Departments

From the Editors

Welcome to the (almost) fall edition of our magazine.

This edition comes at the conclusion of the IATSE’s Basic and Videotape Supplemental Negotiations with the AMPTP and has been tremendously challenging to produce during this busy time. We’d like to thank our partners at IngleDodd Media and our various contributors for their patience throughout this process. Our partnerships are what have always made this publication a success, but that has never been more true than with this edition.

But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have just as much content for you to enjoy! We spotlight William B. Kaplan in “My Path in Sound.” Devendra Cleary, Beau Baker, and Juan Cisneros take us behind the scenes of the Sound Departments of Twisters, Grey’s Anatomy, and Station 19. Then Josh Levy shares his story at the bargaining table with the AMPTP in “My Last Monday.” Ryan Pedersen shares some insights about the mental health of the filmmaking community during the recent work shortages.

There’s a lot to enjoy in this one and we hope you do.

In Solidarity,
James Delhauer & Richard Lightstone
Production Sound & Video Co-editors.

From the President

Let’s talk about Zarya of the Dawn.

As I write this, I’m currently en route to work as the Recordist for The Daily Show’s coverage of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee. In August, I’ll fly home to Chicago to work the Democratic National Convention. These events have been a career bucket list item for as long as I can remember. Though I was supposed to check them off my list in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced me to postpone endeavors until now. But this year’s election seems to hit a little closer to home. For the past year, I have poured my heart and soul into my research on artificial intelligence (AI) for this year’s Basic and Videotape Supplemental Agreement negotiations. A large part of that research revolved around copyright laws and how they pertain to our industry.

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, AI or generative AI, models “train” on vast quantities of unstructured, preexisting human-authored data. A human “prompts” or creates a text instruction, which is converted into tokens that the AI model uses to find patterns within that data set to draw from. The machine then uses those inferences from the trained data set to generate new content or output. This output can be text, audio, or visual in format.

The questions becomes who is the author of the output? The human who wrote the prompt or the AI model?

The Copyright Act defines the scope of copyright protection as an “original work of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” The term “original,” according to the Supreme Court, consists of two components: independent creation and sufficient creativity. The work must be independently created by a human author and must possess sufficient creativity. “Works of authorship” have uniformly been limited to human creation. Therefore, an output from an AI system is authored by the machine, not by the human prompting it.

Several case studies are available on the U.S. Copyright Office website (www.copyright.gov) for a leisurely Friday-night read. However, one stands out amongst the rest. Zarya of the Dawn is an eighteen-page comic book consisting of both text and visual material. Upon further investigation by the US copyright office, the comic book text was human authored, but the images were generated by a text-to-image AI service called Midjourney. Midjourney, which operates on top of a third-party communication service called Discord, takes a user’s input text and generates images based on Midjourney’s individual server data.

In February 2023, the Copyright Office concluded that Zarya of the Dawn was comprised of human-authored text, which did constitute a copyrightable work. However, the individual images themselves generated by Midjourney could not be protected by copyright because the authorship of the content is attributed to the AI model or the machine, not the person prompting it. Therefore, parts of the comic book are copyrightable, but because AI was used in the creation of the totality of the project, the finished product is not. I recommend reading the full document on the copyright website for more information.

The current copyright laws mandate human authorship in the process of creation in order for corporations to apply and receive copyright. This is critical to the future of our industry. It ensures the need for human creativity—the very soul of what we bring to the table—to be a part of the process when producing works deserving of legal protection in our country. This not only ensures a level of protection for our jobs in the future as more AI systems become available, but also ensures that the product we strive to make has the ability to connect with our audiences on a real and human level—For Humans, By Humans.

This fall’s presidential election results could change all of that though. AI and tech companies, as well as major corporations, are lobbying to change the laws to economize labor and receive copyright protections for non-human authored work. This could do indescribable harm to our workers, our industry as a whole, and other industries like ours. When you vote this fall (and if you’re not planning to vote, please vote this fall), it is important that you do so in a manner that reflects your stance on these laws and the need to keep our industry and its content safe.

I have been working with International Political Affairs Director Tyler Macintosh and Local 695 Political Affairs Director James Delhauer to educate our members going into the 2024 election. Our Local will be releasing voter information guides outlining candidates supported by the IATSE, the California IATSE Council, and the California Federation of Labor for their worker-first records of service so that you know which candidates have your best interests at heart.

UPDATE (and editorial plot twist): Five days later, I’m revising my second pass at this article on the way back to Los Angeles, a day before the RNC commences. Producers of The Daily Show canceled our Milwaukee RNC shows three hours after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

As their press release said, “Our apologies for the inconvenience, but due to logistical issues and the evoling situation in Milwaukee, we need to reschedule our events…” We wrapped two days before we went to air, and three days into ESU.

I applaud the producers of The Daily Show for making crew safety a priority. Despite the growing number of pre-production hours by the entire crew to get that show off the ground, execs made the choice to put the safety of the cast and crew before all. Production was incredibly generous, empathetic, and flexible to our needs. They are a model crew top to bottom.

As you know, our political season is already layered with complexity. Stay Safe. Stay Curious. Vote.

In Solidarity,

President Jillian Arnold

From the Business Representative

Sometimes I hear IATSE members say, “I don’t know why the union is so involved in politics.”

This is an understandable sentiment, as politics in our country have become more divisive in the past decade. It is essential that union members understand the role politics play in achieving success within the labor unions’ mission. The fact is, as Business Agents, our primary job is to negotiate the best contracts we possibly can for our members and enforce those contracts, but what we win at the bargaining table can be lost at the ballot box if not supported by our elected officials.

As a union, we need to support candidates who support workers’ rights and labor unions and for this reason, I recommend you consider supporting Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Vice President Harris has been a friend and ally to the IATSE and the Labor Movement during her time in Washington. She has been a champion for unions for many years. President Biden and Vice President Harris care about union families and I believe that is why he selected her to be his Vice President. I have personally spoken with Kamala regarding labor issues and have seen firsthand how she supports union workers.

In 2021, it was Harris’ tie-breaking vote that helped pass the American Rescue Plan Act that supports union members. This bill provides expanded unemployment benefits, healthcare subsidies, and direct support to trade union members. IATSE members were given the space to voice their needs to the White House, and because of this opportunity, we gained substantial benefits.

In 2022, Harris opened the door for IATSE Organizer Rachel Gitlevich to visit the White House and allowed Gitlevich the opportunity to give her input to the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment. Our union’s recommendations on grant funding were reflected in the seventy policy proposals set forth by the Biden-Harris Administration focusing on worker protections and making the federal government a model employer benefiting our members.

Beginning in 2023, the IATSE participated in multiple discussions with the Executive Branch to set guidelines surrounding the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Then, in 2024, Vice President Harris unveiled safe, secure, and responsible AI guidelines for federal agencies, guidelines that were developed with the participation of IATSE and other labor organizations in mind.

Adam Schiff, one of our union’s closest allies in Washington, has endorsed Harris. Adam is a friend of the IATSE and calls Burbank home. Schiff’s support of the union is so strong. He kicked off his Senate campaign in the parking lot of Local 80. His support of Kamala Harris’ candidacy speaks volumes.

We’ve made tremendous improvements in our contract this year, and all of them could be at stake without proper support from Washington. The President appoints the Labor Secretary, who heads the Department of Labor. This position is critical to the union as this official can and will directly affect your daily work life. So, when you vote, look closely at the candidate and ask yourself, do they have my best interest at heart?

In Solidarity,

Scott Bernard

News & Announcements

IATSE-AMPTP Negotiations

On March 4, the IATSE and AMPTP began negotiations for the 2024 Hollywood Basic Agreement, the Videotape Supplemental Agreement, and the Area Standards Agreement. These contracts form the basis of narrative-driven union productions in the United States. IATSE is joined in its negotiations for the Motion Picture Industry Health & Pension Plans by the Hollywood Teamsters, Local 399, and Hollywood Basic Crafts in order to collectively bargain our shared benefits.

