IATSE Basic Agreement vs. Area Standards Agreement: which contract applies to your production?

The 30-second answer

• Shooting primarily in Los Angeles or New York City with a major studio or signatory producer? You're almost certainly under the IATSE Basic Agreement.
• Shooting in a right-to-work state, regional production hub, or "second-tier" market (Atlanta, New Mexico, the Carolinas, Louisiana, etc.)? The Area Standards Agreement is the standard framework.
• Hybrid productions — prep in LA, principal photography in Georgia, post in New York — frequently sit under both agreements at different phases. Plan the budget that way from day one.

1. Jurisdictional scope

The Basic Agreement is the IATSE master contract negotiated by the AMPTP for feature and television production based out of the historic "studio zone" — primarily Los Angeles, with parallel coverage in New York through related agreements. It is the contract Local 80, Local 600, Local 700, Local 705, Local 728, Local 871 and the rest of the "West Coast Studio Locals" enforce on signatory productions.

The Area Standards Agreement is IATSE's framework for production outside the studio zone. It is administered through IATSE International with the relevant regional local (e.g. Local 479 in Georgia, Local 480 in New Mexico, Local 487 in the Mid-Atlantic) and governs crews working in markets where there is no full Basic Agreement local infrastructure.

Practical test for producers: follow the location, not the production company. A New York–based producer shooting a feature in Albuquerque will run that shoot under the ASA with Local 480 even though their corporate office sits squarely in Basic Agreement territory.

2. Wage rate differences

Both agreements publish minimum scale rates by classification — Best Boy Electric, Key Grip, Script Supervisor, etc. — but the numbers are not the same:

• Basic Agreement scale is generally the highest published IATSE rate for a given classification, reflecting Los Angeles and New York labor market conditions and decades of negotiated step-ups.
• ASA scale is typically lower — often meaningfully so on entry and mid-level classifications — and is structured to keep regional production cost-competitive with non-union work in the same market.
• Both agreements layer in overtime, sixth- and seventh-day premiums, night premiums, meal penalties, and turnaround penalties on top of base scale. The premium formulas are broadly similar but not identical; ASA penalties are usually calculated against the lower ASA base, which compounds the cost-of-labor gap.

When you model budgets, never plug Basic Agreement rates into an ASA shoot (or vice versa). The classifications can carry the same name and the math will still come out wrong.

3. Fringe benefit contributions

Fringes — pension, health, vacation, and various training and industry funds — are where the two agreements diverge the most in dollar terms.

• Basic Agreement fringes are paid into the Motion Picture Industry Pension & Health Plans (MPIPHP), the largest entertainment trust funds in the country. Producers contribute an hourly rate to Pension, a separate hourly rate to Individual Account Plan, plus a percentage-of-gross contribution to Health, plus vacation and holiday pay on each paycheck.
• ASA fringes flow into the IATSE National Benefit Funds (IATSE NBF): Pension, Annuity, and Health. The contribution structure mirrors the Basic Agreement at a high level — hourly + percentage — but the per-hour and per-percent numbers are set independently and are updated on the ASA bargaining cycle, not the AMPTP cycle.
• Vacation and holiday pay rules look similar in both contracts but are calculated against different base wages, which again amplifies the rate gap.

A useful budgeting heuristic: assume the all-in fringe load on the Basic Agreement runs noticeably higher than the equivalent load on the ASA for the same classification and hours. Confirm the current contribution rates from the active MOAs before locking your budget — both agreements have stepped rate increases mid-term.

Which agreement applies to your production?

Work through these questions in order:

1. Where is principal photography? Studio-zone LA or NYC pushes you toward the Basic Agreement; out-of-zone pushes you toward the ASA.
2. Is your producer a signatory to the AMPTP Basic Agreement? If yes, and you're inside the studio zone, you're on the Basic. If you're outside the zone, you'll still typically negotiate ASA terms through the local with jurisdiction.
3. Is the budget tier covered by a lower-tier IATSE agreement? Smaller features may qualify for IATSE's low-budget side letters, which sit below both the Basic and the ASA. Those are a separate decision tree from this guide.
4. Are you crossing locals mid-production? Treat each phase (prep, principal, post, reshoots) as its own jurisdictional question and confirm with the appropriate Business Agent before crew lock.

Next steps

The right contract on paper is only half the job. The other half is modeling the wage, fringe, and penalty exposure against your actual shoot days, locations, and crew size before you greenlight. That's exactly what a Project Labor Report delivers — a custom dossier on the IATSE (and other guild and union) agreements that apply to your specific production, with the wage tables and fringe contributions worked out for your tier and locations.

Questions on a specific scenario? Email plr@production.ink and a member of our labor relations team will walk through it with you.

This guide is general industry information for producers and production executives. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for the operative IATSE collective bargaining agreements, side letters, and memoranda of agreement applicable to your production.