Dear Hollywood: If We Don’t Speak Up Now, The Industry As We Know It Will Never Be The Same (It’s Gut Check Time)

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One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received from a friend & mentor is the following:

“Don’t let others determine your value. Only you can determine your value.”

Unfortunately the idea that we as creative professionals are undervalued for the unique contributions we bring to the entertainment industry is not a new one. For decades we have been considered replaceable widgets that are expendable.

As legendary editor Walter Murch explained in our podcast together, several decades ago when approaching a studio executive to address the extreme working conditions, relentless stress, and impossible deadlines on a big budget tentpole film he was editing, he described the situation as:

“People are dropping like flies.”

The studio executive simply replied with: “Then get more flies.”

We’ve now reached an impasse where decades worth of delivering miracles has become today’s expectation, and how we function as a collective industry is no longer sustainable.

Finally….FINALLY we have the opportunity to change how we live and work in the entertainment industry. But the only way things will change is if there are simply “no more flies” because we’ve all collectively decided to advocate for our needs and say ‘NO’ to the impossible expectations asked of us every single day.

Unfortunately as much as I want to believe we finally have the power to affect positive change, my greatest fear is those of us who value our work-life balance and our lives beyond our paychecks are still the vocal minority fighting against a much larger majority clutching their “golden time” in their cold, (nearly) dead hands.

The only way for us to become the majority is to share with everyone who will listen – union, non-union, above the line, below the line, or otherwise – why we are fighting, how we ended up here, and why we deserve respect.

But first…

It’s Gut Check Time

I don’t care what anyone has told you in the past about the brutal realities of what it really takes to “make it” in Hollywood or the necessity to “pay your dues” at the expense of your own life (figuratively or literally), the truth is:

We deserve to love what we do for a living…but not at the expense of our health, our relationships, or our sanity.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a PA getting coffee or if you’re a department head with decades of experience, you as a human being deserve to be respected for your contribution to a project and valued accordingly.

You are not obligated to show gratitude for the meal penalties and the endless 6th & 7th days in your paycheck earned at the expense of skipping lunches, sleeping on a couch or on apple boxes at hour 18 of the day/night, having to pee in bottles because you can’t leave your post, or the countless missed medical appointments because there simply “isn’t time in the schedule.”

You don’t have to consider yourself “lucky” for the opportunity to work in Tinsel Town at the expense of not being able to start a family or missing countless once-in-a-lifetime memories like weddings, funerals, birthday parties, and kids’ recitals simply because whoever manages the budgets is completely incapable of building a schedule designed to set everyone up for success instead of failure.

You don’t need to sacrifice sleep, recovery time, and throw away entire relationships just so you can “suck it up” and wear your burnout badge of honor proudly alongside your colleagues who are literally shaving years off their lives simply to maintain a lifestyle they couldn’t afford if they worked more humane hours.

I’ve been saying for years that I don’t believe work-life balance is a union issue, it’s a human issue. But guess what – right now it’s a union issue. And for those of you in the union like me, here comes the gut check:

Are you willing to speak up for the respect you deserve?

Because if you’re not willing to speak up right now and advocate for more reasonable working conditions and compensation commensurate with your contributions, the way things are at this moment is the best it’s ever going to be again. The current version of Hollywood and the entertainment industry as we know it will be dead.

Here’s Why We Are Fighting

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