On March 25, Local 695 reached a tentative agreement for the Local collective Bargaining Agreement with the producers, securing important gains that members have been requesting for years. The Local’s proposals focused on pay equity, on-set safety, and adequate staffing in the Sound & Video Departments on set. After Local negotiations concluded, general negotiations for the Basic Agreement began. Hollywood leaders and representatives for the studios bargained for three weeks. Though significant progress has been made, an agreement has not yet been reached. These talks will resume in June, following negotiations for the Area Standards Agreement.

IATSE Education

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) is an excellent source of online training tutorials covering topics such as Avid Pro Tools, Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Rhino, Vectorworks, Final Cut Pro, Filemaker, AutoCad, Cubase, Logic Pro, Shot Put Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Vegas Pro, as well as Project Management, Software Development, Network Administration, Finance and Accounting, Marketing, and much more. All IATSE members are eligible to sign up for a free LinkedIn Learning Account by visiting https://www.iatsetrainingtrust.org/lil

You can also view a multitude of free educational webinars sponsored by the IA Training Trust Fund online at www.gotostage.com/channel/iaeducationforall. These webinars cover a range of topics from labor and voting rights; the basics of equity, diversity, and inclusion; mental health subjects such as depression, substance abuse; physical safety and well-being at work; and so much more.

Financial Relief for Entertainment Workers

Though the strikes have ended, the financial impact will continue to be felt for some time and both MPTF and the Entertainment Community Fund still have resources available to help. If you work in entertainment and you or your family are in need, please visit their websites online at www.mptf.com and www.entertainmentcommunity.org.

New Members

Local 695 welcomes its new members

Richard Armstrong Y-4
Dan Battista Y-9
Colin Brant Proj.
Kenneth Bromberek Y-8
John Paul Golaski Y-1
Damian Gordon Y-7a
David Hecht Y-16a
Erik Jue Y-4
Sean Milburn Y-1
Nancy Perry A2
Alex Saededdin Y-7a
James Salini Y-1
Preston Soper Y-7a
Seung Sul Y-4
Craig Vincent Y-1

In Memoriam

Douglas Barry Y-4
February 25, 1953 – January 6, 2024

Timothy Burke Projectionist
March 16, 1961 – February 24, 2024

Thomas Dickson Projectionist
August 15, 1958 – September 19, 2023

Robert Harris Y-7a
April 29, 1942 – April 14, 2024

Scott Nall Projectionist
August 15, 1958 – January 30, 2024

Negotiations Solidarity Rally

Local 695 video engineering members with IATSE International President Matthew Loeb & International Vice President Michael Miller.

On March 3, the IATSE, Teamsters, and Basic Crafts came together in a rally of solidarity and support before beginning this year’s contract negotiations with the AMPTP. More than 2,000 members of the entertainment unions showed up in person to voice their support for below-the-line workers as they prepared to negotiate for better terms and conditions for the next three years. Speakers from the IATSE, Teamsters, Basic Crafts, DGA, WGA, SAG-AFTRA, the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, and the California Federation of Labor all came out with the same message: “Though we are many crafts, we are joined in one fight.”

The event was livestreamed to an audience of almost 6,000 addition viewers, making this one of the largest solidarity events in the history of our unions. The livestream was engineered and overseen by Holley Video, a boutique video consultation company owned by Local 695 member Zak Holley. The video team consisted of 695 members Zak Holley, Tristen Poliseno, Brandon Boldroff, and Cam Broadbent, while members Bill Kaplan and Patrick Simon engineered and mixed the sound for the event. Local 695 would like to thank all of its members who contributed to making this a successful show of solidarity and support for our union, our fellow unions, and the labor movement as a whole.

L-R: International Vice President Michael Miller, Local 695 members Tristen Poliseno, Cameron Broadbent, Brandon Boldroff, Zak Holley, International President Matthew Loeb, and 695 Communications Director James Delhauer.

The Local would also like to thank James Wood (IATSE Secretary-Treasurer), Jonas Loeb (IATSE Director of Communications), Sean Miller (IATSE Press Secretary), Amy Gorton (Teamsters 399 Communication & Operations Director), Jill Wilk (Local 600 Director of Communications), Scott Collins (Local 700 Director of Communications), Doug Boney (Local 892 Assistant Business Agent), Anthony Pawluc (International Representative), and the many members of the IATSE Negotiations Subcommittees for Communications & Logistics who worked so hard to bring this event together.

Local 695 Office New Hire

In March, Local 695 hired Lauren Sorrells as our new Director of Operations. Lauren brings with her a wealth of experience from working to improve efficiency for companies like Verizon, American Express, and Kaiser Permanente. It will be her responsibility to coordinate internal office affairs and external partnerships so that the Local can offer more services to its members going forward.

Our Contributors

Amanda Beggs CAS

Amanda Beggs CAS works as a Production Sound Mixer in Los Angeles and has worked on both features and television. She received a BFA in film & television from SCAD. She’s been honored with two CAS Award nominations and two Emmy nominations. She is currently serving on IATSE Local 695’s Executive Board, and she is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Television Academy, and the Cinema Audio Society.

James Delhauer

James Delhauer was born in Southern California and never made it very far from home. Since 2014, he has worked as a television engineer specializing in Pronology’s mRes platform. He joined Local 695 because he desperately needed friends. James is Co-editor of Production Sound & Video.

Steven A. Morrow CAS

Steven A. Morrow CAS has been a member of Local 695 for the past 27 years. He currently works almost exclusively on feature films but enjoys the occasional TV series. He loves to mentor and learn from all of our collective experiences.

Gary Raymond

Gary Raymond is a thirty-year member of Local 695 and has provided music playback & recording on over 120 films, including the Best Sound Emmy Award-winning episode of Scrubs, “My Musical.” He’s also worked on Sound Oscar and Emmy-nominated projects Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Dexter. In addition to his work on production, Gary has provided sound and lighting for over 400 music bands and developed several industry tools for use in live music.

Ric Teller

I’ve been very fortunate in my more than forty years working in television, going places and doing things that a kid from a small town in Nebraska could not have imagined.

Tarn Willers AMPS

Academy Award winner Tarn Willers AMPS has worked in film production sound since graduating from the UK’s National Film and Television School in 2003. After serving his time as a trainee, Boom Op and 2nd Unit Mixer, he has established himself as a Production Sound Mixer, both in the UK and Europe. In 2024, along with an Academy Award, Tarn’s work on The Zone of Interest also received recognition at the BAFTA’s, the European Film Awards, and by AMPS. He is also an Ambassador for Ciné Schools whose mission is to create a safe, communal space for primary schoolchildren to create and make films, regardless of their background.

From the Editors

Welcome to the summer edition and to bountiful reading.

Oscar winner for sound, Tarn Willers, describes The Zone of Interest. Amanda Beggs writes about The Bikeriders and Steve Morrow explains his team’s work on the live recording of music and overlapping dialog on Maestro.

On the topic of music, Gary Raymond gives us “Music Playback Audio Ninja.” Co-editor James Delhauer interviews Rene Amador, CEO of ARwall, a virtual production company about the new tools and technologies available for members of Local 695 at this year’s NAB.

We also have “An Interview with Jenn Raudman,” a career in the broadcast reality world, “Ric Rambles” returns by Ric Teller, and Dmitry Kovalev explores how the process shot has evolved over the years in a virtual production/video wall environment in “Exploring the Virtual Process Shot.”

Settle back with your favorite beverage and enjoy all the content.

In Solidarity,
Richard Lightstone & James Delhauer,
Production Sound & Video Co-editors

From the President

Note: At the time of this editorial’s submission deadline, the Hollywood locals had just concluded local negotiations for craft-specific issues with the AMPTP and we were preparing to enter general negotiations to bargain on issues impacting all members of our union. Unfortunately, this deadline and the timing of this edition of our magazine’s release do not allow for us to cover the most timely information with regards to negotiations. IATSE members should keep an eye on their local announcement emails and official correspondence from the union to remain up-to-date on the state of negotiations.

