Film & Television

Above the Line vs. Below the Line

The defining split of a film/TV budget is above-the-line (ATL) versus below-the-line (BTL). ATL is the creative principals — producers, director, writers, and principal cast — negotiated individually and governed by the DGA, WGA, and SAG-AFTRA (bargaining opposite the studios' association, the AMPTP). BTL is everyone who builds and shoots it: the crew and departments, largely IATSE plus Teamsters and Basic Crafts, working on negotiated craft agreements and rate cards. Learn this line first, because it organizes how the money, the unions, and the negotiations are structured.