Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1081203
70 CINEMONTAGE / Q1 2019 are impressive. And the staff worked hard to collect them, but the reality is that this is just a fraction of outstanding wages and benefits that should have been recouped. Last year, we saw the unprecedented engagement of members during the Basic Agreement negotiations. The membership was invigorated, with much of that engagement centering upon not achieving the improvements we righteously sought. However, receiving improvements that members don't implement only defeats the purpose of fighting for them. Moving forward, let's make sure that every contract provision is adhered to. Members must not look the other way or choose not to contact the Guild when a violation is taking place. If the members actively protect the provisions of the contract we already have, we will be that much stronger heading in to the 2021 Basic Agreement. We would like to personally thank the Guild field representatives for their hard work and dedication: Olie Amarillas, Ann Hadsell, Jennifer Madar, Jacky Olitsky and Jessica Pratt. f CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 ADVERTISERS INDEX Working in Hollywood is devoted to the time before and during "The Golden Age of the Hollywood Studio System," but some of the norms then in effect influenced media making for decades and continue to have force within the industry today. In a final chapter, "Disintegrating," Regev details how the transition to what she terms a "film by film" production method replaced the studio system. Hollywood moved to a business model that employed executives, managers, lawyers, lot maintenance personnel and labs full-time, while ending long-term contracts for writers, actors, set designers, editors and other creatives. Filmmaking, and later television, became post-modern businesses, essentially composed mostly of freelancers. In doing so, it was a very early forerunner of what we now call the gig economy. This book describes some of the factors that created this change. Most are well-known — the 1948 Paramount anti- monopoly decree, the rise of television, filmmakers' desire for creative control — but with the author's emphasis on economics, the book also notes how changes in federal tax law for both corporations and personal income made it financially advantageous for filmmakers to form their own independent companies. This analysis rings true but seems to imply that conditions became better, at least for actors, directors and writers, as the studio system faded. Regev cannot be criticized for staying within the time frame and subject she set out to explore: "How did Hollywood work?" Good writing demands limits of scope. Still, many highly creative people in Hollywood, such as costume designers, musicians, hair and makeup, production designers, sound recordists, mixers and engineers — even editors and cinematographers — found that they were often still treated as employees on a line, albeit a much smaller one. They were, and still are, working for the boss of a non-studio (often non-union) production at whatever salary and hours can be negotiated, often subject to immediate dismissal, and without the benefits of full- time employment. Some at the very top of their professions are fortunate to find repeated good jobs with high-powered directors or actors who truly respect creative input from employees. Many, many more are workers, subject to the constraints and abuses of the studio system, but without any of its guarantees. In Working in Hollywood, Regev includes a chapter each on producers, directors, writers and actors, but fails to deal with other creative jobs, including post-production. This focus on the most publicly visible filmmakers is natural for a scholar who is gleaning information from major archives, and the reader can easily extrapolate how the same factors that industrialized higher-profile jobs also transformed post. The histories of post-production arts, in most cases, have yet to be written. The Motion Picture Editors Guild, founded in 1937 as the Society of Motion Picture Film Editors, fought a set of battles endemic to the major studios. And 82 years later, the parameters of the battles may have shifted, but the fight for workers continues. f CONTINUED FROM PAGE 63 East Coast Monday, May 13, 2019 Gallagher's Steak House 228 W. 57th St. Manhattan, NY 12:30 p.m. West Coast Sunday, May 19, 2019 Sheraton Universal 333 Universal Hollywood Drive Universal City, CA 11:00 a.m. Cocktail Reception 12:30 p.m. Lunch SAVE THE DATE EDITORS GUILD ANNUAL RETIREE LUNCHEONS CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS 20th Century Fox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Annapurna Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 Blackmagic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 EditorsPetition.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Focus Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Footage Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Fox Post-Production Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Fox Searchlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 I Am the Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3 Invisible Art Visible Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Motion Picture Editors Guild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Motion Picture & Television Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 NAB 2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 National Geographic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Netflix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2 Paramount Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Universal Pictures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 16 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Warner Bros. Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Warner Bros. Studio Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 CUT / PRINT