Let’s Meet the Press…

When I was in high school, one of my first real paid jobs was as a student journalist in my city’s printed newspaper. My first article was above the fold, front page, in print. Yes, I have just dated myself, but I am proud of it. I was unofficially interning at the Chicago Tribune in the photo department and was editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper. I loved to research and get the story. It was one of my favorite high school activities. And I still write on steno pads, rather than legal. At the time, my goal was to go to school for journalism. My journalism career was side-swiped by a more glamorous and lucrative career in TV and film, but the lessons imposed on me in Mr. Venetucci’s junior and senior year broadcast TV class have never left my system.

I am and will always be a skeptic of the press.

Earlier this year, panic swept through our industry as OpenAI announced Sora—their text-to-video artificial intelligence (AI) program. Initial promos for the service were impressive, particularly if viewed on small displays such as those of a cellphone, tablet, or laptop. News then followed that OpenAI was attempting to court Hollywood studios with this new product and shortly after that, The Hollywood Reporter announced that producer and studio owner Tyler Perry would be halting construction on an $800 million expansion of his Atlanta-based studio because of his belief that Sora and similar AI tools would fundamentally change the way our industry functions. Perry called for guardrails to be placed on the use of AI, citing that it would be a job killer. Then in April, OpenAI released Air Head, a short film produced by ShyKids using Sora to demonstrate the capabilities of this new tool. All these stories paint a bleak picture for our business if taken at face value.

But let’s dissect what we’re seeing.

Over the past six months, I have received hundreds of articles, social media posts, YouTube videos, and white papers on the subject of AI. KTLA recently did a story on AI-generated news reports, demonstrating how you can find examples of the fully generated news stories on various social media outlets. It made me think about my skepticism with the press and how much skepticism could potentially grow as a result of AI-generated news outlets.

In the same interview where Tyler Perry voiced his concerns around AI, he acknowledged incorporating AI tools into his own productions, which “kept [him] out of makeup for hours.” How can a man call for regulations and guardrails around the very tools he’s using; how can he call for worker protections while simultaneously displacing workers? And two weeks after Air Head released, the crew behind it revealed that Sora was not solely responsible for its creation. Instead, the team had to employ a variety of traditional filmmaking and VFX processes to complete the project, as Sora repeatedly struggled to generate assets without errors.

There is a narrative being created around artificial intelligence and it is being created by those who have embraced AI. As I continue to dive deep into this new area of our industry, I am continuously skeptical about the news circulating around this cultural change. It takes me twice as long as the average person to read the daily news. When I read one news source, I search for the opposing view on the same subject and compare the two. Usually more than two. Then I often ask myself a series of questions:

“Why did this article come out today?”

“What is the cultural context of this information?”

“Who are the sources and how do they know this journalist?”

“What are the contributing factors that go into why this story was published?”

“Who is the writer?”

“What is the publication?” and more importantly,
“Who owns this publication?”

On April 29, 2024, Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, attended a sit-down with the leaders of five major news organizations in which he said, “I think we are in an era where misinformation and disinformation [are] proliferating. I think it’s being exacerbated by so many technologies. So that is clearly a headwind. The fact that we are seeing such a massive change in how our consumers are wanting to engage and consume news and information, that’s a real change for all of us.”

Conde also added, “I think in a world where audiences are going to be inundated with so much information, news from so many places … I think this dynamic will increase, which is why they are going to gravitate toward trusted brands, news organizations that have long records focused on accuracy, extraordinarily high standards. News organizations that invest in original journalism. I think we will continue to see that trend of audiences looking and seeking out those trusted brands.”

As we continue into the election year and artificial intelligence remains to be a topic of conversation in our zeitgeist, I encourage you to ask the same questions when you read the Sunday paper or scroll through TikTok. Let’s not displace our research skills or thought process for a machine processing data and disseminating potentially harmful information.

In Solidarity

President Jillian Arnold

From the Business Representative

Working for the Future

On March 4, the IATSE began negotiations with the AMPTP for the Hollywood Basic Agreement and Videotape Supplemental Agreement. This is the foundational contract under which the majority of productions in Los Angeles work. Bargaining began with craft-specific Local negotiations, during which time each of the thirteen Hollywood Locals went in with the goal of improving their individual collective bargaining agreements. On March 25, Local 695 sat down with the employers. The proposals we presented had been carefully crafted after months of surveys, town halls, set visits, and one-on-one conversations with the many craftspeople, artists, and technicians in our Local. I made this clear to the employers. I also made it clear that although our bargaining committee consisted of 33 members, we were there on behalf of 1,725 active members and over 300 retired members.

Through the efforts of the bargaining committee, our Board of Directors, our office staff, and the many members who gave up their valuable time to help craft our platform, our proposals, and our presentation, we achieved a successful outcome. We made improvements to our Local agreement that our members have been requesting for years. As I write this, general negotiations for the Basic Agreement are still ongoing, meaning that our Local Agreement is a tentative one. I look forward to sharing the details of our accomplishments and the gains we reached in the next edition of this magazine, pending a ratification vote in favor of the new agreement. But I would be remiss if I did not thank those whose dedicated work helped win these gains. Thank you to Jamie Gambell, Bryan Cahill, Shawn Holden, and Josh Levy, all of whom presented on behalf of the members working in their respective crafts. Thank you to James Delhauer and Casey Weiss, who worked late into the night to shape our many proposals and surveys into a visual presentation that demonstrated our members’ needs to the producers. Thank you to the Local 695 Board of Directors for their leadership and expertise in this time, especially to Joe Aredas, Heidi Nakamura, Blas Kisic, Mark Ulano and Edward L. Moskovitz—all of whom served on our Local Bargaining Committee. And thank you to Jillian Arnold for being the best bargaining partner a BA could ever ask for.

As far as the Basic Agreement and Videotape Supplemental Agreement negotiations are concerned, your bargaining team consists of the leaders of the thirteen Hollywood Locals, representatives from the IATSE, the IATSE’s legal counsel, our pension and health plan actuaries, and rank & file members from the crafts. We brought a very comprehensive list of improvements to the table that will require a substantial amount of funding for the term of the agreement. We are seeking many important improvements on the issues of rest periods, overtime wages, pension & healthcare benefits, travel provisions, sick pay, improvement for compensation for reality TV workers, safeguards for the use of artificial intelligence, subcontractors performing our covered work, the overabundance of side letters in our contract, and—last but not least—wages.

We may not achieve everything we desire in this singular contract, but I believe we will achieve more than we ever have before. I also believe the old adage that you are always marching toward the next agreement. I’ve been at the bargaining table representing our Local since 1997 and I’ve never experienced this much engagement and participation from our members. The momentum we have built going into these negotiations will carry forward as we work to change the culture of Hollywood.

We are not done. There is always work that needs to be done. So, stay involved, report contract violations to the office. Support each other on set. Let’s continue to build on our success.

In Solidarity,

Scott Bernard

News & Announcements

Local 695 Election of Officers & Delegates

On December 21, 2023, Miller Kaplan certified the results of Local 695’s 2023 Election of Officers for the 2024-2026 Executive Board and Delegates to the 2025 IATSE International Convention.

