www.dezeen.com: Designers working in the film industry have spoken to Dezeen about the "huge" financial impact they are suffering as a result of ongoing strikes in Hollywood.
Set, production and costume designers described being unseen casualties in the industrial disputes that have effectively ground the movie and TV business to a halt since the spring.
3 comments:
As someone who is interested in pursuing film design in the future, this was a scary article to read. It is so unfortunate how much designers have been affected by the strikes and how much of a financial burden this has been on them. I wonder how much these strikes will continue to affect the way film designers work in the future and how long-lasting this effect will be. I have never even thought about the effects that these strikes might have on people in other industries or even people in other countries. I’m really glad that this article discusses that because I wouldn’t have known otherwise. It’s important to recognize the large scale impacts that this has because it will probably impact the way things run in the industry later down the road, even when the strikes have ended. I think that it is so sad that the costume designer for The Handmaid’s Tale was not able to get the same support from her writer and actor friends as she has been giving them when it comes to costume designer rights. I wonder if the strike would be as large or supported if it had to relate to designers’ rights.
Reading this article made me think of a comment that I’ve been seeing more and more online: “How can you expect me to worry about all of these problems in the world when I can barely feed myself.” Similarly, I’ve also been seeing a lot of “let’s not concern ourselves with billionaires’ issues when we’re only earning minimum wages.” At first, I thought comments like these were harsh, and I didn’t understand how people could have so little empathy. But after reading this article (and many other Internet comments), I think I'm beginning to see what they mean. The most shocking part of this article is costume designer Ane Crabtree's statement saying that the friends and colleagues she’s supporting now never supported her and fellow costume designers’ campaign. Putting myself in her shoes, I think it must have been a disheartening moment. I understand this isn’t ever a competition of “who has it worse”, but for an industry that’s all about working together, I find it somewhat ironic that this ‘double standard’ exists.
This article comes back to what many of the articles on this blog, which is the worry that SAG-AFTRA and WGA will not reciprocate supporting a IATSE strike if, and when, that happens. Many have pointed out that their concerns that even though they expect us to support them while they’re on strike, even through the financial hardships that many members of IATSE are facing (and I don’t know how much the SAG-AFTRA and WGA support funds help IATSE and Teamster members who are out of work since the strikes began) but will they go through the same thing for below the line workers, only time will tell. I do agree that in the end, Hollywood will be better because of the strikes, especially when it comes to the working conditions for said below-the-line workers. It feels me with hope that the industry will undergo a fundamental change in how workers are treated.
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