Six months ago, Heather Fink hit a wall. After more than two decades in the film industry, the School School School at New York University built a fixed profession, although it could not be predicted, as a benefit of independent sound on movie and television groups while chasing her true dreams in writing and guidance. But with the double strikes by the writers and actors who brought production, the work dried up, and its bills have accumulated and worried.
“I was in such a terrible place,” she says. “I needed anything to take me and pay my religion. I can no longer live this way.”
In July, a friend communicated with a potential lifeline: a full -time position in the ABC’s Gray’s Anatomy Voice section, and he is now in his twenty -second season. “I said enthusiastically,” Fink says. “I couldn’t feel grateful.”
When the Times spoke for the first time with Find in May, she was still suffering from the repercussions of the stopping work, like thousands of her colleagues. Now, since the industry is struggling to restore its foot, we have re -registered it with it and a few others from that previous story to see how they were walking. Some, such as find, may have found a measure of stability, no matter how weak. But for many workers who lower the line, long strikes and high cost of living have been forced into difficult choices: leaving Los Angeles, converting to new jobs or bulldozing with independent vehicles and side crowds.
To maintain lives in one year, characterized by an insecurity that is not softening, many crew members cling to the Mantra: “Stay up” 25.
Keith Denkerli, photographer and camera player, is the same among the lucky ones. After only 18 days during the first five months of the year, Dunkerly, who supported his family during the strikes by taking advantage of savings and taking high vehicles on Taskrabbit, a full -time job as a functional operator B in the “Doctor Odyssey” chain.
“I was very lucky, unlike many friends,” said Dunkery The Times. “Many friends are still out of work or really slow. She crossed the fingers, pick up next year.”
The challenges facing the Hollywood workforce precede the strikes. Broadcasting platforms, which were pressured by reducing subscriber numbers, had already retracted the original programming, while studios reduced budgets and reduced jobs. The strikes led to deepening the slowdown only: the production of films and television in La remained 5 % in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in the previous year, according to the non -profit film.
In October, the governor of the state, Gavin Newose, suggested more than doubling the annual tax credit program in an attempt to stop the flow of products to the states or low -cost countries. But even if the procedure is approved, the increase will not enter until mid -2015, leaving many crew members residing in Los Angeles wondering whether the assistance will arrive after it is too late.
Dolly Grip Diego Mariscal, who created the Facebook Group stories in 2017, saw the emotional losses of direct slow.
(Jennifer Rose Class)
Diego Marisical, Dolly’s grip, with 25 years of experience that has worked on “The Mandalorian” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, recovery marks: full car parking in studios, reserved Soundstages Solid. But recovery is far from even.
“There is a job there, but it is not spread,” said Marcecal. He considers himself lucky to measure work since the end of the strikes, but he says that employment is concentrated between a group of fluctuating workers, the decline in the gains in diversity and the closure of newcomers.
“People specifically began, specifically, to make it a point for women and people colored on their crew,” said Marcecal. “The doors were a little more open in early, and now it closes more and more.
“People become more low. Crew fully tend to be more kind to know how lucky they are lucky, but people who are not as much-this is all they can talk about. It is a deeply frustrating and divides people.”
Mariscal, which also runs Crew Stories, a special group on Facebook, which includes more than 96,000 members, has seen closely affected the industry shrinking with its workers. It was originally created in 2017 as a space for crew members to exchange funny tales and positive news, and the group has evolved through the epidemic and strikes into a basic outlet and a collective resource for those who wrestle with financial instability.
This year, the assistance appeals were uncompromising, as Marcekal often wandered in the “investigation, detective and therapist” roles.
“Someone asked me to help Gofundme to get his car out of many [therapy] And I want to start Gofundment. Is it like who helped? In the end, it comes to me. “
The emotional outcome has extended across the industry. It is difficult to define suicide among workers under the line, and many believe that it has been reported. “I know people who killed themselves,” says Fink. “They haven’t seen hope. They didn’t see what they are doing anymore. You can ask about it, and everyone knows almost someone.”
“One of the things you never hear about, even with suicide, is the effect that it has on people closest to them,” said Marcecal. “and [the despair] It goes deeper. Someone is hurt, developing a problem with drinking, starting to go out or hitting his wife. Everything is very not built. You only hear about it if you are inside the industry. “
These struggles are exacerbated by the growing gap between the creative and working classes in Hollywood, a rift that has expanded through the production that moves abroad in seeking to achieve tax incentives and low labor costs.
“I believe in the power of the unions, and the strikes have supported enthusiastically,” says Fink. “But on the other side of the strikes, we are in a terrible place. The working class has put its good years on the line, and now production is moving abroad. The people for whom we have fought are not fighting to maintain work here.”
Progress in artificial intelligence and virtual production are the anxiety. In projects such as “The Lion King”, run by CG 2019, and Mariscal, which was replaced by “Snow White” in the studio, saw Mariscal how digital environments have replaced traditional groups, eliminating the need for the entire crew departments.
“It was completely different from what you usually see on a collection of films,” he says. “They still need a person to move the camera around him. I remember like,” I think I made the pieces, “but there was no voice team, makeup, nor building – only the bones of what is necessary to make something.”
During the strikes, Marcekal thought of leaving the industry completely and exploring the idea of starting a business washing action. After buying a house in Eagle Rock at the bottom of the market in 2010, he feels lucky at the present time, but he knows that stability may disappear in a moment.
“For the time being, I need this world,” said Marcecal. “But they have an Amnesty International program that can imitate portable footage, the lever moves – every step at all. When it happens, I will be out of the job. This may happen in the blink of an eye. It may actually happen and I don’t know that.”
Earlier this year, Fink was ready to completely leave Los Angeles, as she plans to return to New Jersey, run for the local office and use her creative skills to raise awareness about providing care after her father’s blow. At the present time, its function is on “Gray’s Anatomy“ Which continues until March, gave it to postpone.
“I will cover for some time,” she says. “But I am preparing for myself for the unknown. Nothing of this feels reliable – not my job, not my ministry, not even the country.”
While Hollywood adapts to its new reality, Fink holds the best she can.
“I have no time for my dream now when I just try to survive,” says Fink. “But I don’t give up. There is a great value in what we do. We just have to adapt.”