The following members have been elected to a three-year term in the following roles:

Business Representative
Scott Bernard

President
Jillian Arnold

Vice President
Devendra D. Cleary

Recording Secretary
Heidi Nakamura

Treasurer
Phillip W. Palmer CAS
Sergeant-at-Arms
Jamie Gambell

Trustees
Shawn Holden CAS
Jay Patterson CAS
Jennifer Winslow

Board Members
Joseph A. Aredas Jr.
Amanda Beggs
Blas Kisic
Edward L. Moskowitz CAS
Steve Nelson CAS
Mark Ulano CAS AMPS

The following members have been elected to serve as Delegates to the 2025 International Convention:

Heidi Nakamura
Amanda Beggs
Jennifer Winslow
Phillip W. Palmer CAS
Jay Patterson CAS
Eva Rismanforoush
Joseph A. Aredas Jr.
Edward L. Moskowitz CAS
Anna Wilborn
Mark Ulano CAS AMPS
Veronica Kahn
Beau Baker
Bryan Cahill
Richard Lightstone CAS AMPS
James Delhauer
Sara Glaser CAS

The new Executive Board began its term of office on January 20, 2024, at the Local’s Q1 General Membership Meeting, where they were sworn in and took their Oaths of Office. Local 695 congratulates both our new and returning Board members and offers a profound thank you to those who served on the 2021-2023 Board of Directors for their service.

Financial Relief for Entertainment Workers

This year’s prolonged work stoppages have been devastating to the entertainment community across the nation. In Hollywood, our community has been supported by the profound efforts of the Motion Picture Television Fund (MPTF) and the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund). Both of these charities have long histories of offering safety-net services and aid for entertainment workers and their families. Both of these organizations aided the entertainment unions, including Local 695, in administering their relief funds throughout the 2023 WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes against the AMPTP.
Though the strikes have ended, the financial impact will continue to be felt for some time and both MPTF and the Entertainment Community Fund still have resources available to help. If you work in entertainment and you or your family are in need, please visit their websites online at www.mptf.com and www.entertainmentcommunity.org

Lean In & Lean On Holiday Toy Drive

After a difficult year, many families within our union community were struggling. That is why the IATSE, Teamsters, Basic Crafts, and IBEW 40 joined forces to host the Lean In & Lean On Solidarity Holiday events in order to provide for our own who were in need. The overwhelming generosity from our 695 family went a long way as we filled two full donation boxes with gift items for children and received a 4’5” stuffed giraffe (pictured left with our 4’10” Director of Education & Training Casey Weiss and 1’3” Head of Security Chewie). The Local thanks all of its members for their kind and generous donations during the holiday season.

MLK Breakfast

(L-R) Local 695 Asst. Bus. Agent Joe Aredas, member Veronica Kahn, Y-7A Leslie Metts, Y-16A Naola Greaves, Business Rep Scott Bernard, and Asst. Bus. Agent Heidi Nakamura

Local 695 would like to thank the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor for hosting this year’s MLK Day Breakfast at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This was a monumental undertaking in honor of one of our country’s greatest Civil Rights leaders and a testament to the important work his movement continues to do to this day.

IATSE Education

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) is an excellent source of online training tutorials covering topics such as Avid Pro Tools, Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Rhino, Vectorworks, Final Cut Pro, Filemaker, AutoCad, Cubase, Logic Pro, Shot Put Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Vegas Pro, as well as Project Management, Software Development, Network Administration, Finance and Accounting, Marketing and much more. All IATSE members are eligible to sign up for a free LinkedIn Learning Account by visiting https://www.iatsetrainingtrust.org/lil.

New Members

Local 695 Welcomes its New Members

Stephen “Stepho” Evans Y-7
Adam Sanchez Y-1
Evan Millard Y-8
Richard Carlos Y-1

TRANSFER IN

Aaron Walk – Local 700

In Memoriam

John Coffey Y-7A
November 17, 1953 – October 15, 2023

Richard Geerts Y-8
October 16, 1963 – January 20, 2023

Our Contributors

Richard Bullock CAS
Richard is from New York originally and began his film career in Seattle in 1995, transitioning from video assist to sound in 1999. His recent credits include The Color Purple, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, 1883, and Mare of Easttown.

Püd Cusack
Püd has been working in the film industry since graduating from film school at The Dominican University, Chicago. After her first eight years as a Boom Operator, she moved on to production sound mixing. Receiving an Oscar nomination for The Mask of Zorro, and an Emmy nomination for Marvel’s Hawkeye, her third Marvel project. With more than eighty films on her resume, she has worked all over the US, as well as twelve countries and counting. Püd’s passion & devotion to the sound film industry continues to grow & flourish.

James Delhauer
James Delhauer was born in Southern California and never made it very far from home. Since 2014, he has worked as a television engineer specializing in Pronology’s mRes platform. He joined Local 695 because he desperately needed friends and has served as the Local’s Director of Communications since 2022. James is Co-editor of Production Sound & Video.

Sean O’Malley
Sean O’Malley was born in Youngstown, Ohio. He began his professional career in music as an Engineer at Track Record Studios, and has been a Production Sound Mixer since 2004. He cut his teeth working with the Duplass brothers on many low-budget features and followed them to scripted television with HBO’s Togetherness. Sean is a member of the Television Academy and has earned two Emmy nominations for Euphoria and BEEF. His most recent projects include The Idol and an upcoming feature, On Swift Horses.

Mark Ulano CAS AMPS
Mark Ulano has been recording sound for film since 1976 mixing more than 150 film and television projects. He is a four-time Oscar nominee, most recently for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ad Astra, and Inglorious Basterds. His work on Titanic won him an Academy Award for Sound Mixing, as well as the Cinema Audio Society Award for Best Sound Mixing for a Feature Film. Most recently, his work can be heard on Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody and in 2023 on the new Martin Scorsese spring release, Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.

From the Editors

Happy New Year!

2024 is sure to be an exciting year for Production Sound & Video as we expect to cover a wealth of exciting projects spearheaded by Local 695 members, delve into the contract negotiations between the IATSE and AMPTP, and look ahead toward this year’s presidential election.

In this edition, Püd Cusack takes us behind the scenes of NYAD, while Richard Bullock shares a bit about his experiences working on 1923. We hear a bit about the production of BEEF from Sean O’Malley. Then we get to hear about the philosophy of sound in “A Conversation with Mark Ulano.” Members interested in on-set communications should take a look at the evolution of communication with Cine-Comm and last, but not least, James Delhauer shares the story of how IATSE solidarity played a key role in the wildfire crisis in Hawaii last August.

Do you have a story you’d like to share with the world? Production Sound & Video is seeking new writers from Local 695 to contribute articles to our quarterly publication. If you have a story you’d like to write or submit as an interview, please contact Co-editors James Delhauer & Richard Lightstone at mag@local695.com.

In Solidarity,
James Delhauer & Richard Lightstone
Production Sound & Video Co-editors

From the President

Let’s chat about GPT.

A year after I finished my graduate degree, I got a call. It was one of those life-changing calls. In fact, I thought it was a prank. But within a few days, my resume was polished and I was sitting in reception of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, interviewing for an unnamed show. On May 25, 2008, I shot Mission Control as JPL’s Phoenix Mars lander descended onto our neighboring planet. It was absolutely surreal and I was convinced I had peaked early in my career. Little did I know, I would continue on a path entrenched in technology change that was always pushing the boundaries of what was to come.

I have learned many valuable lessons over the last sixteen years of my partnership with the space agency, but one that sticks out from all the others is the role that fear plays when approaching emerging technology or cultural shifts in the technical space. On the one hand, feelings of fear are very organic. The idea of the unknown is unsettling and anxiety-inducing, but it’s also essential. Fear starts the process of problem solving. It is the catalyst to creativity. The two exist in an inseparable dichotomy with one another. I believe an unspoken requirement of our technical local membership is the understanding that we cannot create when we are overcome with fear, but both are necessary ingredients to a successful project.

In my time with JPL, I have worked on over a dozen high-profile missions from the earliest stages of conception. Almost ten years ago,when we did a test at NASA’s Ames Aeronautical Laboratory at Moffett Field, we were in the midst of incorporating a lot of new technology while performing a very high profile test. I was terrified. Ames contains the world’s largest wind tunnel test facility. Their facility’s test section is eighty feet high by one hundred and twenty feet long, producing wind speeds up to 250 mph. This tunnel is used in anything where wind speed is a factor in transit, ranging from semi-trucks to jet engines. Our job was to conduct a series of parachute tests for the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) system of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity. Curiosity’s EDL was newly designed and developed with the most radical design in the history of Mars missions. I encourage you to google “Seven Minutes of Terror” for the full breakdown.

