Will IATSE Deal Lead to a Production Comeback?

On Tuesday night, IATSE posted the news on Facebook that it had reached a tentative deal on a new overarching contract with Hollywood’s major studios and streamers. In commenting on the welcome news that the threat of another Hollywood strike has receded, members seemed less focused on the specific terms of the pact and more on whether the deal will help jumpstart TV and film production.

“Cool, so these mega coporate studio conglomerates will make stuff and hire everyone again, right?… right?” wrote Shawn Montgomery.

Frank Markovic: “I sure hope this turns into work.”

“Hoping upon hope this means work will be back again,” wrote Kazz Clawthorne.

The tenor of the social media chatter reflects the hard fact that the industry has yet to recover from the production shutdown spurred by last year’s writers and actors strikes. Many craft, crew and technical workers who have been out of work for a year or more have reasoned that the threat of an IATSE work stoppage has kept a damper on the volume of TV and film production.

With the shutdown threat off the table, assuming the contract is ratified, the studios can move forward with a clearer idea of the costs of the new contract.

“What the town is suffering from is uncertainty,” said A.J. Catoline, a board member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild. “Hopefully this will make Hollywood want to get rolling again.”

FilmLA, which tracks production volume in the Los Angeles area, has seen a modest rebound since the strikes. But since the end of March, that has plateaued at about 85% of the level from last year, said Philip Sokoloski, a spokesman for the agency.

“It feels to us there is evidence of folks waiting to put projects into production until they know the outcome of the contract talks,” he said. “You wouldn’t want to put something new in only to have to stop all the plans.”

Of course, many thought production would come back…