Procter & Gamble (P&G) has become the first advertiser to formally link with the Streetlights Production Assistant Program. An eight-and-a-half-year-old, Hollywood-based nonprofit organization, Streetlights has a track record of creating entry-level as well as more advanced crew employment opportunities in commercial and longform production for economically disadvantaged ethnic minorities.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, P&G is generally requiring that two or three graduates from the Streetlights program be hired for each company spot project shot in Greater Los Angeles. According to Jerry Rice, P&G’s senior advertising production manager, the advertiser’s five agencies—Leo Burnett Co., Chicago; Saatchi & Saatchi, New York; D’Arcy, New York; Jordan McGrath Case & Partners, New York; and Grey Advertising, New York—are on board and committed to the initiative.
Rice, whose primary responsibility is all TV production done for the food and beverage division, has taken on the additional role of spearheading P&G’s cooperative effort with Streetlights. "P&G has an inherent belief in trying to open up the production business and the advertising business to more diverse ethnicities," related Rice. "When you walk through our ad agencies and when you attend our commercial shoots, it’s pretty one-dimensional [ethnically]. Since our audience is extremely broad and crosses all boundaries, the more input we get from diverse people, the better."
P&G has had limited success with a program that directed ad agencies to spend 10 percent of production budgets with companies owned by minorities, according to Rice. "There was resistance on the agencies’ part about entrusting an important project to an unknown, unproven entity or director," Rice explained.
"But this [Streetlights] is much better because it’s a grassroots program," he continued. "The Streetlights people have already received quality training and are experienced as production assistants. Then as they watch the various crafts, they can plug into the Streetlights Apprenticeship Program—to learn about and gain on-the-job training for crew capacities that they have an interest in and understanding of: hair/makeup, possibly being a gaffer, a grip, a sound technician. It’s a dynamic that allows for upward mobility. … I see this as bearing wonderful fruit [in the years ahead]. We will have people who can look back and remember when they were trainees, but have since become line producers, executive producers, assistant directors, directors."
Agency producers on P&G jobs have been instructed to inform production companies that they are required to use Streetlights talent on P&G commercials shot in Los Angeles. Rice projected that this would generally entail the hiring of two fully trained, experienced Streetlight P.A.s. "That will become the norm for us," related Rice. "There may be exceptions from time to time, but there has to be a real reason for an exception."
Additionally, continued Rice, an advanced Streetlights graduate will frequently be hired to "apprentice" and gain experience in a certain craft. "There’s no additional cost in terms of the P.A.s because P.A.s have to be hired anyway," said Rice. "But in the case of an apprentice, that could be an added cost—the base day rate for a crew member in the chosen craft. That cost is something that we [P&G] are more than willing to absorb."
Dorothy Thompson, the veteran freelance commercial producer who founded Streetlights in 1992, has seen the program graduate 280 P.A.s, a number of whom have transitioned to other industry capacities such as second assistant director, grip, camera loader and assistant editor. To qualify for the P.A. roster, graduates must have successfully completed 240 hours of Streetlights training, evenly divided between the classroom and on-the-job experience. The Streetlights program additionally offers ongoing mentoring, job placement and counseling, transitional financial support services, a life skills management seminar, and scholarships for advanced training courses.
The advanced training is to facilitate experienced Streetlights P.A.s moving up the ladder into crew capacities that they demonstrate an interest in and aptitude for, said Thompson, who refers to the more experienced Streetlights grads as "apprentices." Graduates who are in the Streetlights Apprenticeship Program are exposed to and educated in the crew craft to which they aspire via such means as spec spot work, UCLA Film Extension classes, tutorials sponsored by such industry companies as Panavision, and interaction with assorted crew members. Thompson noted that a grad assigned to a P&G shoot as part of the Streetlights Apprenticeship Program already has a base of experience that will enable him or her to contribute positively to a project when working in a designated crew area. And when they accrue 30 days of employment in these crew departments via P&G and other spot projects, Streetlights grads become eligible for union membership and inclusion on the TV commercial roster of the International Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employees (IATSE), according to Thompson.
