Canada Steals the Show
Working-class jobs in film and television are hijacked north
On the more introspective end, there are those looking inside and re-evaluating things. Rick Caprarelli, vice president of one of Hollywood’s largest independent prop houses, Hollywood Central Props, says they just pretend they’ve always run the place 25 percent down.
"You tighten up the ship you have, and of course you always look inside first and ask yourself, why is business leaving? Is it a little bit of me? Is it our business practices? I think if this whole thing cleans up [the industry] a little bit in that way, that’s good."
Then he adds, more optimistically, "There’s always going to be a product. There are 500 cable channels out there."
True. Ticket sales and ticket prices are on the rise. And, yes, films have always been shot outside the U.S. It seems that this time, though, Hollywood is transforming itself into a New World corporation, and by that we’re talking the same thing that happened with cars and clothes and electronics — five old rich guys in an office, the guy who brings them coffee, and the rest, a bunch of measly-waged workers, selling products to whom? A recent letter to the editor in the L.A. Timesread, "My hat is made in China, my shirt in India, my pants in the Philippines, my shoes in Indonesia. So my movies are made in Montreal. So?"
In many ways, in upcoming months, working-class Hollywood will in fact realize why it matters if your movies are made in Montreal. The industry is made up of creative and feisty people, but they’re growing more bitter and disillusioned though confident they’ll figure a way out, adapt, or, as our anonymous soundman says, joking without smiling, "Start a lucrative career in the new Hollywood — sell Rolls-Royces."
For further information on letter-writing campaigns, contact film commissioner Ray Arthur at (760) 375-8202 or Chuck Warn and Andrew Levy at the Directors Guild of America at (310) 289-5333. Or contact pro-crew state Assembly Members Scott Wildman of Glendale (818-240-6330) and/or Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica (818-501-8991), authors of Assembly Bills AB 358 and AB 484 to keep film production in California. Then, let Governor Gray Davis (916-445-2841) or Mayor Dick Riordan (213-847-2489) know how ya feel.
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