Under Construction - Diversity and Film image

This committee examines state laws and policies that promote and support our Boys and Men of Color to reach their full potential in work, school, and in life. It focuses on five issues areas: health, education, juvenile justice, youth development, and employment, which are critical to the success of so many youth facing unbearable obstacles at home, school, in their communities, and in the job market.

Location: Amazon Studios

Date: Monday, November 15th 2021

Attendees:

  • Amazon

  • Creative Artists Agency

  • Google

  • LA Chamber

  • Lyft

  • Northrop Grumman

  • Oakland Athletics

  • PepsiCo

  • Tesla

  • Suburban Water Systems

  • Union Bank

  • The California Endowment

  • OneMain Financial

  • The Willoughby Group

  • Byte

  • Southwest

  • Hollywood CPR

Remarks from Chair:

  • California can do more to end school-to-prison pipeline.

  • Childhood trauma is a major factor that can lead to incarceration for youth. To help address the core issue, California needs to focus on the root of the problem.

  • FY 2021-2022 budget expands the state’s funding to address childhood trauma by $30 million.

  • California will have a surplus of around $30-$40 million, need to use up all the funding on valuable resources for youth.

  • Need to keep accountability to prove resources are working.

  • Youth aren’t exposed to a variety of different job opportunities because they don’t see people of color in executive positions.

Corporate board members joined the Assembly Select Committee on Boys and Men of Color to discuss how Corporate American can position themselves to uplift men of color. The following corporations discussed what they are doing to diversify their workforce.

  • Amazon Studios Diversity

    • In June 2021 Amazon Studios Released Inclusion Policy and Playbook to Strengthen ongoing commitment to diverse and equitable representation.

    • Amazon Studios continues to seeks story telling that amplifies voices across race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression for the global Prime audience.

    • Inclusion Policy covers four areas:

      • Developing Stories and Characters

      • Hiring and Production, Reporting and Documentation

      • Meeting Goals

    • Inclusion Policy Goals:

      • Each film or serious with a creative team of three or more people in above-the-line roles should ideally include a minimum 30% women and 30% members of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. Will increase to 50% by 2024.

      • Casting actors whose identity aligns with the character they will be playing.

      • Aiming to include one character from each of the following categories in speaking roles, with minimum 50% of these to be women: LGBTQIA+, person with a disability, and three regionally underrepresented race/ethnic/cultural groups.

      • Seek at least three bids from vendors or supplies on production, one of which be from a woman-owned business and one from a minority-owned business.

      • Pay equity across casting, behind the camera and crew, and for vendors and suppliers.

  • Amazon Studios and Howard University Launch Howard Entertainment Program

    • In 2021, Howard Entertainment launched intensive program developed to create opportunities in the entertainment industry for emerging executives from Howard University.

    • Howard faculty were placed with Amazon Studios teams, including casting, development, PR and strategy to further broaden and expand their expertise.

    • Program goal is to provide hands-on experience that the participating professors can take back to their classrooms.

  • Google Small Business Supplier Diversity

    • Google’s Diversity Strategy

      • Hire more diverse Googlers

      • Foster a fair and Inclusive Google

      • Expand the pool of technologists

      • Bridge the digital divide

    • Google Small Business Supplier Diversity Program

      • Reply on small and diverse businesses to help grow and innovate.

      • Want to connect with more minority-, women-, veteran-, and LGBT-owned small businesses to opportunities within Google.

      • Care about helping small and underrepresented business grow.

    • Google Commitments

      • Remove barriers suppliers face “getting in the door” with Google.

      • All accepted suppliers will have access to program benefits.

      • All accepted suppliers will appear in Google’s internal supplier search tool.

  • Google IT Certificates

    • Google has developed the Grow with Google digital skills training program, which provides free training to help individuals grow their careers and businesses.

    • Google believes that collective action is key to success, therefor created a network of more than 150 companies who accept the Grow and Google Certificates as credentials for roles, including Walmart, Infosys, Verizon, and Google.

    • Expanding pathways into higher education and the workforce.

  • Providing Community Colleges with free access to Google Career Certificates.

  • Translating Google Career Certificates into college credit.

    • All Google Career Certificates are now recommended by the American Council of Education for up to 12 college credits.

  • Partnering with four-year universities to prepare students for in-demand jobs.

    • News come after free community college was scrapped from President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan.

  • CA Budget related to film

    • Governor Newsom allocated $30 million for the state’s film and TV tax credit

      • Includes $150 million tax credit incentive to spur construction of new soundstages with the requirement that production submit a diversity plan that represents California’s population in terms of race and gender.

