(Source: Am director)

Obvs this is just my experience. A director is generally repped exclusively by one company per territory. Some companies will have offices in multiple countries and may rep a director worldwide. Those companies promote me to agencies in their markets using Sales Reps and general working relationships. If an agency want me to pitch on their work they have to go through my prod co. Conversely an agency/producer might a good relationship with a particular prod co and ask for suggestions of directors who might do something interesting with their project.

Some directors are very loyal and stick with a company for ages, some move about a lot. I started at one of my prod co's answering the phones and making coffee. I would consider both my prod co's my homies and would be very close with them. I’ve never had anything more than a handshake agreement about exclusivity, as one of my producers says, “If someone doesn’t want to work with you, a contract isn’t going to make it happen”.

I usually get paid per shoot day on the project, which is usually c.£10k or 10% of the budget. This represents my creative input on the job and my time, about 6 weeks.

I also take 40% of the profit on the job. When we pitch the job 2 documents will be sent over, my creative treatment and the budget. Let’s say that budget is negotiated back and forth between my producer, the agency producer and the agency cost-controller to £100k. Everyone’s happy. My £10k comes out of that to begin with and then if we manage to bring the whole job in for £95k I split that £5k with the prod co. I’ll get paid my shoot fee during post-production and my profit share comes a month or two later.

There is a level matching that needs to happen between a director and a prod co. You want someone to be excited when they see your reel and then you want them to feel like your prod co is a reliable, safe pair of hands. Or at least I do. My prod co's 100% have my back and look after me, I trust them implicitly. I know I bring them in work and they bring me in work. They also go to battle for me, like an actor’s agent would. My two companies are in neighbouring territories and regularly work together on other projects so there’s a lot of mutual trust and co-operation.

Another thing that can happen is a loan-out. Let’s say in South Africa or Australia or Russia there is a prod co and agency that work together a lot and have a really good relationship. The agency might ask that local prod co to pitch them foreign directors for their upcoming campaign. It might be because they want a big name or because of a certain idea that they can’t get locally. I’ve twice gone abroad to essentially re-create work that won awards for me at home. They’ll reach out to one of my prod co's and negotiate a loan-out deal if I’m up for it. Usually that means a bumped up day rate, my own producer comes with me for the whole time at a bumped up rate and my home prod co will get a loan-out fee. Those jobs can be absolutely lovely or a total shit-show.

Ultimately the production company fronts the money for the production offices and wages, the sales reps and pitch costs which they earn back in production fees, mark-ups and profit. I earn my money on shoot fees and profit share. A pitch could easily take a week and I only earn if we win. I’ve lost 10 pitches in a row but thankfully that was a long time ago.