Any lawyers, law students or paralegals here, can you answer this question re: performance contract?

Question by Ted Bell: Any lawyers, law students or paralegals here, can you answer this question re: performance contract?
I agreed to appear in an indie video. I had an agreement (via email) with the company who filmed it, that I would be paid $ 500 for being in the video. My original understanding was that this video would be sold as short film.

I went to the studio and they had me sign a release prior to making the video. I never got paid. I called the company and they said that, since I failed to perform the scenes as indicated in the contract/release, I violated the contract. (I didn’t film one of the action scenes because another actor didn’t show up at the set)

They also told me that they decided not to try and sell this as part of a short film, and they are just going to scrap the footage instead. I then re-read the release that they had me sign and it was different from the previous agreement mentioned via email. The one I signed said this is for a non-commercial project and that I was doing it without pay. And that it supercedes any previous contract, written or verbal.

Am I screwed?

Best answer:

Answer by coragryph
Pretty much, yes.

The second written agreement is what’s binding.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!