Are actors reimbursed for their time traveling to and from the set?
Sometimes. Recompense is determined by a complicated system having to do with zones and the kind of Screen Actors Guild contract you're working under. If shooting is at a studio or within a studio zone, there is no compensation for your commute to work. There is also no payment for expenses incurred while traveling to an audition. But a producer must reimburse you for travel to a work site outside a studio zone.
What is a studio zone?
Each branch of SAG negotiates to have a reasonably situated work area designated the local studio zone. For example, any set within an eight-mile radius of Columbus Circle in New York City is in the studio zone. But the studio zone may change from contract to contract, as it did under the 2005 TV/Theatrical Contract, when New York's studio-zone radius was expanded to 25 miles. This new, larger region currently applies only to principal performers, not to background. If shooting is done outside a studio zone, the producer must either provide transportation to the location or compensate performers for their mileage.
What do you get paid for driving to a location outside a studio zone?
Currently, any SAG member driving to a location outside the zone must be paid 30 cents per mile. The mileage is not based on the distance from your home to the location but on the round-trip distance from the studio to the location. That distance can be obtained from the 2nd assistant director at the time you sign out. Reimbursement for mileage must be clearly designated on your paycheck. It's not part of your negotiated salary, therefore you do not owe commission to your agent on it.
What happens if you're shuttled to a location?
Production may ask you to meet someplace within the studio zone, from where you and others are transported to a work location outside the zone. If you're working as a day player or guest star, your workday starts when you board the shuttle. From that moment, your overtime kicks in eight or 10 hours later (depending on your contract), not including meal breaks. Further, you're still on the clock until you are dropped off at the place you were picked up. It depends on your contract, but overtime caused by shuttling is usually compensated at time and a half, not double time. If you're doing background work, your workday is limited to 16 hours, and that includes meals, time on the set, and travel time. Past the 16-hour limit, an extra must be paid one day's pay at the straight-time rate for each additional hour or fraction thereof.
What about work on
distant locations?
If your ride is long enough and you don't perform on the day you travel, you're compensated a day's wages. But production cannot transport you for longer than eight hours. If you're away from home on location overnight, your commute between hotel and work in both directions is travel time. All time on location is work time with the exception of meal breaks.
What about air travel?
When you're flown to a location, production must use a commercial flight if available. If there's no commercial flight, you must be notified that you may be flying on a chartered plane, and production must get your consent. When the option is available, a performer must be given first-class seating. But if six or more performers travel on the same commercial flight, the producer has the right to fly you all coach.
What are the special rules
for New York?
For work under the TV/Theatrical Contract outside the old eight-mile studio zone, transportation must be provided if there is no convenient public transportation. The pickup spot must be somewhere in Manhattan between 23rd and 59th streets. However, your returning drop-off spot can be anywhere in Manhattan between South Ferry and 125th Street. Any actor working under the TV/Theatrical Contract after 9:30 p.m. at a location outside the eight-mile zone but inside the new 25-mile zone must be provided transportation to Grand Central Station, Penn Station, or the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Be advised that this provision may not be part of SAG's new TV/Theatrical Contract.
