CREATING A DIVERSE SET
Last year, Australian women comprised just 18% of directors, 31% of producers and 7% of cinematographers. Many outside of our industry will be quick to ask: why don’t we encourage and train more female talent? And yes, that is needed, but it would be remiss of us not to point out that there is, so much, incredible female and gender-diverse crew here, simply waiting to be hired and sadly, overlooked.
Over the last few years, we’ve been reviewing how we can help boost these stats by ensuring our sets are as equitable as possible. So far, this work looks like:
Ensuring each set has as equitable as a split as possible and inclusive of all genders
Prioritising the experience of new talent, particularly those from female, gender-diverse and under-represented backgrounds.
Prioritising female, gender-diverse and under-represented backgrounds, in traditionally male-dominated departments such as: editing, grading, lighting and sound.
Seeking the experience and advice of our industry and peers about what they find helpful and hindering on set
Researching and implementing new methods of hiring, crew management and set etiquette
But this is only the start. Like any company, we acknowledge this work is never finished. There’s always more to be learnt, and even more to be done. So, we’re turning our attention to you.
We would love to hear from anyone within and outside our industry on how we create more equitable spaces for female and under-represented crew. Tell us in the comments: what’s working for you? What would you like to see? What would you like to stop seeing? How can we all create more equitable productions?