My job was to set up a series of high frame rate cameras and video assist in the wind tunnel in order to capture the parachute so that its success or failure could be thoroughly assessed after the fact. One of the angles necessary to document the test required me to climb sixty feet up the side of the building to rig a camera for a profiled point of view of the deployment. The scope of the test would require an operator. The vibration from the wind tunnel hitting the walls and the glass of the window was potentially too problematic to be left unattended for such an expensive test.

So, for over an hour, I was harnessed in above a seven story drop while being bombarded with 250 mph winds. The facility’s manager, the safety managers, a fellow video engineer, and I worked to ensure that I would be safe and that the camera would be rigged in such a manner that I couldn’t drop it, but that couldn’t block out the fear; the gnawing sense of anxiety that came with knowing that any unaccounted variable could be fatal and the responsibility of being tasked with shooting this one and done multi-million dollar test.

As the fans started to warm up, the lights across the facility and the neighboring town of Mountainview dimmed from the fan’s power consumption. The walls started to sway and breathe cold drafts of air. The wind continued to ramp up and the walls began to shake. The vibration grew in decibel level. I could barely hear the project manager on the walkie, but I faintly made out a voice calling, “Go!”

Another voice called, “Jil, hit record!”

My breathing was heavy, but I hit record. “Record system is Go!” I called back.

“All systems are a go. 5…4…3…2…1…Deploy.”

The noise from the vibration seemed to fade away as the parachute unfolded into a magical floating silk of orange and white. In the end, creativity won. On August 12, 2012, the Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars following a successful deployment of its EDL.

The skills that I acquired as a young video engineer—setting up full installation flypacks in the middle of desert and water proving grounds—were invaluable for the rest of my career. I learned to do the highest quality of work on a government budget, while pushing technology and vendors to improve their products so that we could better analyze space-flight hardware for successful launch and landing. The diligent, methodical, and scientific structure of these tests has carried with me into my work as a recordist in live TV or live-to-tape production.

Last fall, the IATSE appointed me Chair of the Artificial Intelligence Basic Negotiations Subcommittee. This is a subject where fear is prevalent and so this recent appointment forced me to assess what role fear and creativity will play in our upcoming negotiations. My research in the artificial intelligence (AI) space started years ago with privately funded projects and government assignments. I had the chance to work with Greg Brockman, President of OpenAI, in 2021. His talk on AI changed my thinking of everything to come. The earliest forms of ChatGPT were debuted to us and it set me into a multi-year analysis of how AI and generative tools would affect our industry.

As Don Draper from Mad Men once said, “Change is neither good or bad. It just is.” Artificial intelligence is inevitable at this point and we can greet it with either terror or curiosity. But if we do find ourselves filled with fear about this industry and cultural evolution, we have to remember to take a pause and grow past the unknown so we can embrace the creativity of the prospective.

I’m here to tell you, we do not have to fear this change. Instead, let’s get creative.

In Solidarity,

President Jillian Arnold

PS As we wrap up awards season, I want to take the time to acknowledge and thank all of the members of our Local who worked on nominated or award-winning projects. We have a very limited number of people in our Local who are eligible to receive a statue, but they do so with the help of all of those within the department whose talents, skills, and knowledge are creatively poured into these projects. If your name is on that list of nominees, please take the time to reach out to your crew and thank them one more time. And for those of us in fields that will never hold that Emmy or that Oscar or that CAS Award because your jurisdiction is deemed to be not creative enough to warrant one; I see you, I hear you, and I stand with you. Your talents and efforts are not unnoticed by the leadership of this Local. Congratulations to all who worked on projects that were nominated, and also to the crews that work the award show circuits for another great season.

Jillian Arnold standing beside the Mars Curiosity rover, 2013

From the Business Representative

To the average viewer, it might come as a surprise to find out that an hour of television or the latest two-and-a-half-hour blockbuster took hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of working hours to produce.

All that time spent making it, only to be consumed in a short sitting. For the uninitiated, there’s no way to understand all the various facets of our crafts that go into making such a short piece of artistic content.

Much the same is true of how our union functions. While our members are hard at work on set (or marching the picket lines as was the case last year), your representatives are hard at work managing the day-to-day tasks of running a union and preparing for bargaining on your behalf. So today, I thought I might shed a little light on what your union has been doing to prepare for the 2024 Basic Agreement & Videotape Supplemental Agreement Negotiations with the AMPTP.

Following unprecedented member participation in the 2021 Contract Negotiations, this year’s bargaining platform began development in early 2022. Knowing what we achieved in 2021 and what gains we still needed to achieve, we began compiling case precedent for proposals we knew or suspected would be priorities for the membership. This involved tracking economic trends over the lifetime of the contract and documenting safety concerns or incidents reported by members. We also began soliciting feedback on whether or not the new provisions from 2021 were effective in combating the issues they were intended to address. For example, almost every Local 695 email sent out in the last two years has included links to Job Report and Working Condition Report forms that our members can use to keep us appraised of changes or issues that arise on set.

From there, we launched our 2022 Membership Survey. This survey covered a wide variety of issues reported by members over the previous year and allowed members to rank issues in terms of importance and offer free response answers surrounding issues that the office may not have known about already. This information was used to assist in further research and helped us shape an outline of what our 2024 bargaining platform might look like.

The most commonly reported issues were those involving encroachment into our work jurisdiction by members of other locals or non-union workers, which we have been pleased to mostly resolve without needing to wait for the 2024 contract. 2022 and 2023 both saw jurisdictional clarifications from the IATSE that have helped put Local 695 members back to work when productions had been calling upon others to do their jobs.

In 2023, we continued to follow up on the data we’d gathered in 2022 by engaging with industry experts to help come up with solutions to the problems commonly reported by our members. This included the newly emerging field of artificial intelligence, with more and more members raising concerns about automation and job elimination on the set.

Of course, the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strikes came with their fair share of work for the union as well. As members found themselves out of work, it became our job to ensure that healthcare benefits were disrupted as little as possible. As a member of the Motion Picture Industry Health & Pension Plan Board, I personally worked with other representatives from the IA and the employers to secure No-Cost COBRA benefits for our members who were in danger of losing coverage. Our members had not been the ones to initiate a strike. Why should they have lost health coverage for it? In a year when tens of thousands of workers found themselves at home for months on end, less than 3% of participants covered by MPI fell out of the plan.

The strikes did not halt our negotiations preparation though. In fact, the swell of success within the labor movement as a whole allowed us to develop new strategies and proposals. Additionally, the gains achieved by the writers and actors have created new possibilities for our own union. Following the launch of the IATSE Census and IATSE Survey, our Local began directly engaging our membership through a series of town halls, general issue-based surveys, classification-based surveys, and one-on-one conversations. Our bargaining committees were formed and have been among the most active groups in 695’s 94-year history. We’ve received more member-penned proposals in the last year than we have since I became Business Agent in 2015.

Now our proposals have been submitted to the IATSE, where they have been combined with proposals from our sister Locals here in Hollywood. The IATSE formed seven bargaining subcommittees that are in the process of reviewing the various proposals. I’m pleased to report that our Locals are very well represented on these committees, with seats on the Wages & Economics, Communications, Logistics, Working Conditions, and New Media committees. Moreover, I have been tasked with chairing this year’s Benefits Committee, while President Jillian Arnold was assigned to chair the first-ever Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee. This means that our Local has a presence on all seven committees. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to narrow down our proposals until we’ve developed a comprehensive, progressive, and achievable bargaining platform that will best serve our members. We’ve been attentive to the feedback we’ve received in the last two years and have carefully considered every single proposal our members have submitted (no matter how profanely written they may have been in surveys or on social media).

