Employment networking in the Hollywood film industry

In May 1998, the United Kingdom's (UK) Film Review agenda for Group announced a radical a new
kind of partnership between the film industry and government to achieve a step change in the
industry's performance over the next decade (Film Review Policy Group, 1998). Part of the
government's interest in the industry appeared to stem from the belief that the loss of
manufacturing jobs in the UK could be compensated for by the growth of employment in
knowledge industries such as the media. The UK film industry has been described as a 'cottage
industry' (Blair, Culkin and Randle. 2002 fonhcoming) employing an estimated 33,000 people,
while in Los Angeles, centre of the American industry, independent productions alone directly
employ about 131,000 people. The latter represents approximately one third of total film
production, major film studios accounting for much of the rest.

From the perspective of employment generation and the development of the UK film industry,
the location decisions of major American film studios are of considerable interest. Canada,
Australia and Mexico already benefit from the tendency for filmmaking traditionally carried out
in Los Angeles to be located elsewhere, and a small proportion of American film production also
takes place in the UK (Randle and Culkin, 2000). For example, Warner Brothers' children's
blockbuster Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was shot at Leavesden Studios in Wattord
and on location.

Prior to the demise of the American studio system in the 1950s, work in the movies was
characterised by direct, permanent employment by one of the major film studios in an
oligopolistic industry (Christopherson, 1996). However, since this time the majority of film crew
have worked freelance on a project basis, the average length of employment on a single project
being between six and eight weeks. There is no longer a formal apprenticeship scheme; yet
entrants might start in a low-level role such as production assistant and move on, in time, to
become a director. Training is a mixture of film school attendance and informal on-the-job
training. Many jobs are never advertised.

There has been widespread concern among those working in the American film industry, and the
unions representing them, regarding the impact of relocating production elsewhere on future
employment prospects. Against this background of uncertainty, Keith Randle and Nigel Culkin of
the University of Hertfordshire's Film Industry Research Group were keen to explore film-related
employment in the United States and, in particular, to examine the way in which crew entered
the industry, found second and subsequent jobs, and developed their careers. In particular they
were interested to find our what an industry that epitomised freelance work could tell them
about the nature of work and management in such an environment.

Keith and Nigel chose to adopt a qualitative approach to explore the mechanisms that technical
crew used to find both their first and subsequent jobs in the him industry. Being located in a UK
university they foresaw considerable problems in negotiating access to these people. The film
unions could potentially provide access only to the specific group that each represented (for
example wardrobe, grips, camera, hair and make-up). Any refusal to cooperate could therefore
exclude a key group from the research. In addition, union membership reflected a degree of
prior success in securing ongoing work in the industry, as evidence of achieving a threshold of
paid work was a prerequisite for membership.

Surfing the Internet, the researchers discovered several databases of film crew These were
promoted as being of mutual benefit to both employers and potential employees. For a fee
individuals could advertise themselves on a database, which those wishing to employ crew could
search. The amount of information available on these databases was considerable. Film crew
provided details of their education and training previous experience and, what seemed
especially surprising for a publicly accessible database, extensive contact details including email
addresses, tele phone numbers, fax numbers and pager numbers.

The research team decided to use a database that held details of some 3800 crew in around 80
film-related occupations in the Los Angeles area as their sampling frame. Selecting a range of
occupations to the film industry they sent 180 email messages, inviting randomly selected
individuals in Los Angeles to take part in the research project. The response rate was surprisingly
high, with around 25 per cent of those contacted agreeing to take part in the study. The
researchers were able to plot the home addresses of the respondents on a street directory of Los
Angeles and gain a visual impression of the spread. This in turn allowed them to choose a central
location to which they could invite respondents for interview. They then sent out a blank
interview timetable and asked prospective interviewees to choose a convenient slot.

Subsequently Keith and Nigel travelled to Los Angeles to carry out the first phase of a planned
longitudinal panel study, which would track individuals over a period of their working lives.
Following each interview the researchers asked whether respondents would be prepared to
recommend other crew members they had worked with to take part in the study, as some
occupations had proved more resistant to respond ing than others. Interviewees would first
telephone these contacts before calling back to give the researchers permission to ring and
arrange an interview. Interviewees represented a wide variety of occupations and backgrounds.
Some worked in feature films, others in the independent sector, documentaries, music video,
advertising and television; others were still trying to find their first 'paid' film work in Los
Angeles.

The research team planned to further the research with an on-line questionnaire to gather data
from a wider sample, which could be triangulated against the qualitative data gained from the
series of interviews they carried out over a three-year period. Although on-line research has
some inherent problems, the researchers believe that their experiences in accessing a difficult-
to-study population justify the use of the Web as an innovative research tool.

Questions
1. How valid are the results of the research likely to be?
2. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of "snowballing.
3. What do you consider are the ethical issues raised by this research?
4. What sampling techniques are being used in this research?
5. What are the major benefits and drawbacks of using the Internet as part of an international
research study?

References

1. Blair, H., Culkin, N. and Randle, K. (forthcoming 2002) "From London to Los Angeles: a
comparison of local labour market processes in the US and UK film industries,
International Journal of Human Resource Management.

2. Christopherson, S. (1996) Flexibility and adaptation in industrial relations: the exceptional

case of the US media entertainment industries, in Gray, L.S. and Seeber, R.L. (eds), Under
The Stars: Essays on Labor Relations in Arts and Entertainment, Ithaca and London:
Cornell University Press, pp. 82-112.

3. Film Policy Review Group (1998)A Bigger Picture, London, Department of Culture Media
and Sport.

4. Randle, K. and Culkin, N. (2000) "Fletimg stardom for Hatfeld' The Guardian . 15 May,
p. 20.