The Film and Video Gig Economy & the Coronavirus
How do you survive during a recession working in the gig economy?
Lynn Birdwell, Bird House Executive Producer
Many film industry professional jobs are done by freelancers. That is particularly true of Houston Texas, where there are few large film production companies and no major studio systems in place.
According to Sean Maxwell, a co-founder of Cinema Resource, and also a long-time Key Grip, Camera Operator, and DP on many major TV shows and films, “Normally in a recession, film and TV aren’t affected and would continue as usual. In fact, even do better sometimes because it is a cheaper entertainment value.”
In fact in Houston, we also don’t traditionally fall into a recession at all when much of the rest of the country is feeling it. Houston is uniquely outside of that bubble.
But as Sean adds, because of the complete shut down of many organizations during this coronavirus pandemic, “This is wholly different. In any bottom line business operation the contractors are the first to go. I don’t know anyway to make it better or even how to survive it.”
He asked me, “What are your thoughts?”
I realized when he asked that, I’m doing, at that moment, what I do every day. For producers who are in development, who are seeking new business, and executive producers who are running companies, for many -- the work continues as usual. There really is no “weekend”, we just keep it moving forward.
I’m working on continued business development now, and maybe that is the way to talk about it. This is the time to update all our directory listings, fix our websites, do our taxes, learn more about our equipment, take online classes, develop things we have been trying to find time to do. Make those connections online and renew our goals and plans.
I signed up for Tom Vaughan’s writing class on a recent weekend. Freelancers and entrepreneurs in the film industry may not be getting paid for this time, but we can use it wisely to get ready for when we do get back to work and go back to having no time for organizational stuff again, as is the usual situation.
Raul Casares is Sean’s partner in Cinema Resource (a grip and electric and camera rental company), and Cliff Davis’ partner with Blade Media (a camera and drone services company), Jerry McCallum’s partner with In Motion (a camera motion equipment company) and a co-founder of Bird House Productions (a production services company). He has worked from high school to now in every sector of the film and video production world. From television stations to feature films, from local to global brand commercials, and also music videos, corporate communications, live events, and industrials.
This is unique to Houston’s film and video market -- we are all hyphenates. We are all used to wearing many hats. Many of the crew in Houston have portions of their business fall into several types of professional production industries and even different departments on or off set. It’s great. We can all keep working often, just doing different kinds of things in different formats.
Raul says, however, that we should remember that Houston’s primary business in the production world is the corporate and industrial videos, such as training and educational films, marketing -- both B2B and B2C, and news. It’s a business town. We have yet to truly build a thriving film and TV industry here, so there is not as much of that type of work, as there is of the regular corporate and industrial gigs.
The reason that’s important to note is because in a recession, on the industrial and corporate level, the companies who are making corporate communications or training videos, may choose to not spend their budgets on those projects. No problem. In Houston, during a slight recession that affects our corporate client jobs, we’ll just keep working on the incoming global brand commercials, documentaries, TV shows, films, non-profit projects, and our own projects.
If it were just a recession, that corporate and industrial work is the only part of our business we would all lose, for that time period. But with COVID-19 infecting people in groups, there is less chance of any productions continuing since film production is really a team sport.
So in Houston, we need to be safe, take care of ourselves and our families. And consider that this is for a time period only, not forever.
Furthermore, what time we have can be reinvented, since we are creatives.
Wash your windows. It’s not hot or cold, so clean the attic. Read every issue of the International Cinematographers Guild Magazine. Take Master Classes online. Redo or make your website. Organize your equipment and finally create the price list all the production managers have been asking you for. Write your screenplay. Do your taxes. Rewrite your screenplay. Test out that camera, light, rig you have been putting off testing. Register for the Film Finance Seminar Houston and we’ll let you know when the dates have been set for what will now be an online seminar.
Prepare and renew and remind yourself how creative you are. And get ready.