The payroll environment for a one-hour high budget SVOD series in Los Angeles is one of the most demanding and fast-moving in the entertainment industry. The scale of these productions, combined with the layered requirements of the IATSE Basic Agreement and the New Media Sideletter, creates a workflow where precision is not optional. Every week, payroll professionals are asked to interpret complex timecards, apply multiple pay factors in the correct order, and ensure that guarantees, premiums, accruals, and benefit contributions are calculated without error. How to Pay: 1-Hour High Budget SVOD Series was built specifically for that environment.

This course is not a general introduction to union payroll. It is a production-specific training designed for the people who are actively working on, or preparing to work on, one-hour high budget streaming series in the Los Angeles area. The scenarios, calculations, and case study reflect the real conditions of these shows, allowing learners to practice the exact decision-making process required in a live payroll cycle.

Built for the Reality of High Budget Streaming Payroll

High budget SVOD payroll operates at the intersection of episodic television pace and feature-level scale. Weekly guarantees, cumulative hours, golden time, rest period violations, sixth and seventh day premiums, holiday treatment, and off-production night premium can all appear in the same week. The difference between a clean payroll and a week filled with corrections often comes down to sequencing. Hours must be established before premiums are applied. Guarantees must remain separate from additional earnings. Accruals must be calculated on the correct base.

This course trains that logic step by step. Learners move through the same progression they would follow when reviewing an actual timecard, developing the ability to identify which rule applies before performing a calculation. That shift from memorization to recognition is what allows payroll professionals to work efficiently under production deadlines.

Who This Course Is For

How to Pay: 1-Hour High Budget SVOD Series is designed for anyone working on a Los Angeles–based streaming production where payroll accuracy is tied directly to contract compliance. Payroll accountants will recognize the structure of their weekly review process in every module. Payroll clerks will gain the framework that explains why hours are broken into specific pay categories and how their data entry affects the final calculation. Production accountants and finance teams will see how payroll outcomes are built from the timecard up, strengthening communication across the accounting workflow. Paymasters and payroll company teams will benefit from a course that mirrors the conditions they process for multiple productions at once.

For professionals transitioning into high budget SVOD for the first time, the course provides a clear pathway into a payroll structure that can otherwise take multiple seasons to fully understand. For experienced crew members, it reinforces consistency and helps standardize interpretation across departments and companies.

From Individual Rules to Full Payroll Weeks

The training begins with the wage structures and daily thresholds that define the workweek, then moves into overtime, golden hours, meal penalties, rest period violations, holidays, night premium, specialty premiums, and benefit contributions. Each topic is taught in the context of how it appears on a real production rather than as an isolated concept.

The final case study brings those elements together in a single end-to-end payroll cycle for a second-season one-hour high budget SVOD series filming in Los Angeles. Learners step into the role of the payroll accountant and work through the same types of timecards that generate the most questions during an active show. By the time they reach the final assessment, they are applying the full payroll workflow rather than performing individual calculations.

What You Gain by Completing the Course

The most immediate benefit is confidence in the weekly review process. Learners develop the ability to identify high-risk timecards, apply the correct thresholds without hesitation, and calculate pay in the correct order. That accuracy reduces edits, improves turnaround time, and strengthens collaboration between production and payroll companies.

There is also a long-term professional advantage. High budget streaming series continue to define a large portion of Los Angeles production, and the ability to process payroll under these conditions is a specialized skill. Completing this course demonstrates that you can work within one of the most complex union payroll structures currently in use.

Part of the FTV Graduate Program

How to Pay: 1-Hour High Budget SVOD Series is included in the full-access subscription to the FTV Graduate Program, available for $99 per month. The program was created to support continuous learning for payroll and accounting professionals working across different production types and agreements. Instead of treating training as a one-time event, the subscription provides ongoing access to a growing library of courses that reflect current contract terms and real production workflows.

Because payroll professionals often move from one show to another with different conditions, that continuous access becomes a working resource. When a new situation appears on a timecard, the relevant training is already available. When agreement updates are implemented, the learning environment evolves with them.

The subscription also includes access to the FTV Graduate Program community, where learners can ask questions about course material, discuss real-world scenarios, and receive guidance as they apply what they have learned. That shared space mirrors the collaborative nature of entertainment payroll and allows professionals at different stages of their careers to learn from one another.

Training That Matches the Job You’re Doing

The value of this course comes from its specificity. It is not theoretical and it is not generalized for multiple production types. It is built around the exact conditions of a one-hour high budget SVOD series in Los Angeles and the payroll workflow that supports it. Every module, activity, and calculation is designed to translate directly into the work being performed on these shows.

For anyone responsible for reviewing timecards, processing payroll, managing labor costs, or preparing for the next step in a payroll or accounting career, this course provides a structured way to build and apply that expertise.

Take the Next Step

If you are working on a one-hour high budget SVOD series in Los Angeles, or preparing to move into that environment, How to Pay: 1-Hour High Budget SVOD Series was created for the work you are doing right now. Explore the course and see how it fits into the full-access FTV Graduate Program subscription to start building a payroll workflow that is faster, more accurate, and fully aligned with the agreement.