Pencil
How often do we get asked to pencil in dates? by now I for one am getting a little browned off with this.Two days fresh in my mind are 5TH & 7TH November yes current,I penciled these in and turned down well paid work on both days in good faith,then heard nothing, not even given the courtesy of being told I was no longer needed.I think we should do away with the pencil although and make it Retainer then when not fully advised or kept up to date charge a fee.As professional artists we get abused by this system and loose a lot of our much needed income,Why Do We Stand For It. Barry Newton
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Yeah It's the nature of the beast. ONly yesterday was I pencilled off a job that I had to hurriedly Print/sign/scan and send a contract for them.
Cancellation compensation would be good but can't see it happening any time soon. Cattle calls seems to be the norm now. Something equity should bring up in their next meeting.
I have been pencilled countless times and heard nothing. The first time I got a 'very heavy' pencil for a job, I turned down an audition for a date-clashing job paying more because I felt it lacked integrity to muck the production company about..... that was when I discovered that they had 'very heavy pencilled' ALL the recall folk because the director hadn't managed to go through the auditions yet! Total lack of integrity! That was the last time I took the pencilling process seriously. Now I would do the clashing audition and leave the consequences to my agent.
My view now is that in the same way that a recall audition has a fee, so should a pencil have a fee payable. If it was money out of the budget, they would be very careful about the number of pencils given.
I dont think I've heard the term ' Pencil' in uk more then USA
They just ask if your 100% available on those dates before applying
I hope Barry Newton is well, he hasn't been on mandy past 2 month. mentioned on his profile
Pencilling does seem to be very cheeky at best.
I'm going to ask a dumb question. I've googled and can't find an answer. Is there a feature on the website to pencil something in? Is that what they're asking for?
Hi Iain,
No no, so what casting directors are asking for and doing by 'pencilling in' an actor is essentially provisionally booking in the project's dates and blocking out the availability for other potential projects that come the actors way. This then means the actor would be on hold and have to turn down other work because they've essentially said they are available to work on the pencilled dates. The 'pencil' however, is not a guarantee for work and should not be treated or used towards Actors as such. Equity have a document mentioning this provision too.
There isn't a feature on this website...I don't think.
Thank you, that's really helpful.
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