By A SHOOT Staff Report

“The times They Are a Changin,” famously wrote Bob Dylan. A contemporary update on those lyrics would additionally reflect that our times are also a-challenging–with labor unrest as exemplified in the writers’ strike, concerns if not outright fear over AI, the quest to attain diversity, equality and inclusion, the struggle for a work-life balance, the efforts to harness technology for the greater good, and somehow trying to build positive consensus, caring and empathy in an increasingly fragmented world.

Meanwhile try grappling with all this and more while running a business and seeking to foster creativity within that enterprise. Still, there is cause for hope within our industry. Skilled storytelling, for example, can spark some of the empathy and understanding so sorely needed, which in turn underscores the pressing need for diversity and inclusion. Labor and management can come together, valuing each other for the betterment of both. Brilliant minds in production and post can embrace technology, realize its positive potential while not letting it compromise, undermine or corrupt our humanity.

As we approach the mid-year point, SHOOT surveyed production and post professionals to tap into their concerns, expertise and priorities. One of the themes that emerged is the balance of technology and humanity. A number of respondents shared their thoughts on the promise of tech–while also emphasizing the human need for giving voice to the unrepresented or underrepresented, opening up opportunities for people from all walks of life.

Lauren Schwartz, owner/executive producer of production house kaboom, shared, “Many people are talking about how to create and support a thriving, equitable industry; How to promote a diverse, happy workplace, and how to get the best creative possible from partners and the strongest collaborations from vendors. In our business, agencies and clients increasingly ask to work with woman-owned businesses, small businesses, and diverse talent. That’s a powerful step in the right direction. But the truth is that one of the best ways to support a healthy industry, especially small business vendors, many of which are female and minority owned, is to pay fairly and most importantly–in a timely fashion. In addition to advocating for fair payment and payment terms, many years ago I certified kaboom as a WBENC business, am a member of Free The Work and Owned by Women, and am proud to have attended the very first 3 Percent Conference and every one thereafter. But even as a women owned business, I know there is plenty more that I can do to help usher in much needed change including addressing another ‘ism’ our industry largely ignores: ageism. Change means stepping outside of your comfort zone, reflecting and acting on transitional change even if it is messy, hard, and uncomfortable. In fact, it is that difficult space that likely means we are on the right track in charting new paths.”

Ali Brown, president, PRETTYBIRD, noted, “We Double the Line on every job we can to make sure that we are changing our industry from one predicated on nepotism to one that embraces talent from all areas of entertainment. We hire from incredible organizations like Manifest Works and Streetlights who have the best PA training programs around. We try to create a culture and ethos at our company where it isn’t something to think about on occasion, but a part of the work we need to do every day.” 

On the technology front, Luke Ricci, president of RSA Films, related, “I’ve spent quite a bit of my career working in emerging tech within an advertising context. From Google’s VR Film “Help” which launched their VR platform Spotlight Stories and won 2 Gold Lions at Cannes including the first ever in the VR category, to producing the award-winning Augmented Reality Car Configurator for the 2018 launch of the new Jeep Wrangler for FCA (now Stellantis), creating a VR educational STEM experience with Verizon, shooting projects in the volume, and all sorts of virtual production during the pandemic. The big takeaway from all of these efforts is that producers need to constantly be learning about new ways to engage technology in the craft of making content. Take AI for instance: I have spent a lot of time learning how to use ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Dall.E to figure out ways to integrate these tools into our workflows at RSA. There are certainly limitations to the functionality of these applications, but they are incredibly powerful and must be fully understood.”

Rebecca Niles, managing director/exec producer of ArtClass, noted that roster talent Paul Trillo “has spearheaded groundbreaking projects where AI seamlessly merges with human creativity. For instance, our recent collaboration involved an innovative video campaign for a GoFundMe initiative, leveraging AI-generated visuals to evoke powerful emotions and inspire action. Through this project, we discovered the immense potential of AI in amplifying the impact of storytelling, connecting people to important causes, and driving social change.”

On the post side, LaRue Anderson, managing partner at Apache Digital, said, “We started working on AR and AI projects back in 2015 and it was exciting to get a glimpse of the road ahead. These past generations of AR projects required specialized gear to view, which created an obstacle in featuring the work on reels, but it was very much alive and well back then. Now we’re seeing the conversation around AI tap into feelings of fear, which is a natural human emotion. Whenever something perceived as new emerges you should aspire to embrace and learn from it. We love digging into Unreal Engine projects, animated and AR environments. In the physical world, we are in the process of developing a film profiling aspect based on spectroradiometer and densitometer readings of selected film and print stocks. These are custom film profiles built on negative/print combinations and tweaked to client requests. We have built shooting LUTs for so many cameras over the years, most recently we’re fulfilling a lot of requests for the Alexa 35 (LogC4) and Sony Venice 2. Our technical ability to collaborate with clients who are looking for certain film looks, based on empirical data and finessed to the show’s needs streamlines the grading process. The LUTs are extremely helpful in unifying a look across multiple cameras on a single project and they can be carried across shooting and into the edit.

Survey
These industry pros are part of a cross-section spanning production and post who participated in this Production Outlook survey. SHOOT posed the following questions to them: 

1. What was the biggest challenge posed to you by a recent project? Or share insights to a recent project you deem notable. Briefly describe the project, why it was particularly noteworthy or what valuable lesson(s) you learned from it. If the work is complete and you’d like to share a link to it, please include. 
2. Are you involved in virtual production or experimenting with AI, AR or other emerging disciplines or new technologies? Have you engaged in any real-world projects on these fronts? If so, relative to experimental and/or actual projects, briefly tell us about the work & what you’ve taken away from the experience. If the work is complete and you’d like to share a link to it, please include. 
3. Does your company have plans for any major diversification and/or expansion/investment in technology and talent this year and if so, what? How will this investment or diversification add value to what you can offer to clients? If instead you have already realized any actual expansion, made such an investment and/or diversified significantly recently, share those developments with us along with what they mean to your staff and clients.
4. Gender pay disparity, sexual misconduct and the need for diversity & inclusion are issues that have started to be dealt with meaningfully. While the industry has made strides to address these issues, there’s still a long way to go. What policies do you have in place or plan to implement or step up in order to make progress on any or all of these fronts? 
5. Tell us about significant creative, filmmaking or tech talent you’ve recently brought into your company–including from those groups underrepresented in the industry–and what drew you to him, her and/or them. If this was talent new to the industry, how did you go about “discovering” him, her and/or them? 

What follows is the feedback we received from a wide range of respondents… click on the NAME or HEADSHOT below (shown in alphabetical order by last name).

MySHOOT Profiles