Actors want to be taken seriously
By Rosli Abidin Yahya

In view of drama-production contracts to local private production houses which will be tendered out soon, a leading actor spoke on behalf of his counterparts in seeking to be taken seriously by local producers.

He is hoping for minor adjustments to the tender documents which will include paying acting fees on time.

In the past, local actors and actresses as well as production crew had said that a few local production houses were involved in payment-delaying tactics, while some of them alleged they had not been paid for their hard work up till now.

"I have written fax and letters to some four relevant agencies to ensure such maltreatment would never happen again in future.

"Such reminders were important to ensure that we will be paid on time.

"Production houses which win contracts to produce serial dramas must be required to submit a memorandum of payment agreements with actors and actresses as well as production crew.

"Our payment dates must also be specified," he said.

He also hoped for deposits to be given to artistes before filming commenced.

He felt the rate of payments needed to be specified on paper so they will all know their expected payouts. Veteran artistes, he said should command higher fees than new artistes.

"All artistes must also be provided with personal insurance coverage throughout filming sessions," he said.

He added his objective of sending out faxes and letters was to ensure that they would get their fees on time and not to put unnecessary pressure on production houses.

"Past experiences have cost us a lot and I just want to make sure that for the next private drama session, all of us can smile once again. Some of us who are full-time artistes have families to feed and if we were not paid on time, our families would suffer too."

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin