I think if the actors are willing to work for free, any amount of shared or deferred revenue is plenty.

When you draft the contract you can make it one percent of total revenue not to exceed $1000 for the life of the film across all markets. Of course, this means that you'll need to track, report and cut checks to actors for the duration of the film until each actor under this contract is paid $1000. You could report revenue to them on a quarterly basis for the first year and then yearly after that so you're not writing checks for $ .15.

But with any luck, you'll make some money with the film, pay everyone under contract $1000 and have money in your pocket to recoup production costs.

David

David Schatanoff
D Studios Productions

Another way to do it is get them to work for free, that is for credit on the movie with no expectation of pay. Then if/when you make money you can cut a check for whatever amount you feel is fair without the legal obligation.

Most actors consider differed payment on a low/no budget picture to be the same thing as working for free. A few producers prove them wrong but only a few.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

A helpful guideline I've used is estimating what I would pay a union actor for a days work. This also helps when budgeting. If you for example had 3 actors working for 150 the day. You can put 450 in the budget. So when someone asks you whats the budget for the movie you can say X amount. The value of the actor's work is added in to the film. It's an amazing resource and who wants to say they made a $1000 film when if you add up all the deferred products and services you have you actually have a $10,000 film.

K8zone makes a very good point. I'm not sure if you need to tell the actors this or not as long as you pay them if it garners you that money.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA