Doc Producers Release Guidelines to End the Practice of Free Work

By Megan Gilbride

On the eve of the International Documentary Association’s 2nd Getting Real conference in September 2016, 6 documentary producers, who would soon form the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA), came together to write and release “A Little Respect: Documentary Producers’ 2016 White Paper.” In it, they outlined several immediate and long-term goals to improve the field for producers and documentary-makers of all stripes including: 

• A better understanding of the producing role;

• A revolution in crediting protocol so that producers are included in all festival, grantor, press, awards, and market materials;

• Transparency and standardization around pay rates and basic line items;

• The acceptance of realistic budgets by funders, broadcasters, and distributors that reflect the true costs of the resources required and equitable salaries for all – including producers;

• The creation of producer-specific grants, so that producers can secure early financial support for projects they wish to develop or nurture; and,

• Institutional support for a thorough study of documentary financing, distribution, and overall business models, with an eye to making the field more financially viable.

Between 2016 and early 2019, the DPA began a process of collective action, gathering like-minded documentary producers together, and organizing into areas of interest to develop policy initiatives and actions. I joined the organization in early 2018 and became more heavily involved at the end of that year. Since then, I’ve served as a committee chair, Board member, Treasurer, and I’m currently on the Advisory Board.

CREDITING GUIDELINES

In 2018, at what may have been the peak of the so-called “golden age of documentary,” documentaries were selling for high figures at top festivals, lauded amongst the most important independent titles for audiences to be watching, and attracting celebrities as both producers and participants. With the influx of funders and filmmakers into the field, the meaning of producer credits – earned for serving on a film in the working role of producer – started to get a little fuzzy. As a response to this, in early 2019, the DPA released “A Guide to Best Practices in Documentary Crediting,” to bring uniformity to how credits are defined, to protect producers and financiers, and to acknowledge the structural power imbalances that have long prevented inclusion and equity in documentary producing. The guidelines represented a first-of-its-kind tool for anyone working in documentary at any level, clearly defining the scope of the role of producer, as well as other producing credits on documentary projects. They also codified best practices around financier credits, addressing when and how presentation, in association with, Executive Producer, and Co-Executive Producer credits should generally be used. The guidelines were developed by DPA producers, in close collaboration with leading documentary production companies, and was endorsed by 24 support organizations, including the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, docsociety, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and more. 

The impact of the crediting guidelines can’t be overstated. It educated financiers about the role of producers in the filmmaking process. It gave producers of any experience level the support they needed to protect their own credits. Simply, it provided transparency where none had previously existed. The kind of transparency that everyone in the field could equally reference.

ANNOUNCING NEW CONTRACT GUIDELINES

Today, eight years after the initial White Paper, at the International Documentary Association’s Getting Real conference, the DPA presented our latest undertaking, the field guideline “Negotiating Contracts for Independent Documentary Producers,” which is now available via the DPA’s website. Another first-of-its-kind tool, the guidelines are aimed at US-based documentary producers. It recommends minimum pay rates for producers on independent documentary feature films, offers step-by-step advice on considerations that should be made and conversations that should happen before signing on to a new project, details the elements of a producer’s contract, and offers additional resources including a glossary of common legal terms and clauses. 

Never before have producers had a reference for minimum rates, or how to set boundaries around getting paid when project financing is in flux, as it often is throughout the life of a documentary film. Extremely valuable efforts, such as the Pay Transparency Project, were created to allow users to anonymously share what they’re earning for the edification and benefit of everyone. However, the rates shared only reflect the current state of pay, whereas the DPA’s new guidelines are an effort to advance sustainable pay practices and working conditions. While the DPA recommendations are not enforceable (as producers are not represented by a union), and address “capital P” Producers only (not associate or co-producers, etc.), they are the foundation of a conversation around defining the essential and specialized role of the producer, what they should be paid, and how. The work is also an effort to stem the growing tide of the seemingly endless amount of unpaid labor that producers are too often expected to provide, a significant barrier to equity and inclusion in the field.

