Producer Agency Form: Fill & Download for Free

See answers by Neil Sarver and Skip Press, but in simplest terms.The Writers’ Guild of America demanded that the Talent Agencies sign a Code of Conduct. The Agencies refused. So, all WGA writers fired their agents and agencies. Writers will remain “unrepresented” by agents until an agreement is reached.To explain:The Code of Conduct is a document intended to eliminate Packaging Fees and curb the practice of Agents receiving money as de facto producers.Agencies, in particular, the “Big Five” (CAA, WME, UTA, and ICM) who thrive on packaging fees and who feel they can’t survive without them, refused to give them up.To explain in detail:A Talent Agent negotiates fees with Producers and studios on behalf of Writers.A Talent Agent makes money by taking 10% of the fee negotiated.For there not to be a conflict of interest, the Talent Agent negotiating with a Producer should not also be a Producer on the project.Since the 60s it has been illegal for an Agent to also be a Producer.However, the most powerful agencies (like CAA and WME) often behave like producers. Whenever a writer sets up a TV pilot, the agency charges the studio a “packaging fee.” This fee amounts to 6% of licensing and 10% of the gross, which is precisely something that a producer or a writer-producer might get.“Packaging Fees” are ostensibly paid so that a powerful agency will bring other talented writers, actors, and directors it represents to the project. However, attaching additional talent is a producer’s job. And it’s not clear that the people who are “packaged” are having their best interests served. Most problematically, the agency could end up making far, far more than 10% of the deal:Said Meredith Stiehm, the creator of Cold Case, “When the show was sold, CAA negotiated a packaging fee for itself, without my knowledge…It wasn’t until six years and 134 episodes later that I learned about it. It turned out that on the show I created, I worked on exclusively for years, CAA ended up making 94 cents for every dollar I earned. That is indefensible. An agency should make 10% of what a client makes — not 20, not 50, not like in my case, 94%. 10% is enough.”[1]Furthermore, companies like the newly formed, WME affiliated Endeavor Content are both producers and agent-like representatives. Although the heads of Endeavor Content call themselves “matchmakers,” writers feel that they are behaving precisely like agent-producers.Bottom line:Writers say there is a conflict of interest. Agencies say that if the money is good, what’s the harm?Bigger Issues:Writers, who often get their own work based on their own relationships, are asking themselves, “If I have a lawyer and a manager, what do I need an agency for?”Agencies, who are struggling to find ways to make money in a rapidly changing industry, say “everybody benefits from agency packaging and participation. The writers are creating chaos, and the result will be that everybody loses.”See these articles:Why Are Agents Producing Shows? Writers Guild Would Like to KnowEndeavor Content Takes Big Swings to Expand Options for ProducersWGA Sues Big Four Agencies Over Packaging FeesFootnotes[1] WGA Sues Big Four Agencies Over Packaging Fees

Many years ago in British Columbia there was (and still is) a government agency formed to oversee /issue vehicle insurance and registration called ICBC. At the time vehicle owners had to go to their ICBC agent and fill out temporary forms by hand and sign then pay. Later in the mail owners would receive a computer-printed confirmation. It was to replace the temporary form and be kept in the vehicle. One evening, one of my team did a traffic stop and the driver produced the confirmation forms….unsigned. I couldn’t believe later that he had been issued a ticket for “failing to sign insurance documents. That’s about a petty as I have ever heard.

Where did DEA come from?In the beginning was the Bureau of Narcotics, a Treasury agency formed in 1930 from the Federal Narcotics Control Board and the Narcotics Division, which had been established to enforce the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. It’s first commissioner was Harry Anslinger, a former Army intelligence officer during World War I, who headed the Bureau from 1930 to 1962. During that time, FBN was the first Federal law enforcement agency to establish overseas post-of-duty, with offices in France, Italy, Turkey, Thailand, and Lebanon. FBN was primarily concerned with heroin trafficking, though agents were often also tasked with foreign intelligence gathering in some overseas posts.In 1968, FBN was consolidated with the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control, which was part of the Food and Drug Administration, to form the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in the Department of Justice (Reorganization Plan Number 1). In 1973, under Reorganization Plan Number 2, President Nixon merged BNDD with the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (Executive Office of the President) and parts of the Customs Service (about 600 agents) to create the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Controlled Substances Act of 1968 and subsequent legislation. (DEA is an Administration at the insistence of the Customs Service, which wished to emphasize the regulatory duties of the new agency.) DEA has both criminal and regulatory authority under Title 21 (the CSA), enforcing the criminal provisions as well as regulating the producers, prescribers, and dispensers of scheduled substances.