I am by no means an AEA expert, however do have considerable experience dealing with contracts. General rule of thumb is the language is to be taken literally.
In this case, "utilized" - the "ed" suffix indicates past tense. A strict reading of the language would dictate that a report is to be filed after the time has been spent. Also, a "report" by definition is the formal account of activities that have already taken place. So it is not logically congruous to file a report for events that have yet to take place.
If it were intended as a projection or estimate, a more logical statement would read (ish): "(b) The Producer shall file an estimate with Equity projecting the time to be utilized for Recording sessions;"
If you have typed the clause verbatim the "R" in recording is capitalized, which means it's a defined term somewhere else in the contract. Check there to reference the definition of a "Recording session" and what permissions/prerequisites are required to conduct a Recording session. There may be clauses under that definition that require sending advance notification or projections to, or receiving permissions from AEA, etc... with the report to be filed after the time has been "utilized" as a closure of the process.
But that is a strict reading of the language only, also without context of the full agreement - the seasoned AEA folks around here may have a different reading or working understanding of the clause.
