|
The New Hollywood
a commentary from The Impact Committee
When most of us entered our careers in filmmaking, it was a cooperative and creative enterprise. We enjoyed working together with a goal of making a director’s and a writer’s fantasy a celluloid reality. Witness: “Easy Rider” or “American Graffiti.” Filmmaking was a creative and collaborative effort for the director, cast and crew. Even though we were able to make a living in this process, the best reward was seeing a finished product that we were able to claim an active hand in creating.
That was then. This is now. The salaries of those on the crew have diminished over time as the director and cast salaries have skyrocketed. The national cost of living index has risen steadily by 4% to 5% since 1979. The IATSE contract calls for a mere 3% annual increase. Directors, producers and even the cast now think of us as “lowly crew” and ”below-the-line labor”. To the current generation of directors and line producers, we have nothing better to offer “their” production than do the janitors striking for a $1.00 an hour wage increase. Entertainment has evolved into a business that is this nation’s number two export. (Entertainment used to be number one. Computer technology has recently taken a big lead.)
Entertainment at one time was a very progressive enterprise that employed creative, happy and productive people. We created a successful product that was in global demand. Entrepreneurs with MBAs and law degrees have taken the reigns of this homespun enterprise and turned it into an assembly line of entertainment product. These same entrepreneurs have diminished our efforts and browbeaten us to the point that we no longer give 100% of our efforts, creative or otherwise. How can we care as much about the finished product as we once did? We now seek work in the entertainment business because we have to feed our families and pay our mortgages. We must work to maintain our health insurance and our relatively meager pension plans.
Hollywood is no longer the “glamour” industry it once was. Computer programming and Internet businesses have dwarfed movies and television programming. If Hollywood does not stop exploiting its creative brain trust, it will loose us to electronic media and other efforts in which we can be creative, productive and share in the fruits of our labor. The new economy is welcoming experienced professionals with higher salaries and profit sharing incentives that we have never seen in show business. We can seek work in e-commerce or start our own e-businesses, but we prefer to make movies.
The employer’s current thinking places a lower value on the crafts necessary to create quality entertainment products. In an era of expanding markets and elevating corporate profits, the employer is constantly seeking to manufacture product for less money in shorter time. With this “any work force will do, as long as it is cheap” mentality, the entertainment employer has followed the past examples of auto and clothing manufacturers and gone offshore to cut labor costs. As a result, film and television programs are gradually losing their entertainment value. The medium is becoming an ocean of banal mush.
A camera is not a scalpel nor is a microphone a law book. However, these tools take an aptitude and skill level to use them artfully. Most of us in the entertainment workforce have dedicated years to honing our specific crafts. By any standard, we are professionals. When the employer demands that we work for less money or replaces us by hiring our “more competitive” foreign counterparts, he is telling us that we are no longer of use to him. Then whose responsibility is it to reopen the door of opportunity to this population of disenfranchised Hollywood professionals as we attempt to rebuild our lives and careers?
The striking animators are the inspiration for this position paper. These animators are on an informational strike outside the gates of KCET. As “below-the-line” entertainment employees, we are all in the same boat. Why shouldn’t the animators be miserable like the rest of us in our jobs? What the new Hollywood management must realize is that none of us is the menial labor force they consider us to be. We are not their chattels. We are professionals with a passion for making movies and exploring our creative talents. We want to work with them, not for them.
It is time for the Hollywood management to wise up to all facets of the New Economy. It knows about profit maximization and the accumulation of enormous wealth. The other parts involve the distribution of this wealth. The high technology industry is an example of a successful business paradigm. This industry demonstrates respect for its employees through stock options and other means of profit participation. Because of this dynamic, the United States is enjoying the most prosperous economy in history. At a time when the nation’s unemployment rate is at a 30 year low of 3.9%, highly qualified and talented Hollywood professionals are either under-employed or unemployed. This is an unacceptable situation.
The Impact Committee
|
