The DGA covers verticals under an old sideletter, not a new one

The figure or the record

On 18 November 2025 the Directors Guild of America posted a guidance note headed 'Know Your Contract: Work made for Verticals & Micro-Dramas.' The guidance does not announce a new contract. It says vertical and micro-drama production is covered by an agreement the Guild first negotiated in its 2007-2008 round: a New Media Sideletter written into the Basic Agreement and the Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement, originally aimed at 'mobisodes' and 'webisodes.' The note states plainly that 'DGA rates of pay are fully negotiable, and staffing requirements are as needed and without qualification list requirements.' No day rate, weekly minimum or budget threshold appears anywhere in the text.

What the documents establish

The guidance says the Sideletter 'has covered thousands of projects' since 2007 and 'provides significant employment for DGA members' while letting employers 'engage DGA talent at negotiable rates.' The Guild's own contracts section corroborates the structure: New Media sits as its own listed category, with a dedicated contracts-line contact, alongside a separately staffed Low Budget Films category and the main Basic Agreement and Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement. That separation matters. It means the Guild treats emerging-platform work and conventional low-budget film as distinct tracks even though both waive some requirements that apply to larger productions.

Scope and caveats

The November note is guidance about an existing sideletter, not the sideletter's text, and it names no minimum figure a member must be paid. 'Fully negotiable' cuts both ways: a producer with a modest budget can hire a DGA director cheaply, and a member has no floor to point to beyond guild membership itself, pension and health contributions, and the waiver of staffing rules that would otherwise apply. The note does not itself carry the force of a renegotiated contract, and it says the Guild 'will continue to consider possible modifications' as more is learned about how verticals are produced and distributed.

What to watch

Editorially, the open question is whether the DGA follows the path other guilds have taken toward a distinct verticals instrument with defined minimums, rather than folding the work into a two-decade-old sideletter written for a different generation of short online video.

• Does a specific vertical production's DGA paperwork name an actual day or weekly rate, or does it stay silent under 'fully negotiable'?
• Is the production signed under the Basic Agreement or the Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement, since that choice determines which staffing categories apply?
• Has the Guild since issued a dedicated vertical sideletter with defined minimums, superseding this guidance?

Read together, the two documents describe coverage without a wage floor: a director working on a vertical series is inside the Guild's jurisdiction and its benefit plans, but the price of the work is set case by case, not by the sideletter itself.