SAG Stunt Driver on Non-Union Shoot

[Andy O'Neil]

Does anybody know what happens if a SAG stunt driver does a stunt on a non-union film? What could happen to that driver and to me?

 

Thank you.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I believe sugar in the gas tank and slashed tyres are the usual response.

 

Phil

[Andy O'Neil]

Thank all the goodness in the world that I travel via hot air balloon. There is no solution because there is no problem.

[Mark Allen]

Don't take this a legal advice, just hearsay -

 

If you are on a non-union shoot - you have no obligation to SAG at all. (And by - "you" I mean the production company / poducer).

 

Now, if some stunt driver does some work on your project and he is SAG and he knows that it is a non-SAG show - that's his fault and he could feel the repricussions (if they find out since he used a different name or didn't use any name in the credits at all.) He could be fined or given restricted rights... I'm not sure what else.

 

Now, if a producer is knowingly trying to use SAG people and get all shady, then SAG might put them on some secret "baddy" list - I don't know about that. But without a contract with them, it's not really your problem.

 

Many many years ago, skirting SAG used to be a big issue - but when SAG finally created a whole bunch of different and more reasonable contract options (so the 200k feature is not paying the same as the 100 million feature with the same restrictions), those practices have decreased a lot and I think a lot more producers are just "going SAG." One thing though that still pushes people away is just a lot of the requirements like daily reports and cash deposit and things. Espeically if people are shooting outside of CA where they may end up using a lot of locals anyway - if there is no "star talent" - they'll most likely go non-SAG still.

[Andy O'Neil]

Thank you, Mark.