Yes, even if nobody on your crew is technically an employee.
31 crew and 11 cast are paid on Low Tide. In California, once someone’s paid, that’s what decides it.
It isn’t a choice, and a deal memo can’t waive it. Calling someone a contractor instead of an employee doesn’t change the answer. California looks at who’s actually on payroll.
The line in your number
Through your payroll service, not a policy Mula places directly.
Budget this at 4% of payroll. Most line producers assume 2%, and that’s the gap that leaves a budget short. The real number only shows once payroll runs the classification codes for your crew against actual hours, so $9,200 is an estimate until then.
How it’s paid
The policy routes through your payroll service, and that’s who actually carries it. Mula ties Low Tide’s coverage to whichever one you choose, so the two always agree on who’s covered and for how much.
Three steps get you there. You’ve already told Mula who’s getting paid. Choosing your payroll service is what’s left before proof goes to the union.
Why the union needs proof
The union will not sign off on Low Tide until it sees proof that comp is in place for your 31 paid crew. Send it and signatory approval clears. Nothing else on Covered holds that approval back, just this one document.
A production that pays nobody skips this step entirely. The city takes an exemption statement with the permit application instead, and that’s the answer a different response to "who’s getting paid" back in your eleven questions would have produced here.
If your payroll service goes quiet
Proof of comp hasn’t come back yet.
WaitingNot your fault, and not Mula’s. Once you choose a payroll service, sending proof back is on their clock.
The union’s signatory approval waits on this one document. Mula follows up with your payroll service as soon as it’s overdue, and you hear the moment it lands.