Negotiating Contracts for Independent Documentary Producers both memorializes practices that will feel familiar to working producers and provides recommendations for areas where the field needs to be moved into more sustainable behavior. Chief amongst these recommendations are that producers should not work without a producing agreement in place and producers should be paid for hours worked.

ENDING THE PRACTICE OF WORKING FOR FREE

It has been a years-long, hard-fought process to bring the guidelines to the finish line and deliver on the transparency and standardization around pay rates that the DPA’s Getting Real White Paper hoped to achieve. Understanding what we are being paid, what we should be paid, and how we should be paid has been a struggle because of the entrenched secrecy around budgets, because of the sheer breadth of different payment experiences our members have encountered, because the field relies on unpaid labor, and because of the absence of collective bargaining for independent producers. 

Throughout those years, emerging and veteran members weighed in on our proposed recommendations, sometimes with conflicting results. Specifically, in the creation of the rate table, some members felt the rates were too high while others felt they were too low. We also had to address delayed and deferred salaries. Producers so frequently defer their pay to prioritize limited funds toward getting a film completed, that there was great debate about how rates could be addressed in a landscape that has normalized producers working unpaid. It’s a practice that brings more movies to the screen, but it’s also an exclusive and inequitable one that leaves the role of the producer to be filled only by those who can work for free or for very low pay. There was deep conversation about how establishing producing rates, therefore increasing budgets, might impact the success of risky and important films or prohibit the work of early-career directors. Ultimately, however, we made a commitment to recommending that producers end the practice of working for free, and to drafting guidelines that pave the path for producers and the field to make this possible.   

It’s worth acknowledging that like producers, directors are expected to research and develop projects for free (or on their own dime), work for long stretches of time with limited funding, and craft the kind of work that takes years to make on a budget that only takes months to spend. However, the DGA does represent documentary directors, which provides a roadmap for fair wages and contract negotiations, even if precious few documentary directors are members. 

MINDING THE PRESENT AND LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE

One of the great accomplishments of the DPA has been providing a place for producers to convene and share their experiences toward the goal of defining best practices. Producing can be such isolating work, that even amongst those of us who’ve been doing it awhile, there’s little transparency into or uniformity in how we make films. For those producing their first documentary project, there may be countless resources on what camera to use, but none on what they should negotiate for in their contract or, more importantly, be paid. Until today. 

In the absence of collective bargaining, it was collective action that made these guidelines and all the field-building work of the DPA possible. In the last 8 years, significant progress has been made on 5 of the 6 goals identified by our founders. And while the acceptance of realistic budgets by funders might feel even further away than it felt back in 2016, vital progress by multiple collectives has been accomplished on producer-specific support and in-depth work is being done to study the field with an eye toward tangible sustainability, equity, and transparency.  

The landscape of documentary filmmaking has shifted dramatically a few times since the DPA’s founding members first gathered in 2016. Our organization, now with over 500 members across the globe, offers membership tiers for those in varied stages of their producing careers. The tiers are offered, in part, to provide that vital experience-sharing space to those just joining the field; to ensure the next generation of producers have a more transparent, equitable, sustainable, and connected field; and because including the voices of emerging and early-career producers is the only way to fully understand what field building efforts to tackle.

Our field, and the filmmakers in it, still need much more support than is available to them. The cost of living has skyrocketed, the cost of film school far outweighs its earning potential, and the overall industry outlook is shaky. Project-based support, aka funds for the films instead of the filmmakers, is no longer serving us. No matter what Sora and ChatGPT have to say, films are made by people – people with passion, creativity, and, ideally, a breadth of lived experiences and perspectives. Documentary films in particular are made by people who care deeply about the stories they’re bringing to light and the ethics of how they’re told. The producers of those projects are people with valuable professional and personal experience. They deserved to be paid adequately for their labor.