The Fall and Rise of Mission-Driven Movie-Making
Shared ownership meets Oscar buzz
Last month, Participant Media closed up shop. Launched by eBay millionaire Jeff Skoll, the B Corp-Certified media company won awards for movies Green Book and Spotlight.1 Participant’s closure leaves a sizeable hole in the corner of Hollywood focused on making “films with purpose,” and leaves its employees looking for new work.
At least one film company is set to take up the charge, and is organizing their employees in a creative way on the forthcoming A24 movie Sing Sing. According to Hollywood Reporter,
… everyone working on Sing Sing, which was produced and financed by Black Bear, from Domingo to the production assistant, was paid the same rate — based on SAG weekly or daily minimums, depending on how long they worked on the production — and everyone gets equity in the film. Says Kwedar, who used a similar pay structure on Jockey, “We’re trying to erase the line between above- and below-the-line talent.”
In the agency-driven world of Hollywood hiring, the model is a rare innovation. And it paid off, according to Director Greg Kwedar:
“A traditional hierarchical pay structure — where only a few at the top held all the ownership and were paid at a hugely stratified rate — would find its way into the experience on set. I don’t know that we would’ve had as open and as warm and as honest of a set. It directly impacts the storytelling. Everyone is actually a partner versus an employee.”
The movie, its creators say, “… is not just a movie. It’s a movement.” And if successful, each of the contributors to the film—including the formerly incarcerated Americans whose story it tells—will benefit financially from that success.
Read more: How the Formerly Incarcerated Cast of ‘Sing Sing’ Found Shooting the Prison Drama “Cathartic.”
Skoll also funded the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, from which your humble author received a graduate school scholarship in 2012.