      • Measure has strong backing from Hollywood unions and the State Building and Construction Trades Council.

      • Stats: Los Angeles area has 5.2 million square feet of studio production space – 40% more than its nearest global competitor, the United Kingdom,

  • Hollywood CPR

    • Hollywood CPR is a non-profit organization with a 24-year history of training students to start working in key, union-recognized position on set in the Artists, Crafts and Technicians departments of the entertainment industry.

    • Two-step process:

      • First, obtain pre-training skills at West LA College via Film/TV Production Crafts Program.

      • Second, apply to Hollywood CPR’s Entertainment Artists, Crafts & Technicians Certificate.

    • Their program allows students to have real-life experience by shadowing technicians on sets to prepare them when they graduate from the program.

    • Looking into create an apprenticeship program, interested in partnering up with Amazon Studios.

  • Suburban Water Systems

    • Will be submitting a grant soon to create an apprenticeship program.

Helping formerly incarcerated individuals.

Q: Are any of these corporations helping formerly incarcerated individuals?

A: No current program.

Q: What is California doing?

A: In 2018, former Governor Brown signed AB 1009 – the California Fair Chance Act which requires both public and private sector employers to delay background checks and inquiries about a candidate’s criminal record until a conditional offer has been extended.

Cal State Long Beach

  • Cal State LA is the first public university in California to offer an in-person bachelor’s degree program inside a maximum-security prison facility, offering incarcerates students the opportunity to achieve a bachelor’s degree in Communications Studies.

  • Cal State LA is looking into expanding their program to other prisons in California and offer dual degrees.

Student Focus Program

Union Bank Student-Run Branches

  • Union Bank is committed to strengthen underserved communities by promoting financial education and college readiness through student-run bank branches.

  • Students from five different high schools are selected for a year-long internship where they acquire and practice customer service skills and educate their classmates and teachers about the basics of personal finance.

  • After finishing the program, each student banker receives an educational stipend.

  • From the roughly 330 participating students, the majority continues to college. Over 30 students have worked as tellers and several are now bank officers after graduating from high school.

Action Steps

  • Create two subcommittees:

  • Sports Academy, which will bring together all California teams and look at highlighting all career opportunities behind the athletes.

      • Current partnerships:

  • Diversity Entertainment, which will focus at below the line production work and supplier diversity.

      • Interested organizations: Hollywood Cinema Production Resources (CPR).

Budget/Legislation Recommendations

  • Identify infill land to build new sound studios, allow for streamlining in areas that meet SB 35 criteria. State or city can own building to allow building to be rented to different production companies.

  • Create grants for non-profit organizations who offer “below-the-line” programing to partner with major entertainment companies.

      • Example: Hollywood CPR is an organization that trains students in the Artists, Crafts and Tech departments of the entertainment industry so they are prepared to join a production company after they compete the program. Giving organizations like Hollywood CPR a grant to partner up with film studios to create a fellowship (earn and learn model) program for students.

  • Require major entertainment companies with 1,000 employees or more to create a diversity play book by 2025.

      • Example: 30% above and below-the-line workers shall be women and men people of color.

  • Create diversity supplier in the entertainment industry.

      • Require major entertainment companies with 1,000 employees or more to partner with minority media production local vendors.

      • Tax credit?

  • Require the CA Film & Television Tax Credit Program to develop a diversity playbook for all tax credit programs. By doing so, this will allow for film productions to diversity their work for above the-line and below the-line crew.

  • Develop Earn and Learn Program in film schools throughout CA.

  • Local hire tax credits for above the-line and below the-line.

      • Pros

        • Lower travel cost & less logistical concerns (for crew and equipment)

        • Reliability and home court advantage (locals know the ins and outs of filming location, parking, permit knowledge)

        • Access to local networks and local vendors

        • Create more jobs and bring more funding into CA or certain city/county.

      • States with local tax credit:

        • Illinois: Feature films receive a 30% tax credit, short films with a budget of at least $50,000 are also eligible. An additional 15% credit will be added for the hiring of local individuals from economically disadvantaged areas.

        • Nevada: All local resident employees receive 15-25%, while non-resident above-the-line workers can earn between 12-17%. Below-the-line, non-residents receive no tax incentive.

  • Film tax-credit for hiring formerly incarcerated individuals

      • Work Opportunity Tax Credit is available to employers in CA who hire an ex-felon but nothing explicitly in the entertainment industry.