## Facts

- Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (Fox) was a signatory producer under the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Basic Agreement (BA), a collective-bargaining agreement setting minimum terms and pay rates for covered DGA members.
- Jeffrey Ganz, a DGA member, was hired by Fox as a coproducer on the feature film *Bad Medicine*.
- *Bad Medicine* was filmed entirely in Spain.
- While Ganz was in Spain, he performed additional work described as second unit director of photography, overseeing the film’s auxiliary crew.
- Fox negotiated the terms and compensation for Ganz’s second-unit work with Ganz’s United States-based representative while Ganz remained in Spain.
- Fox did not pay Ganz the full amount DGA claimed was required under the BA pay rates for the second-unit work.
- The DGA initiated a BA arbitration against Fox to recover the remaining amounts DGA contended were owed to Ganz.
- At the arbitration, the parties disputed how the second-unit role arose:
  - Ganz testified that he was engaged to perform second-unit services before leaving the United States.
  - Fox testified that Ganz volunteered to take on the second-unit role only after arriving in Spain.
- Fox argued the BA did not apply to the second-unit engagement because Ganz was in Spain when he took on that role.
- DGA argued that, even if Ganz accepted the second-unit role while in Spain, the BA still applied because Fox negotiated compensation terms through Ganz’s U.S.-based representative.

## Issues

1. Whether the DGA Basic Agreement applied to Ganz’s second-unit work performed in Spain for a signatory producer when compensation terms were negotiated through Ganz’s U.S.-based representative.
2. Whether it mattered, for BA coverage and minimum pay, that Fox claimed Ganz accepted the second-unit role only after arriving in Spain rather than before departing the United States.
3. Whether Fox owed additional compensation to Ganz under the BA minimum pay rates for the second-unit work on *Bad Medicine*.

## Decision

- The tribunal ruled in favor of DGA on its claim to recover amounts DGA asserted were due under the BA for Ganz’s second-unit work.
- The tribunal rejected Fox’s position that the BA was inapplicable solely because Ganz was in Spain when the second-unit role was taken on.
- The tribunal required Fox to pay the remaining compensation owed to Ganz under the BA pay rates for the second-unit services.

## Legal Principles

- A signatory producer’s BA pay obligations may apply to covered services performed on a foreign location shoot when the producer negotiates the engagement’s compensation through U.S.-based representation for a DGA member.
- For BA application in a union–producer arbitration, the fact that work is performed outside the United States, or that a worker is physically abroad when agreeing to extra duties, does not automatically eliminate BA coverage where the compensation terms are negotiated through the member’s U.S. representative.
- When deciding whether BA minimums are owed, an arbitration tribunal may look to the nature of the services performed and the manner in which the engagement and pay terms were arranged, rather than relying only on the producer’s characterization of how or when the role was accepted.

## Conclusion

In this DGA–Fox arbitration relating to *Bad Medicine* (filmed in Spain), the tribunal held Fox responsible for paying BA minimum compensation for Jeffrey Ganz’s second-unit work where Fox negotiated the pay terms through Ganz’s U.S.-based representative, and it ordered Fox to pay the remaining amounts due under the Basic Agreement.


In the Matter of the Arbitration between Directors Guild of America, Inc. and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. Relating to “Bad Medicine”, Case No. 01776 (1986)