film production payroll
Stipendia converts your call sheets, deal memos, and timecards into compliant paychecks, W-2s, and residual-ready records — governed by the same rate rules the majors use, on a budget an independent production can actually approve.
Encode IATSE, DGA, and SAG-AFTRA rate schedules alongside your own flat deals. Meal penalties, turnaround, and overtime tiers calculate automatically on every timecard.
Upload a signed deal memo and Stipendia extracts the rate, kit fee, and box rental, then holds them as the governing terms for that crew member across the entire shoot.
Location shoots trigger the correct state and local withholding automatically, with reciprocity handled and quarterly filings prepared for your signature.
Close out a production with a single ledger: cost reports by department, 1099 and W-2 packages, and a documented audit trail for financiers and completion bonds.
Every payment is tagged with role, project, and rights metadata, so future residuals and reuse calculations start from clean, defensible data.
Approve a batch and crew are paid the same business day, with itemized digital stubs that explain every fringe, deduction, and penalty in plain language.
In their words
“I run three commercial spots a month with rotating crews. Stipendia replaced the spreadsheet I dreaded every Friday. Timecards in, compliant checks out, and my accountant stopped calling.”
“We shot across four states last quarter. The withholding and the SAG-AFTRA math simply resolved themselves. The wrap report was the first one my financier accepted without a single follow-up question.”
“As a freelance gaffer who also hires my own crew, I needed something that treated a one-person LLC seriously. Stipendia gave me clean W-2s and stubs my team actually trusts.”
Arrangements
For freelance crew and single-owner production companies.
For active shoots running recurring, multi-department payroll.
For production houses and financiers with portfolio-scale needs.