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Comment by lalaithion | Hacker News Reader

Film unions don't regulate indie films — hopefully this will be much the same.

Film unions don't regulate anything - 'indie' films can/do use union crews, although under a different contract that pays less according to budget.

Large budget films use unions because we are the only ones skilled enough to do it properly & professionally; you just can't find 200 non-union to pull it off, not without someone getting hurt in the process, or having a terrible end result

hmm, I would have assumed the writer's guild rules would still apply even if you're doing an indie film.

You can apply for the Low Budget Agreement on an indie film (defined as being under a particular budget amount I couldn't find), but it isn't required if you are in the guild. It was mainly created to protect individuals from larger studios - can't imagine much benefit from leveraging what are essentially personal projects.

IATSE Low Budget Theatrical Agreement sets a Tier-1 ("lowest"...their is a mythical tier-0, but its negotiated) for budgets under $6 million; Tier-2 is $6-10, and Tier-3 is $10-14

A Tier-1 has benefits such as $108/day toward healthcare, retirement. Pay rates in the range of $21-26/hr.

That said, i know of plenty of super-low budget indies that are just too small to use the contract -- the union often doesn't mind, and union workers will still do these 'passion projects' because they love the work

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