Hollywood’s Next Mission Impossible: Industrywide Cooperation
Hollywood’s Next Mission Impossible: Industrywide Cooperation
December 8, 2021
by
3 strategies to avert future tensions, strikes and on-set disasters
Lately, Hollywood headlines have been anything but glamorous:
Twenty-Hour Days, 100-Hour Weeks, No Lunch Breaks: An IATSE Member Talks Working Conditions
Shocking Death on Set Shows What’s at Stake in IATSE Film and TV Crew Contract Fight
IATSE Members Vote to Authorize Nationwide Film and TV Production Strike
For months the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has been negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) over issues plaguing the industry including major sticking points like excessive hours, low wages, break times, stability of health and pension plans and reduced wages on streaming media productions. IATSE represents the craftspeople who work in various roles during production on a film or TV show. The AMPTP is a trade association that represents major employers and producers of television and film including Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Apple, Netflix and Amazon.
When negotiations between the organizations stalled, the IATSE members voted to approve a strike authorization, and nearly 60,000 IATSE members readied to go on strike.
But the strike never came. In the eleventh hour, leadership from both sides came to an agreement that, despite some controversial concessions, was narrowly ratified by IATSE members on November 15, 2021.
Prior to the contract ratification, I spoke to IATSE members who had attended an IATSE local chapter town hall hosted by its leadership for the purpose of presenting the deal terms to its members. They noted that throughout the town hall, the IATSE leadership spoke favorably of the agreement, repeatedly referring to the terms as a “win” and “a good deal against the Producers.” I was struck by this choice of words and wondered, “How did this become an us against them conversation?” Moreover, “why was the welfare of human beings a point for negotiations to begin with?”
I think we can all agree that no one should have to compromise their well-being or sacrifice their life while making a film or TV show. But it wasn’t until thousands of courageous industry craftspeople united and spoke up that the industry began to acknowledge and do something about it. This brings me to something Simon Mainwaring said best, “Effectively, change is almost impossible without industrywide collaboration, cooperation and consensus.”
Rather than an “us” against “them” mindset, what Hollywood seems to need now more than ever is a willingness to cooperate, to reach across the proverbial aisle and work with, not against, each other.
Below are three strategies for industrywide cooperation:
Connect. Listen. Find Common Ground. — The entertainment industry is a well-oiled machine with many different players, among them executives, actors, agents, financiers, producers, distributors, and craftspeople. With so many moving parts, it’s insufficient to only know your part. It’s essential therefore that everyone understands each other’s roles and challenges and looks for common ground that can create a win-win for every player. You win. I win. We win.
Drive Change From the Top Down — In a hierarchy, behavior, good or bad, trickles down. For this reason, the fastest way to transform anything is from the top down. In Hollywood, the lion’s share belongs to the studios, streamers and the conglomerates who own them. And so, just like in the Serengeti, the responsibility to guide and influence the pack falls on its leaders. Studio executives possess enormous privilege and power which when wielded to acknowledge and change things that aren’t working, can have a widespread ripple effect.
Producers, Stand Your Ground — Boots-on-the-ground Producers, listen up, this one is for you. Great Producers are maternal titans, sheathing prominent protective powers while nurturing the creatives they believe in. Simply put, Producers have an obligation to speak up, stand up, ask for and provide everything a production requires to ensure it does no harm to anyone or anything. When Producers don’t, the consequences can be dire. Just look at Rust.
Time and again, history has shown that progress and change in societies and industries are most effective through widespread cooperation. If each of us can see to it that we do our part and we hold each other and our leaders accountable, Hollywood will get its happy ending.