In March, negotiations with the AMPTP will begin. At this time, none of us know what will happen, but I firmly believe that the IATSE has never been more prepared. We are resolute in our belief that our members deserve better and that in the ever-evolving technological landscape, a fair and equitable deal can be achieved. When negotiations begin, we will do everything in our power to be as open and transparent as possible. We will not be able to share everything with you, as some strategies will require secrecy so as not to tip our hand toward the employers. But know that your Executive Board, your bargaining committees, the Local 695 office staff, and I have worked tirelessly so that we can go in and do the job you sent us in to do. We are ready.

In Solidarity,

Scott Bernard

News & Announcements

Financial Relief for Entertainment Workers

This year’s prolonged work stoppages have been devastating to the entertainment community across the nation. In Hollywood, our community has been supported by the profound efforts of the Motion Picture Television Fund (MPTF) and the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly the Actor’s Fund). Both of these charities have long histories of offering safety-net services and aid for entertainment workers and their families. Both of these organizations aided the entertainment unions, including Local 695, in administering their Relief Funds throughout the 2023 WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes against the AMPTP.
Though the strikes have ended, the financial impact will continue to be felt for some time and both MPTF and the Entertainment Community Fund still have resources available to help. If you work in entertainment and you or your family are in need, please visit their websites online at www.mptf.com and www.entertainmentcommunity.org

“All-In” Mixer

(L-R) Local 695 member Gary Raymond, Recording Secretary Heidi Nakamura, Communications Director James Delhauer, President Jillian Arnold, and IATSE Vice President Michael Miller.

On October 7, members of the IATSE came together at the Local 80 offices in Burbank for our union’s “All-In” Mixer. Members in attendance enjoyed free food, games, and entertainment. Fierce rivalries sprouted up by the cornhole boards. An auction for a variety of prizes—including beautiful works of art created by IATSE members—raised more than $20,000 for the union’s Political Action Committee, the IATSE-PAC. This fund is used by the IATSE to support candidates or lobbying efforts that align with IATSE federal issue agenda and has helped to elect pro-labor candidates and pass legislation like the 2020 CARES Act that extended unemployment benefits to freelance workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This event was spearheaded by Local 892 Executive Director Brigitta Romanov. Local 695 Recording Secretary Heidi Nakamura was a member of the Event Planning Committee.

IATSE Education

(L-R) AME Institute Student Outreach Day (high school and middle school students learning about the crafts!), Assistant Business Agent Heidi Nakamura/Y-8, Eva Rismanforoush/Y-1, and Steve Weiss

Local 695 offers a wide variety of educational opportunities for its members. Members are encouraged to visit the education’s page on the Local 695 website to see a calendar of upcoming classes, seminars, and educational opportunities.

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) is an excellent source of online training tutorials covering topics such as Avid Pro Tools, Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Rhino, Vectorworks, Final Cut Pro, Filemaker, AutoCAD, Cubase, Logic Pro, ShotPut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Vegas Pro, as well as Project Management, Software Development, Network Administration, Finance and Accounting, Marketing and much more. All IATSE members are eligible to sign up for a free LinkedIn Learning Account by visiting https://www.iatsetrainingtrust.org/lil

One of many Cine-COMM trainings, a big thank you to Y-4 Simon Jayes and instructor/Y-4 Brian Cesson for their continued support in educating the membership on Comms systems.

Introduction to Virtual Reality Seminar, graciously hosted by our partner, Mo-Sys

Fundamentals of video assist, hosted by our partners at Lightning LED and taught by Local 695 members Y-4 Shawn Nooshinfar and Y-4 Josh Levy.

New Members

Local 695 Welcomes its New Members

Estuardo Chacon Y-1
Maasai Moore Y-7A
Avery Randolph Y-4
Jack Sobo Y-1
Johnny Vasquez A2
Silvio Gillespie Y-7A
Gary Shawn Orm Y-16
Richard Ragon Y-4
Marcos Castro Y-8
Casey Graham Y-1
Kyle Pham Y-1
Brian Dickson Y-4
Glen Penland Y-7
Timothy Lewis A2
Julian Edwards Y-16
Yoshiya Ady A2
Kino Crayon Y-8
Nicolas Osorio Y-1
Jacob Eliett Y-1
Omer Barzilay Halperin A-1
Jordan Denis Y-1

Transfer In/From

Timothy Murphy 504
Harry Gingrich 481

In Memoriam

Edward Anderson Y-6
November 9, 1945 – August 10, 2023

Howard Stapleton Y-4
October 22, 1938 – August 29, 2023

Griffith Scott Y-4
November 26, 1996 – October 9, 2023

Our Contributors

James Delhauer
James Delhauer was born in Southern California and never made it very far from home. Since 2014, he has worked as a Television Engineer specializing in Pronology’s mRes platform. He joined Local 695 because he desperately needed friends. James is Co-editor of Production Sound & Video.

Steven A. Morrow CAS
Steven A. Morrow CAS has been a member of Local 695 for the past twenty-seven years. He currently works almost exclusively on feature films but enjoys the occasional TV series. He loves to mentor and learn from all of our collective experiences.

Chris Munro
Chris Munro has collaborated with some of our most respected filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Paul Greengrass, Ron Howard, Alfonso Cuaron and M. Night Shyamalan on worldwide locations for both UK- and US-based productions. Chris has won two Oscars, two BAFTAs, and multiple award nominations. Most recently, a BAFTA nomination for Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

Lee Orloff CAS
Native New Yorker Lee Orloff CAS is a Production Mixer who first studied film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in the 1970s. Since then, he’s spent the better part of forty-plus years learning for free about how filmmakers actually get their movies shot during innumerable and highly memorable days and nights spent with crews on film sets. He served as a member of AMPAS Sound Branch Executive Committee for twelve years and is the current Treasurer of Cinema Audio Society.

Mark Ulano CAS AMPS
Mark Ulano CAS AMPS has been recording sound for film since 1976, mixing over 150 film and television projects. He is a four-time Oscar nominee, most recently for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ad Astra and Inglourious Basterds. His work on Titanic won him an Academy Award for Sound Mixing, as well as the Cinema Audio Society Award for Best Sound Mixing for a Feature Film. Most recently, his work can be heard on Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody and in 2023 on the new Martin Scorsese spring release, Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Mr. Woody Stubblefield
Mr. Woody Stubblefield’s career began in music before transitioning to production sound. Since 1998, he’s worked in production and began specializing in low-budget filmmaking. With over 150 credits to his name, Woody has become a mentor and role model within the low-budget world where he’s had the opportunity to help many a young filmmaker get started with their earliest projects.

From the Editors

We wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and a very Happy New Year!

This is our final edition of Production Sound & Video for 2023.

To say it was a difficult year is an understatement, and perhaps one we would all like to forget.

However, we have a wealth of articles. Lee Orloff brings us Ferrari, filmed in Italy with Director Michael Mann. Killers of the Flower Moon with Mark Ulano on the Martin Scorsese epic production. Chris Munro describes Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Steven Morrow and Richard Bullock tell us about The Color Purple.

But there’s more!
“The World of Low-Budget Filmmaking” by Mr. Woody Stubblefield, and “Post-Strike Post Game” by Co-editor James Delhauer rounds out this issue.

Enjoy the read and onward to a busy, bountiful, and wonderful 2024!

Richard Lightstone & James Delhauer

From the President

Let’s talk about the aftermath.

On September 27 and November 9, 2023, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild ended their one hundred-plus day strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. These dates will live in our generational DNA as moments of great relief.

The truth is that these strikes have been devastating and I am keenly aware of the pain and suffering they have caused. As of November 1, 2023, the Motion Picture Industry & Pension Health Plans have lost a total of over 40 million hours or two billion dollars in labor wages. I am appalled by the lack of press regarding the impact on below-the-line talent, such as all members in our Local. We need to start talking about the long-term financial impact of these strikes on our families, our pocketbooks, but also our mental health.

