Reuters
Michael Fortin was a central figure in Hollywood’s Golden Age of Streaming.
The actor and aviation cinematographer turned his hobby of flying drones into a lucrative business in 2012, just as the streaming wars were erupting. For a decade, he flew over movie sets, creating sophisticated aerial shots for movies and TV shows for Netflix, Amazon, and Disney.
Now he is on the verge of becoming homeless again. He was evicted from the Huntington Beach home he shared with his wife and two young children and is now evicted from the Las Vegas apartment he has moved to because he can no longer afford to live in Southern California.
“We were saving up to buy a house, we had money, and we were doing things the right way,” he says. “Two years ago, I went out to dinner with my wife and kids and wasn’t worried about spending $200.”
“Now I’m worried about going out and spending $5 on a good value meal at McDonald’s.”
For more than a decade, business has been booming in Hollywood, with studios fighting to catch up with upstarts like Netflix and Hulu. But in May 2023, Hollywood’s screenwriters went on strike, and the good times came to an end.
The strike lasted several months, effectively shutting down production in Hollywood, with both screenwriters and actors working together for the first time since the 1960s. However, one year after the strike ended, production has stagnated instead of regaining its roar.
With jobs drying up, projects have been canceled and production cut across the city, with layoffs at many studios and, most recently, at Paramount. The famed film company is cutting 15% of its workforce ahead of its merger with production company Skydance, marking its second round of job cuts this week.
Provided by Michael Fortin
Michael Fortin was on set almost every day before the strike. Now he can barely find a job
The unemployment rate for the U.S. film and television industry was 12.5% in August, but this figure is low because many film workers have not filed for unemployment benefits because they are either ineligible or have exhausted their benefits. Many people think it’s actually much higher. After months of not working.
Overall, the number of U.S. productions in Q2 2024 was down approximately 40% compared to the same period in 2022. Globally, production fell 20% during that period, according to ProdPro, which tracks TV and film production. .
That means fewer new movies and binge-worthy shows for us.
But experts say the streaming boom was not sustainable. And studios are trying to figure out how to make money in a new world where people no longer pay for commercial-funded cable TV.
“The air has come out of the content bubble,” said Matthew Belloni, founder of Pac News, which covers the entertainment industry. “Crisis is a good word. I try not to be alarmist, but crisis is what people are feeling.”
Part of the boom was driven by Wall Street. There, tech giants like Netflix experienced record growth, and studios like Paramount saw their stock prices soar as they added to their own streaming service offerings.
“It caused an overheating of the content market. Just a few years ago there were 600 live-action scripted series on the air, and then the stock market stopped valuing them,” Belloni said. “Netflix collapsed, and so did all the other companies. Netflix has since recovered, but other companies are having a very hard time achieving profitability.”
And as the streaming bubble bursts, attractive tax incentives from other states and countries are luring some productions away from California. Los Angeles leaders are so concerned about the economic slowdown that Mayor Karen Bass created a task force last month to consider new incentives for film production in Hollywood.
“The entertainment industry is critical to the economic vitality of the Los Angeles region,” Bass said in announcing the plan, describing it as a “cornerstone” of the city’s economy and providing hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The Mayor said that according to recent data, the entertainment industry contributes more than $115bn (£86bn) a year to the local economy and has an employment base of more than 681,000 people.
Reuters
The writers’ and actors’ strike lasted several months, resulting in a union contract that provided more funding and protections against artificial intelligence.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator with the Screen Actors Guild union, told the BBC that some degree of consolidation in Hollywood was inevitable. He said he was optimistic that production would ramp up soon.
“What makes these companies special and gives them the unique ability to create value is their relationship with creative talent,” he said during a September visit to the picket line outside Disney’s offices. spoke. Video game voice actors there are currently on strike for similar rights. protection.
Hollywood “always thinks it’s in crisis,” he says. “This town is always facing innovation, change of all kinds, and that’s part of the magic. To keep content fresh, we have to embrace the idea that things don’t always have to be the same. It’s important for everyone to have one.”
Fortin’s drone company operated almost every day before the strike. He has now flown his drone only 22 days in the year since the strike ended. And as an actor, he often plays tough guys, but he only worked for 10 days. He worked as a background actor to make a living, but his pay barely covered the cost of gas to get from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.
“It was a big wave, and then it crashed,” Fortin said after spending a day flying a drone on the AppleTV+ show “Platonic.” It was the first job I’ve used a drone for since April.
“Things are progressing little by little,” he said in his van before returning to Las Vegas for a court hearing to fight his eviction order.
“Hollywood has given me everything,” he says. “But I feel like the industry has turned its back on so many people, not just me.”
