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coming to the Guild with bigger issues and also to become more involved with the Guild. Our community can seem daunting to break into, but this early one-on-one time with a representative made an especially positive lasting impact on me, personally and professionally. Q Is there anything you'd like to say to your fellow Guild members, some words of encouragement? You are going to make mistakes, but don't let the fear of that prevent you from learning something new; now THAT would b e a m i s ta ke. No t k n ow i n g s o m et h i n g because you were afraid to make a mistake could ultimately hurt your career more than making the mistake would. Working in edi- torial can be overwhelming. It's okay to not know everything. We all start somewhere, and we learn new things with every project. Try to be kind to yourself, and remember: as you learn, things get easier, faster, and more creative. ■ Compiled by David Bruskin. networked like crazy to get my samples read. Soon I was a freelance script reader, and parlayed one client into another. I read for TV networks (NBC, CBS), directors with deals (e.g., James Cameron), production companies, and talent agents, churning out reliable, quality work. I got fast. I got good. I liked it. Within a year, I'd landed my first union story analyst gig, at MGM. It may not have been the career I'd set my sights on, but its focus was the same: storytelling for the screen. I was asked to sit in on development meetings with executives and writers, trusted to synthesize the creative discus- sion and turn it into "notes" to guide the writers' revisions. I became an executive favorite, project after project landing in my lap. Less than two years later, I left to be Director of Development at the Ladd Com- pany. I wrote the notes on every project, helping to develop some that got made (the "Brady Bunch" movies), and tweaking oth- ers in post (if you thought "Braveheart" was long, you shoulda seen the director's cut!). I finally left to give screenwriting a "full-time go" as a screenwriter, sold my first project, and thought I had it made. But a good year would be followed by a not-so-good one. Projects were optioned but not made, or died in development hell, leaving me unsat- isfied. I grew to miss having a hand in work that did land on movie screens. Recently married and wanting to start a family, I also wanted a steady job that might allow for work-life balance. I put myself on the union available list. Almost immediately, I got work at Disney, and a month later, was snatched away by Warner Bros. Come April '22, I'll have been there 20 years. Each day, I'm trusted to com- municate the essentials of a story, assess whether it can be made into a satisfying, commercial product, and suggest how to do so. I feel lucky to be earning my keep as a Local 700 story analyst. One long ago afternoon, I fell for the movies. I'm still very much in love.■ Holly Sklar is a story analyst at Warner Bros. Pictures. Following in the footsteps of her grandfather, who was actively involved in organizing insurance workers, Holly is a Local 700 Board Member-at-large and co-founder of the Story Analyst Working Group (open to all Local 700 story analysts). She can be reached at hasklar@aol.com. profitable corporations will go to unusual lengths to resist their employees' call for a larger slice of the pie (or, in this instance, i ce - c re a m ca ke), a n d i t 's c r i t i ca l t h a t workers seeking change build reserves and formulate strategies to allow them to weather a protracted standoff. Planning for the future, of course, is critical, but so, too, is attending to the demands of the present. The workers were buoyed by a call-and-response chant of "Un día más!" answered by "Un día más fuerte!" It was a reminder that endurance, and also recovery, can depend on our complete commitment to the moment before us and to those kin with whom we share it. A fight of months' duration can only be won a day at a time, lasting one day longer and growing each day stronger. As we take tentative steps towards whatever normalcy might look like in the future, we must carry forward the losses and lessons learned over the course of two trying years, with an eye towards readying ourselves for future victories and a com- mitment to taking on our present struggles day by day. Let's push aside the ghosts and hang that new calendar. ■ Rob Callahan is MPEG's National Organizer. 45 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E J U M P P A G E Organized CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 Ashley McKinney CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19 Union CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 Corrections and Clarifications In the Q4 2021 issue (Vol. 10, No. 4), the subject of the photograph on p. 64 is misidentified. He is Mark Mangini, not Theo Green. On pp. 78-79 of the same issue, Jo- seph Calafato and Donald Shinneman are listed as "Unknown Classification." Both worked as Film Techs.