Article
APA call times: early calls, late calls and pre-calls
The short answer. The unit call sets the day. A call between 5am and 7am pays the hours before 7am at your overtime rate on top of the day, on any day of the week. A call between 11am and 5pm is counted as starting at 11am. The only pre-call the APA terms price is work before 5am: triple time until 5am, then your overtime rate until your department's call.
Your call time does more than tell you when to turn up. It decides what kind of day you are on, when your overtime starts, and whether some of your hours are paid at a higher rate before the day has properly begun. Start before everyone else and there is a rule for that too, though a narrower one than most people assume.
The clauses below are from the APA Recommended Terms for Engaging Crew on the Production of Commercials, effective 1 September 2026.
What is the difference between unit call and department call?
The unit call is the time the day officially starts. Some departments start before it, and the terms call that a department call: the time the whole department starts, not one person within it. Their example of an individual who starts earlier still is a generator driver who has to collect equipment.
Every reference to call time in the terms means the unit call, and the main unit call decides what kind of day it is: a standard day, a continuous working day or a night shoot. Your own start time does not change the day type.
What are the call time bands?
The unit call falls into one of five bands, and each has its own rule:
| Unit call | Band | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Before 5am | Night call | 2 × BHR for every hour, minimum 10 hours |
| 5am to 7am | Early call | Call to 7am at OT rate, then a basic day from the call |
| 7am to 11am | Standard call | 11 hours from the call, OT after that |
| 11am to 5pm | Late call | The day is counted from 11am |
| 5pm to 5am | Night call | 2 × BHR for every hour, minimum 10 hours |
Most of these clauses are written for Monday to Friday, with weekends dealt with separately. The early call clause is the exception: the terms state that it applies on every day of the week, Monday to Sunday. Nights have their own article: night shoots, and what you're owed. Scripted TV and film draw their early lines elsewhere, at 6am and 5am: early calls and pre-dawn calls on scripted TV and film.
How is an early call paid?
If the unit call is between 5am and 7am, your day starts at the call, and the hours from the call to 7am are paid at your overtime rate. The rest of the day is charged as a basic working day counted from the call, so overtime starts eleven hours after it.
The terms' own example is a construction manager on £548 a day, with an overtime rate of £69, called at 05:00 and wrapped at 19:00:
- 05:00 to 07:00, two hours at the overtime rate: £138
- The basic working day, 05:00 to 16:00: £548
- 16:00 to 19:00, three hours of overtime: £207
- Total: £893
Look at the first two lines together. The early hours are paid at the overtime rate and they also sit inside the basic day. They are not taken out of it. That is the premium.
A continuous working day with an early call works the same way: the hours to 7am at your overtime rate, then a nine hour continuous day counted from the call.
Does an early call count at the weekend?
Yes. The terms say the early call rule applies Monday to Sunday, though they do not work an example for a weekend day. TimeMachine pays the early hours on a Saturday at the Saturday overtime rate, one and a half times your basic hourly rate. On a Sunday or bank holiday it adds nothing, because every hour of that day is already paid from the call at double your basic hourly rate, which is the Sunday overtime rate. The weekend rates article has the rest of those days.
How is a late call paid?
If the unit call is between 11am and 5pm, the basic working day is counted from 11am, however late you are called. It is still an eleven hour day, so overtime starts at 10pm.
The terms' example: the same construction manager, called at 13:00 and wrapped at 23:00. The basic day runs from 11:00 to 22:00 at £548, and 22:00 to 23:00 is one hour of overtime at £69, so £617 in total.
The hours between 11am and your call are inside the day you are paid for, which is why a late call that wraps before 10pm carries no overtime at all.
A continuous working day with a late call is counted from 11am too, and runs nine hours. The clause's wording says overtime applies nine hours from the call time, but its own worked example, a 14:00 call wrapping at 22:00, starts overtime at 20:00, nine hours from 11am. TimeMachine follows the example.
In TimeMachine a late call also affects travel pay. The hours between 11am and your actual call are paid but not worked, so they are set against your travel time before any of it is paid: with an hour for lunch, a 13:00 call wrapping at 22:00 uses up two hours of travel that way. The travel article has the eleven hour rule behind it.
What do the APA terms say about pre-calls?
The APA terms never use the word pre-call. They deal with one case directly, in a note under the early call clauses: an individual who starts work before 5am, a genny driver in their example. That person is paid for the hours they work before their department's call, and their basic working day starts at their department's call time. The hours before 5am are paid at triple their basic hourly rate, and the hours from 5am until the department call at their overtime rate.
That is all the terms say. They give no rate for someone who starts after 5am but before the unit call, and beyond that note they do not say how a department called ahead of the unit is paid.
How does TimeMachine pay a pre-call?
In the app, a pre-call is the time you started, entered against the day, when that is earlier than the unit call. The day itself stays on the unit call: its type, its lunch deadlines and its overtime are all worked out from the unit call, as the terms define call time. The pre-call hours are paid as a separate line on top:
- Before 5am: triple your basic hourly rate.
- From 5am to the unit call: your overtime rate.
- On a night shoot: double your basic hourly rate for the whole pre-call, with no triple time, matching the night rate.
Each part is rounded up to the half hour. Because any pre-call time from 5am is paid at your overtime rate, the app prices the case the terms leave open: a 06:00 pre-call on an 08:00 unit call is two hours at your overtime rate.
There is no separate department call in the app. A department called ahead of the unit goes in as a pre-call, and the day stays on the unit call. That differs from the note in the terms, which starts an early starter's basic day at their department's call.
A pre-call time that is later on the clock than the unit call is read as the evening before, and counts only if that puts it within 12 hours of the call. A 22:00 pre-call for a 06:00 call counts: seven hours at triple time to 5am, then an hour at your overtime rate. Anything further out is ignored and pays nothing.
A worked example
A crew member on £400 a day: a basic hourly rate of £40, Grade I, so an overtime rate of £60 and a triple rate of £120. Pre-call 04:30, unit call 07:30, wrap 18:30 with an hour for lunch.
- 04:30 to 05:00, half an hour at triple time: £60
- 05:00 to 07:30, two and a half hours at the overtime rate: £150
- The basic working day, 07:30 to 18:30: £400
- Total: £610
The day itself has no overtime, because it ends eleven hours after the unit call. Everything above £400 is the pre-call. Where the department's call is the unit call, this is the case the terms price directly, and the figure is the same either way.
Does a pre-call affect turnaround and travel?
Yes, in TimeMachine, on both.
The terms measure time off the clock from wrap to the next day's call, and they define call time as the unit call, so read literally a pre-call does not shorten your rest. They also pay a single hour, at your overtime rate, when the rest is cut to ten hours. TimeMachine measures your rest to the pre-call where there is one, on the basis that someone who started at 5am was not resting until the unit call, and pays each half hour short of eleven hours at your overtime rate, with no one hour cap.
Pre-call hours also count as working time towards the eleven hours of travel and work that travel pay needs.
In Best Boy mode, a pre-call set for the department on a date applies to every crew member who does not have their own, so it pays them and ends their rest in the same way.
Who does this not apply to?
Clause 2 of the terms, which holds the call time bands, does not apply to production managers, production assistants or runners. They have a separate set of rules, and TimeMachine does not pay them a pre-call or an early call.
What we built
TimeMachine reads the band from the unit call you enter. It pays the early hours on top of the day, counts a late call from 11am, and switches to the night rules for a night call. A pre-call goes in as its own time and comes out as its own line, split at 5am, so the premium shows on the day's breakdown rather than disappearing into the day rate.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA). It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms as a rate reference only. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.