THE HOLLYWOOD BRIDGE FUND

The Hollywood Bridge Fund is committed to increasing visibility for underrepresented workers which will lead to a more equitable and profitable Hollywood for all. One of the biggest gaps when it comes to access to opportunity around entertainment, is financial. Thus, placing a huge disadvantage on populations that have had historically marginalized incomes; communities of color.  While the majority of Hollywood is largely made up of below the line workers including (Editors, Hair and Make up Artists, Production Coordinators, Composers, Camera Operators, Location Managers, etc...) the diversity we see in this industry, specifically for these unseen workers falls woefully short.  Our program includes professional skills training courses that pick up where early education and film school programs leave off for students and existing industry workers looking to transition. Training then leads to employment. 

The Handy Foundation has created a program to address the lack of diversity for below the line employment and union membership in Hollywood. As of 2020, there are 150,000 IATSE Union Members nationwide and 8,000 Motion Picture Editors Guild Members with only 5.2% being African American. The contributing factor that impacts why the Hollywood Bridge Fund exists, is experience based.  Since its inception in 1893,  IATSE has never had enforced equity or any type of incentive to diversify. In its over 100 year history, it has always been a social entry point based on who you know and who knows you. Unfortunately, due to this, the industry is still socially segregated, therefore a lot of people do not get opportunities because they have no internal connection. It is a problem on both sides; the inability to connect to someone already in the industry, and the lack of those inside reaching out to bring on board a diverse workforce. Communities of color are not being awarded the opportunities stemming from training and development. The Hollywood Bridge Fund believes that through thorough education and training coupled with making the proper and professional introduction to studio leadership, the diversification in Hollywood is inevitable. 

The Handy Foundation has put together a training program and database of qualified below the line staff to help studios and hiring managers find diverse talent. This is the Hollywood Bridge Fund. The fund seeks support from private and public donations as well as competitive grants and bids to support its training and job placement service. It's mentorship and job placement segment serves as the greatly missing connectivity element, vouching for the future employee that they've trained and can proudly say is ready for the workforce and union. The Handy Foundation seeks to improve upon diversification while onboarding qualified workers to eliminate the opportunity gap by making this much needed introduction and providing the proper training. 

In short, the program aims to increase overall diversity and gender inclusion throughout all levels of post production in Hollywood. The objective for all participants is to end the program with successful employment, thus leading to a diverse below the line staff that will eventually become union editors. 

The solution is available to anyone nationwide, however the target population is individuals from communities of color who have previously been overlooked. The program seeks to give opportunities to those who may not otherwise have them. As previously mentioned, the below the line industry is less than 10% Black, therefore, one of our target efforts to increase the diversity of the union and Hollywood in general is to put more people of color in position to accept gainful employment in this field. 

Diversity in the workplace in front of and behind the camera in Hollywood is the most polarizing issue currently facing workers in Hollywood. The Hollywood Bridge Fund is the only program that provides a solution that scales to serve every below the line position and provide equal access to anyone with the talent or drive to work in the business of Hollywood. All of the other current solutions are enforced by "gatekeepers" and do not have diversity as a primary initiative. All of the diversity efforts that are currently well funded and well known in Hollywood are for people above the line or in front of the camera; this constitutes only 5% of the workforce. The Handy Foundation focuses on the other 90% of the workers that make up the majority of the jobs in Hollywood. 

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The approach used to build a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization is to lead by example. The leadership makeup of the Handy Foundation is very diverse with staff of all backgrounds, both men and women. 

No other solution is focusing on below the line workers. This solution calls back to what the original framers and founders of the industry intended. They wanted people to learn on the job and learn from mentor relationships. We are putting people in skilled jobs versus internships that can get them started in a career that allows them to afford the quality of living them seek due to gainful employment.

We are utilizing the most cutting edge technology, focusing on current software, hardware and materials used daily in Hollywood. The goal is that the participants can step right into the workplace to utilize the skills they learned. AVID, ZOOM, After Affects, Protools and other software in line with top industry standards. 

Article about diversity

Leadership has utilized articles similar to the link above to identify other industries that are striving at diversification and others that need additional work. While the training provided by the Hollywood Bridge Fund is not a new technology, the method of inviting new talent into the field is new. 

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Handy Foundation utilizes a basketball analogy. We do not want to create a temporary fix or a knee jerk reaction to the problem. This solution is designed to be long term and widespread. The reason this solution will work is because it is a sustainable solution that will be able to be continued on a quarterly and annual basis which can be scaled across every job. Training by professionals and job placement by studios allows the Foundation to obtain five year agreements for long term success. This solution is the future of the supply chain for behind the scenes talent in Hollywood. 

The goal is to triple participation and placement each year. Ideally, we would like to achieve 2,000 union members within the first five years (10% improvement based on current stats). Next year, there will be at least 100 people (25 per quarter) enrolled in training programs. Through building partnerships with organizations such as the County of Los Angeles, these figures could grow exponentially provided the necessary funding is achieved. 

