilot producing fee but sometimes significantly more (esp. w a network that doesn't make pilots). If you share pilot credit you get 1/2 bonus.

But wait! Sure if Netflix orders a series you just make the series and you get the series sales bonus. But what about broadcast and cable where a series order can get cut short or cancelled? Welcome to page 4.

They may condition the bonus on a certain number of produced episodes (in this case 12) and if you make fewer you get a prorated amount. And in those cases the bonus is paid out in steps. Next up, SERIES SERVICES.

Paragraph 8, SERIES SERVICES. This is where the real money is! Your episodic quote! Maybe a first-time EP might "only" get 20 or 25k per episode, but that will quickly become 30k, 35k, and showrunners will make 40k or a LOT more... PER EPISODE. This is for producing.

You still get paid to write episodes you assign to yourself (usually at scale but still). And you still get your per episode royalty for creating the show (more on that later).

Note that in this deal the subsequent years give 5% bumps. That's fairly typical, though you will also see deals where the years are spelled out (25k for s1, 30k for s2, 35k for s3, etc.). You won't see much beyond s3 because that's when an EP in success RENEGOTIATES.

This is also where you will see the all-important Consulting Services. This is sort of your golden parachute. You put in three years as EP and now you're big time so you go sell some other show and go work on that one. They still pay you a Consulting Fee per episode.

It might only be 5k or 7.5k or 10k (could be more) but this is sort of Emeritus status. Now they'll say this is for meaningful consulting (attending table reads, run throughs, etc.) but I'm not sure that EPs providing consulting services really do anything. (Any EPs who've...

...been there, please let me know if it's a real job or just free money!) LINGO ALERT: The episodic producing fees are sometimes called the "inside numbers" by BA. Monday, we'll talk about an area I find interesting but no one else does: ARTICLE 14 of the MBA. Stay tuned!

Here it is, folks! The discussion you've been waiting for... ARTICLE 14!

https://twitter.com/DavidHSteinberg/status/1462835539107663875?s=20