"We’re helping to create a minority talent pool that companies can draw upon to bring diversity to their productions," said Thompson, adding that Streetlights maintains a data base of these crew people so that they can be regularly accessed by production houses and ad agencies.
D’ARCY
P&G and Streetlights have been in discussions for the past year, Thompson reported. These talks culminated in the formation of their entering into an official working relationship about a month ago, noted Rice. The kick-off project was a comedy spot for Folgers Café Latte, lensed in Los Angeles and directed by Jordan Brady of bicoastal HKM Productions for D’Arcy, New York. Hired from the Streetlights’ roster were P.A.s Robert Torres and William Galvez, as well as Streetlights graduate Walter Clayton, who served on the set-dressing crew as part of his being groomed for that craft.
Jennie Wadhams, head of production at D’Arcy, New York, observed that Thompson runs "a very tight ship, a structured organization that provides rigorous training. It’s really a program that’s a pleasure to be involved in. You don’t know that these people are on the shoot, and in a way, that’s the point. They’re there to work and to be professional."
Jeanne Sison, D’Arcy’s producer on the Folgers Café Latte :30, described the 14-hour shoot day as a positive experience. She credited HKM with accommodating P&G’s Streetlights initiative on a tight turnaround time.
HKM is among the houses that have used Streetlights talent in the past. Thompson noted that over the years, a number of commercial production companies have become familiar with the Streetlights roster and have committed to hiring a P.A. from the program for each of their Los Angeles shoots. These include Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago; bicoastal Headquarters; and bicoastal Cylo (formerly Atherton). In fact, Crossroads partner Cami Taylor has been a major supporter and serves as president of Streetlight’s board of directors.
Wadhams noted that D’Arcy could also advance the Streetlights cause in other respects. "We don’t want this to stop at just the P.A. level," she observed. "That’s the entrée into the business, where P.A.s can look around and see what appeals to them, and then get more specific training. We’re hoping that some might find the ad agency side appealing—being an art director, a writer, an agency producer. Part of our commitment is to help facilitate that."
Additionally, Wadhams related that D’Arcy plans to approach its other clients about Streetlights. She conjectured that the Streetlights initiative could spill over into hiring practices of other agency accounts.
Thompson described P&G’s involvement as representing "a giant step toward diversity behind the camera. I am overjoyed that companies as significant as Procter & Gamble and the five agencies have decided not to reinvent the wheel. Why should they when they can use this existing program as a means of minority inclusion on productions? I have a genuine feeling from Jerry [Rice] and the heads of production at the P&G agencies that they solidly want this to work … I hope this prompts other advertisers and ad agencies to get involved."
As earlier reported (SHOOT, p. 7, 10/16/92), Thompson’s involvement came as a result of the Los Angeles riots in May ’92. She viewed the civil unrest in primarily Los Angeles’ poorer socioeconomic communities as a call to action. Thompson formed the then-fledgling Streetlights to help gain employment opportunities for South Central and East L.A. residents.
Streetlights steadily gained momentum, establishing an office on the Raleigh Studios lot in Hollywood, and recruiting prospective P.A.s—primarily African-Americans and Latinos—from throughout Los Angeles County (SHOOT, 7/11/97, p. 7). Streetlights recruits mostly low-income mi-norities from a variety of sources, including community colleges, vocational skill centers, community centers and job-training programs. The Streetlights program, which has received assorted community service awards, has also helped to turn around the lives of at-risk youth and people formerly on welfare.
While Thompson teaches commercial P.A.s, longform vet Linda Horner handles feature film training. Streetlights has also enlisted the support of Los Angeles-based feature/TV studio DreamWorks SKG, which offers instruction in multi-camera production. According to Thompson, DreamWorks’ co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has additionally honored a commitment to hire a Streetlights worker on every project his company shoots in Los Angeles.
The next chapter for Streetlights could be expansion beyond Los Angeles to other major centers in the years ahead. Rice hopes that will eventually happen, helping to cultivate minority talent in New York and Chicago.