Funding is the largest barrier inhibiting the exponential growth planned for.

Applying for grants, fundraising, partnerships with employers and local RFP's through government and private agencies.  

We would like to collect career outcome data (length of time employees, success rate of retention of diverse people, etc).

Our team is well positioned to deliver this solution because we all come from backgrounds with close proximity to poverty. We all have experienced racism at some point in our lives, thus lending an empathetic compassion to the community we plan to serve. The team works well together and is already taking strides without the necessary funding to change lives and diversify Hollywood. 

We are working with the Urban League on training and identifying candidates to serve as well as major Hollywood Studios like Paramount, Freemantle and Lionsgate on developing systems and pathways to employment that we can consistently deploy. We are also working with other advocacy organizations like Hue You Know. 

Our business model is to serve as a job skills trainer for the community and a diverse staffing recruiter for Hollywood Studios bridging the gap between the diverse talent in the Hollywood Community and the studios that would like to hire them. These two groups would not come into contact with one another without our support. 

Our path to financial sustainability is to eventually set up a for profit arm of the non-profit that will charge studios for access to the list of available workers. This will help to fund the training in addition to grant and foundation giving.

We have provided courses paid for by the Urban League in 2020. At this time, we are also talking to numerous studios and private donors to seek necessary funding for 2021.

The average cost per participant is $2,500, therefore each quarter, $62,500 is needed per quarter to achieve our benchmark goals. This equates to $250,000 on an annual basis. The funding sought will support putting participants through the training program. The team has invested and donated time for the initial start up phase of the project which even includes the first set of cohorts to go through the program and receive job placement. Additionally, leaderships own funds were used to establish a website, pay for entity establishment and associated traveling costs to build relationships to help the future of the program thrive.

The average cost per participant is $2,500, therefore each quarter, $62,500 is needed per quarter to achieve our benchmark goals. This equates to $250,000 on an annual basis. 

The Hollywood Bridge Fund is applying for Reimagining Pathways to Employment in the US Challenge because we think there needs to be a greater focus on making the entertainment industry accountable for the unseen talent often overlooked. Many of the talent in front of the camera provide support to diversification movements but do nothing to encourage its improvement. This is where we come in. We want to facilitate a practice of offering skilled workers for an industry that has not historically hired them. 

The solution proposed is funding worthy and we hope that it the review committee will be inspired by our efforts thus far and want to assist with funding future efforts.

Lastly, the CEO, Mr. Ri-Karlo Handy has been featured in the news many times in 2020 and it would be a great opportunity to shed light on what MIT is doing as well as the other candidates to diversify certain industries. See some of the media spotlights below:

LA Times 8/13/20  Hollywood’s entertainment industry unions have a whiteness problem

Wave 7/30/20  New project launched to diversify Hollywood, network TV

No Script No Problem (Podcast) 7/29/20  Ri-Karlo Handy Talks Diversity in Hollywood After Facebook Post Goes Viral

Television Academy 7/23/20  REPRESENT: The African American Experiences In Post-Production

Deadline 7/2/20  Ri-Karlo Handy, Editors Guild & The Urban League Team Up With Mentorship Program For Creators Of Color

Next TV 7/2/20  Sunwise’s Handy in Effort to Push Hollywood Diversity

KCRW Interview 6/25/20  Social callout for Black editors draws attention to monochrome Hollywood

Vanity Fair 6/23/20  Behind the Viral Facebook Post That Illustrates Hollywood’s “Growing-Pain Moment”

Deadline Guest Column 6/22/20  Ri-Karlo Handy On Hollywood’s Diversity Efforts, Facebook Firestorm & New Initiatives For Real Change

Variety 6/18/20  After an Online Search for Black Union Editors Turns Racist, Filmmaker Ri-Karlo Handy Hopes for Change

LA Times 6/17/20  How a search for Black film editors caused a firestorm on Facebook

The Insider 6/17/20  High-profile white film editors tried to shut down a search for Black creators in a private Facebook group

The program welcomes opportunity for post placement monitoring and evaluation. We would like to determine if our efforts are improving the diversity in union memberships within the first five year period. Additionally, we would love the ability to advertise and promote the program nationwide to increase the opportunity for people across the nation to participate. Lastly, funding is the main hinderance for advancement and capacity building. If we had additional funding, we could exponentially help more people and diversify this field faster with the possibility to move on to other fields of workforce development and diversity inclusion.

Ri-karlo Handy has built wonderful relationships with Netflix, Disney, the Hive, Paramount Pictures, and many other studios who need this service the most. The issue is that they need their senior leadership to sign off on the diversity initiatives. As we navigate this path, it would be exceptional to have additional advocacy partnerships, pushing studios to facilitate diversity programs.