So to that end, I decided to host a virtual discussion with seven Local 695 members in late October. Some were well seasoned with years of experience in our business while others are just starting their career journey. We discussed the strikes and how they had been affected over the last seven months. These seven members were extremely candid in their responses to the topics below.

Here are some of the topics and responses this group talked about:

How have you all been getting on since the start of the WGA strike?

Member 6: I am plowing through savings, like, I mean, just slash and burn. And, you know, the boom operator that’s been working with me for ten years basically had to leave LA. He’s hanging out in another state now because it’s cheaper to hang out there while the strike’s going on. That’s terrible, right?

Member 2: So, I finished a movie the second week of, or maybe the first week of April. And I had another movie lined up for the summer, so I didn’t necessarily fill that time with a ton of work. It wasn’t until maybe a couple weeks after the writers announced that they were on strike that I got an email saying that they’re going to decide to table the movie because it was just too hard. They wanted to make changes to the script, they couldn’t, and so it didn’t make sense to go ahead with prep. That whole movie got shelved. So that was my whole summer … just completely gone. And so I have done, I think, eight union days since the end of that feature that I did at the beginning of April.

How is your family dealing with the effects of the strike?

Member 1: I mean, it was good because I was here [with my kids] and I’m not always able to be here. I’m able to be present and take them to school. But then at the same time, the further we go into this, I’m here, but I’m not resourceful. You know what I mean? I’m here, but I’m dealing with the mental, emotional things of being at home every day and trying to figure out what’s next or what to do or what not to do. So, what I go through directly affects them because I can’t make the same decisions I can make if I’m working.

Member 3: Well, my kids are actually happy I’m home, but then you don’t have money to do a lot of things. So you’re home, but you’re home and you’re broke. At first, it was good. Now, we got to refill the resources, but from where?

Member 1: Yeah, just to jump on what [was said], it went from I was a taxi service for the kids and happy to spend time with them. I was driving my son to school pretty much every day … but you do reach a point where you are the person that’s saying yes to these things, but you’re also saying no to the things that you used to say yes to—can I get this thing, do we have money so I can go here with my friends, can I go do this? …There are times when they say, ‘When is this going to end, when is this going to end?’ And it’s frustrating because you don’t have an end date, because you can’t budget, because you can’t say, yeah it’s fine, you can go do this thing because we have this amount of money that I know that we can put here. But without that end date in sight, you don’t have any way of knowing how to partition that stuff out, you know, you don’t know what resources you can put where. Monday is my wife’s 50th birthday and it went from last year talking about a party to us maybe going out for dinner. It’s like what it’s come down to. You have to be responsible, but you also, I don’t know.

Member 3: When we first started, it was the summer. We had the time and a little bit of savings, or me personally, a little bit of savings. You’re using that because now you’re at home, you got the time with your kids, you’re using it. We’re letting them have their summer experience. Then back to school is a whole other expense. And now I’ve used most of our resources thinking … that it wouldn’t be this long or this serious. I’m not going to make them suffer. I’m still going to let them enjoy their summer and enjoy the back to school. But that was tough because what do we [do to] replace the money?

Member 1: And that’s the thing I think that’s gonna snap a lot of people is that not knowing, not being able to plan, especially going into Christmas and suddenly, it went from maybe we’ll get a couple of episodes before the year’s out, and we won’t lose healthcare, we won’t lose this, we’ll be able to pay for Christmas, to, oh, it’s gonna be January. Okay, I have to find a way of managing everything to get to January now. And the longer it goes on for us, it’s not just like a couple of days, it becomes months, it becomes nine to twelve weeks of leading before you can get onto a film set. So, every day that it goes on, we’re thinking, ”Well, they’re not going to start now because it’s going to be Christmas, and then it’ll be New Year’s, and then we’re going to start. So, what are we doing? Are we going to wait until March? Are we going to go until April? And there’s some people who haven’t worked for a year.”

Member 5: I don’t have kids but … I’m driving, helping my dad with his [limo] business. Just trying to stay afloat, staying positive though… But that’s slowed down too, because he used to have a lot of people in Hollywood that he would take as executives. So, it’s slowed down a lot. The whole city’s been pretty shut down because of this. And people don’t realize that it impacts a lot of small businesses too. Yeah, so right now he’s like looking into people coming from out of town, like doing Bar Mitzvahs. He’s doing a lot of football games now. And he’s doing a lot more like picking people up from the airport, dropping them off to their homes.

How has this affected the vendors we work with daily?

Member 3: This is obviously not my line of business, but I would say in talking to most of the vendors and manufacturers, they’ve definitely been impacted. I know in speaking with one, the owner of a company [who shall remain nameless], who makes equipment that we use in this industry, has taken his employees down to three days a week. He did mention to me that he honestly needed to take them down to one day a week because that’s really all he could afford, but he’s worried that those employees, who he’s had for thirty years, will leave him and that’s too scary to him. I’ve listened to the story on NPR just about dry cleaners to prop houses that are furloughing employees or closing their doors completely. This is damaging, because we are losing something here that we are not going to be able to get back. There’s the financial impact, but there’s also just the impact of just the stories that are being told, the prop houses, the costumes, all of that is just getting tossed and thrown away.

How do you feel about going back to work?

Member 3: It’s even scarier because even when we do go back, I’m already on the bottom of the totem pole. People who haven’t been working, it’s gonna be like, ‘grab my guys that need to pay their mortgage’ … [and] at the same time, there’s people that have been doing it for thirty years, twenty years. So, we’re low [on the totem pole], might not be back for months after that or weeks after that, or I don’t know, you know? So that’s something that concerns me and my position.

Member 2: Just so you know [Member 3], I feel the exact same way. I feel like I’m at a point, I mean, I’ve been fortunate, but I just know that there are so many people that have been doing this for a hell of a lot longer than me that have more name recognition than I have. And I have such, such anxiety about when will I get my first call to go back? Because I do, I think of myself too, as being lower on that ladder than some other names. So just know that you’re not alone in that fear, because I carry that same one with me. That’s my concern too, is that when we come back, the top-tier guys are going to get the first calls. And depending on how many shows come back, there may not be enough shows to then go to the second tier of guys, and then the third tier of guys, you know?

Member 7: For me, as a woman, who doesn’t have children, I found coming out of the pandemic, I was one of the last of my group to get called because everyone was calling people who had families first. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but that same fear is in my head. “Am I even going to get a call?” because I know all the men I work with, all have kids, and all those guys stick together.

Have you thought about alternatives to this business?

Member 2: We don’t really have a skill set that’s transferable. Some of us are deep in the hole, metaphorically speaking, because of the investment we’ve made in equipment. It’s not an easy shift to find something else. It’s not like we can just turn around and pick up. And like I said, getting seasonal work is next to impossible unless you are already in the retail world or in the food service industry. No one is going to take you because you’re not going to be able to sign on for any sort of substantial amount of time. They’re going to train you and then you’re going to leave for a job. And retail companies are aware of this. And so that’s not realistic either. And I think you could look in to the gig economy. You could look in to Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, all of those, which are miserable. You don’t make a ton of money. From my aspect, “Yes, I own a car. Yes, I can drive. Honestly, I’d be afraid for my safety to be an Uber or Lyft driver in the city.” I don’t want to deal with strange random men in my car. Absolutely not. So that’s not an option either. There really isn’t a lot out there for us other than going on disability and going through unemployment… It is important to note that there is not a wide range of options for us to make money outside of this very niche-specific set of skills we have for this industry.

Member 6: So, we’re one of those dual film households… And now, [my wife’s] unemployment ran out. And so, there’s zero. She’s finding stuff to do, which is great, but not much… I think there’s a real false sense of fallback.

