Film Accounting Glossary
Overtime
What is overtime?
Also called OT, or time and a half.
Overtime is pay above straight time for hours worked beyond the daily or weekly threshold in the applicable union agreement or wage law, typically at time and a half and escalating to double time and golden time.
It is the most schedule-sensitive cost on any production and the reason hot costs exist. A budget that assumes a clean twelve-hour day across a long schedule is, in practice, a budget with a built-in overage.
Example
Budget a clean 12-hour day across a 30-day schedule and the model has no overtime in it. Actual days run 13 to 16 hours, so hours 13 and 14 bill at time and a half and anything beyond at double. The overage was built into the budget on day one.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Calculated by the payroll company from timecards, forecast off the hourly rate in the budget, and reported daily in hot costs.
Common mistake
Budgeting a clean twelve-hour day across a long schedule. A model with no overtime in it is a model with the overage already built in.
Related questions
- How is film overtime calculated?
- From the hourly rate against thresholds in the applicable union agreement or wage law, typically time and a half, escalating to double time and golden time.
- How do productions control overtime?
- By reading hot costs daily and changing the schedule, since overtime is a function of how long days run rather than of any department's spending decisions.