After I posted my recent blog on the Motion Picture and Television Fund, I received several comments on the fight to keep open the long-term care facility, which I mentioned only in passing, but which is a particularly intense and impassioned battle, sparked by the feeling that the Fund wasn't living up its charter that, in the entertainment industry, "we take care of our own." The battle is still raging (for more information on what this is all about, check out http://www.savingthelivesofourown.org), though I believe that a critical question in a fractured and platform diverse entertainment industry may now be, "who are our own?"
Where once recorded entertainment was dominated by a precious few studio entities, the world today encompasses a wider world of craftspeople serving not only the studio and television industry, but the developing new/social media platforms that are continuing the tradition. Independents and contractors far outnumber full-time staff, and the economic and technological realities of society and this industry have forever changed the employment landscape.
So, who are "we?" What is the entertainment industry community today, as far as traditional organizations like the Motion Picture and Television Fund? I wonder if the benefit and power of a being a cohesive like-minded community of (as opposed to the media industry itself), is being harnessed to it's greatest advantage. Is the potential base actually much wider than ever before, but lacking simple awareness of their common interests? Are the traditional protective/non-profit interests even considering what some call "Digital Hollywood?" Does "Digital Hollywood" even recognize their place in the entertainment industry "community?" Who do they consider "their own?" And, who are "they," anyway? - Are "they" one of "us?"
Is there a potential power base somewhere in all of this confusion?
Now that's an interesting and vital insight: that the MPTF was made possible by Hollywood having been a "company town" (okay, a handful of companies, but you get the idea). New Hollywood, being broadly dispersed, both geographically, and in terms of thousands of small shops, and in terms of non-traditional media, is a far harder nut to crack.
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