Written by Tom Deehan on Feb 4, 2016. Posted in General Interest

New deal removes mandatory buyouts for the Chile Talent Agencies Association

An agreement has been reached between the Chilean Production Companies Association and the Chilean Talent Agencies Association to bring an end to mandatory buyouts for any future productions hoping to hire regional talent within Chile.

With this new agreement, we are following the industry standards worldwide and we will only pay buyouts to the talent who will be in the final cut.

Rémi Noiriel, Executive Producer of Jacaranda Films

Until now, an upfront buyout was mandatory when hiring local talent in Chile, a policy which has previously had a negative impact on the country’s film industry. By adopting a more universal approach to buyouts, the near future should bring a surge in business to Chile’s film industry.

Rémi Noiriel, Executive Producer of Jacaranda Films spoke to TLG to elaborate on the specifics of this deal: “the main problem we had in the past was that buyouts were mandatory and had to be paid at the time of the shoot or right after, without knowing if the talent will be in the final edit or not. A lot of agencies and clients were, of course reluctant to pay this upfront and to take the risk of paying buyouts for talent without being sure they will use their image. With this new agreement, we are following the industry standards worldwide and we will only pay buyouts to the talent who will be in the final cut.

He continues: “we now have a price list for each talent depending on their role and a buyouts grid with percentage for each country. Our clients are now able to foresee what would cost their campaign if they decide to extend it to other countries or extend it in time. We are very optimistic with this new agreement and we pay tribute to the Chile talent association who had been courageous enough to change the rules, going opposite ways to some South American talent unions who killed the service business in their own country.”

The South American country currently offers tax exemption of up to 19% for projects filming on location, alongside low production costs and vast open landscapes. Recent productions that have travelled to the country include horror film Knock Knock and drama The 33, shot on location in Santiago and Nemocón respectively.