Member 1: I looked. I thought maybe I could do something in the meantime, but it’s hard to get seasonal work or apply for jobs that, frankly, are part time. They pay less than unemployment. So I’m extracting myself from being useful to the family as the taxi service for the kids and cooking and helping out as much as I can at home, where I wouldn’t normally be there… I think some people if you’re at the end or at the very beginning of your career, then you have a little more room to pivot, but when you’re bang in the middle and you have ten years away from getting all the hours that you need to retire, fifteen years away or twenty years away and that finishing line is a lot more distant, but the starting line is nowhere near as well, then it’s a little harder to change at that point.

What do you think the future looks like?

Member 4: I remember when it first started, I thought it was going to last two or three months and then everything would come back. But then once it started getting longer, I started to think like, “oh, maybe I should switch over to something else.” But then just thinking about starting off new somewhere else, I was like sound is what I really wanted to do. I think it was around July, I started to think maybe I should shift into something else. It has been tough during these past few months, for sure. And so, I remembered PAing and then I got into sound a year ago. I just kept thinking about how much fun I had working on set and doing sound. It’s a bit of a pause, but I still want to continue working in sound because that’s what I worked hard to get into and that’s something that I would like to continue and move on up; maybe someday become a sound mixer as well. So that’s still my dream… So in a way, the strike actually reinforced that this is really what you want to do.

Member 6: And these strikes have all been under the guise of we’re helping the next generation through. The problem is we’re wiping them out; wiping them out before they even get a chance. So that next generation I’m talking about isn’t even a writer or an actor now. Because this strike is wiping out a whole level of people. And that includes us. I have incredible anxiety when it comes to work… And yet we’re still resolved. We’re going through this, but we are still strong and will do nothing less than accept a fair contract when our time comes… And just like when we started talking, I think it’s really important [to talk and be heard] because I feel the noise of our pain and suffering, and nobody’s hearing it.

And yet, as Member 6 just stated, we are still resolved.

I sit with you.

In Solidarity,

President Jillian Arnold

From the Business Representative

In 1976’s Network, Howard Beale famously said, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

As we prepare for next year’s Basic Agreement & Videotape Supplemental Agreement negotiations, there has been a clear demand for change from our members. Our various surveys, town halls, and bargaining committee meetings have highlighted numerous challenges entertainment professionals face at work every day. Workplace abuse, exploited contract loopholes, and all manner of “business first, human last” practices have taken their toll on workers in Hollywood and throughout the entertainment community. The data that we’ve collected is full of cold, hard facts that shed light on these issues and will support the proposals we’ll bring to the bargaining table next year. Our members have made it clear. They’re as mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore!

All of this coincides with a remarkable month for the labor movement. “I’ve seen several clever names for it, though I am partial to “Striketober.” United Auto Workers, the culinary workers, and casino workers in Michigan all reached historic agreements for better terms and conditions of their employment. That is to say nothing of the gains made by our brothers, sisters, and kin in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. “We’ve seen more than three hundred strikes so far this year, with more than 450,000 workers standing up for the belief that they deserve better.” Working people in this country are reclaiming their power.

And we’re far from finished. Workers continue to stand in solidarity as a united labor movement so that every worker can benefit from our movement. Labor is united. Labor is strong. Labor is here.

Or, to put it another way, “We’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!”

In Solidarity,

Scott Bernard, Business Representative
scottb@local695.com

News & Announcements

The WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strikes

In May, the Writers Guild of America initiated a labor strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers after their contract expired and a new deal could not be reached. Then in July, they were joined on the picket lines by the members of SAG-AFTRA, who were also unable to reach an acceptable deal with the producers. Local 695 stands in firm solidarity with our brothers, sisters, and kin in both of these unions.

However, we know that the strikes and subsequent work shortages have been hard on everyone working in the entertainment community. That is why the IATSE has authorized $2 million in financial assistance to help ease the burden of IATSE members during the current situation. This assistance program is being administered through the Motion Picture Television Fund (MPTF) and the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly the Actor’s Fund) as both organizations have a longstanding history of being there in support of our union when we need it most.

Furthermore, the Local 695 Board of Directors has authorized an additional $250,000 in strike relief specifically for 695 members in need. This assistance is also being administered through MPTF. Members who are struggling are encouraged to visit the MPTF and Entertainment Community Fund for more information. If you have any questions, please call the Local 695 Offices.

Local 695 Technical Trends Committee

We are excited to announce that Local 695’s Technical Trends Committee is taking a proactive stance in addressing the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). In recognition of the profound impact AI applications and machine learning have on our industry, the committee will spearhead efforts to pool knowledge from industry experts within the Local. Our primary objective is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of both the advantages and potential dangers posed by AI. With the goal of safeguarding the interests of our valued IATSE members, we will work tirelessly to devise effective contractual and legislative strategies aimed at minimizing any negative impact that AI might have on our workforce. By staying at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology, Local 695 is committed to ensuring that our members’ rights and opportunities remain protected and that they continue to thrive in an ever-evolving industry. Together, we shall navigate the challenges and opportunities that AI brings, emerging stronger and more resilient than ever before. If you are interested in joining the Technical Trends Committee in this endeavor, please contact longtime Committee Chair Jay Patterson and newly appointed Co-chair, James Delhauer, at techtrends@local695.com.

IATSE Education

The IATSE provides a multitude of continuing education opportunities for its members.

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) is an excellent source of online training tutorials covering topics such as Avid Pro Tools, Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Rhino, Vectorworks, Final Cut Pro, Filemaker, AutoCad, Cubase, Logic Pro, Shot Put Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Vegas Pro, as well as Project Management, Software Development, Network Administration, Finance and Accounting, Marketing and much more. All IATSE members are eligible to sign up for a free LinkedIn Learning Account by visiting https://www.iatsetrainingtrust.org/lil.

Late & Unreported MPI Hours

The Local has received complaints of late and unreported MPI plan hours. All members are encouraged to check their MPI accounts through the MPI website. If any hours appear to be missing, you can call the support line at (818) 769-0007, ext. 2381.

New Members

Local 695 Welcomes its New Members

Rylan Sedivy A-2
Manuel Jimenez Y-4
Benjamin Allison Y-1
Keenan Jensen Y-1
Joshua Knapp Y-8
Gabriel Linkiewicz Y-1
Kelsey Zeigler Y-7A

In Memoriam

Christopher Kessler
Y-9
March 4, 1972 – July 1, 2023

James Thornton
Y-1
March 16, 1945 – January 16, 2023

Update Skills in Membership Directory

Following the website rebuild, the membership profiles were reset and many of the profiles in the directory are still empty. The membership directory can be a powerful tool for finding work when used correctly. Everyone is advised to log in to the Local 695 website to update their information in the directory and their status in the Available of Work list so that they can be recommended for work as needed.

Our Contributors

Bryan Cahill

Bryan Cahill began his career in San Diego as the mixer on a documentary in Mexico with former President Jimmy Carter. He moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and currently serves as Instructor and Production Sound Administrator at Loyola Marymount University.

James Delhauer

James Delhauer was born in Southern California and never made it very far from home. Since 2014, he has worked as a Television Engineer specializing in Pronology’s mRes platform. He joined Local 695 because he desperately needed friends. James is Co-editor of Production Sound & Video.

Antony Hurd

Antony is a lifelong sports fan and Sports Broadcast Mixer. He’s mixed everything from the NFL to the MBA to the Olympics, and even threw in a few runs at the Oscars for good measure. When working the Olympics, he learned what it was like to actually push a cart uphill in the snow, both ways.

Amber Maher

Amber has worked in Los Angeles on multiple Emmy- and Oscar-winning television shows and films. She is an avid learner and there is no puzzle she won’t solve. Amber loves being a Video Assist Engineer as it balances out her need to problem solve while being part of the creative filmmaking process.

Ric Teller

I’ve been very fortunate in my more than forty years working in television, going places and doing things that a kid from a small town in Nebraska could not have imagined.