Jeff Drew (@jeffdrew) asks: “Animated movies don’t pay residuals like live-actn movies” Is there a WGA table, flowchart or infographic?
I couldn’t find one, so I made one:
btw, Lucidchart is handy.
UPDATE: The official Twitter feed of the Animation Guild took offense at my flowchart, so I’ve amended it with the “Will I get paid residuals?” headline and changed the “no residuals” box to read “You get no residuals.”
As Steven Kaplan of the Animation Guild tweets:
You are incorrect. Animation writers are @IATSE members and do get residuals. The IA residuals flows to our health plan.
“Mailbox” residuals @IATSE members do not get. Ask a WGA writer what they pay for the WGA health plan though.
Of course, “mailbox” residuals are exactly what screenwriters mean when they talk about residuals. Big green envelopes. Actual money in your name that you can use to pay your rent.
I pointed out that residuals on a big studio movie can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the writer. His reply:
Indeed. Not saying its not lucrative, just pointing out the reason why IA residuals go toward the health plan.
The IA residual component, calculated much differently than the WGA one, is an essential funding source for our health plan
So on an animated movie covered by The Animation Guild (not all are), residuals contribute to the health plan.
Ultimately, our disagreement is over “gets,” so let’s go back to Jeff Drew.
Jeff will get residual checks if he writes a successful live-action movie under the WGA’s jurisdiction. The same script, produced as an animated feature, will not get Jeff residuals money he can spend.
