I obtained my Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in film production from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2011, and moved to the New York area to try to work in film and TV. I couldn’t figure out how to get into the industry other than by being a production assistant and I ended up doing video programming at AOL/Huffington Post for a while. Then, I moved on to a position with MTA Capital Construction, doing photography and video of all of their mega projects they're constructing in New York city. I was shooting, editing, and doing time-lapse photography there. I realized that I love shooting and wanted to try to get into the TV/Film industry through the Camera Department.
I joined New York Women in Film & Television, NYWIFT, which is a networking organization. I would go to their events to try to meet women actively working in the Camera department. Through networking, I met somebody who suggested that I join the Video Department.
He showed me what video assist was and I started shadowing him. Video assist is the video work that happens behind the camera. There are crew members who need to see what the cameras are pointed at so they can make adjustments. The video assist person takes the video signal from the camera, records it, and feeds it to different monitors for hair and makeup, for the director, for video village, etc.
Eventually, the union finally opened up their application window. One of the requirements for membership was a certain number of hours worked on set. However, the Video Department did not require you to have hours on set if you had a degree in computer science or filmmaking. Although I didn’t have significant hours working in the Video department on TV shows or movies, I did have my MFA degree. I was able to start doing this work as soon as I applied for union membership. I now work in video playback. The playback person manages the screens that are in front of the cameras. I feed graphics and interactives to all of the phones and computers in the scenes that the actors interact with.
Without IATSE Local 52, I wouldn't have had access to the caliber of shows that I worked on, nor could I be hired for the top tier TV and film productions being shot in the New York City area.
The union negotiates contracts with the different production companies and they hire union members. Without that oversight and those negotiations, our working conditions wouldn't be managed and our pay rate wouldn't be secure. A lot of things wouldn't be secure. The pay rate and the working conditions would probably be much lower as well as the work I would have access to.
One positive aspect of being a union member means that my pay rate is primarily based on my position. So, I don't have to worry that I'm getting paid less because I'm a woman since the rate is already secured by the union. So, that's one worry I don't have.
However, how I've dealt with or how I interact with people is highly variable because of how they react to women. I’ve held different jobs in film and TV since I received my MFA back in 2011 and before that, I was still working in this industry. I’ve encountered people who think I'm less capable, less technologically skilled, and a subordinate, because I’m an African American woman. Fortunately, I've been on a lot of productions that have a lot of women in them. I feel that to some degree, I get treated more fairly when I work on productions with more women. Sometimes, I do have to be more assertive and confrontational with guys that don't want to spend time providing what my department needs to do my job properly.
For a young person [considering this career] they're deciding, do I need to go to college for this or not? Do I need an advanced degree in this or not? Because you have to invest so much time going through college or other programs, I would recommend that you shadow or spend time around people in the position that you want.
Because you might think you want to do the job, but then once you actually get there and see the day-to-day and the actual requirements, you might decide that lifestyle or that work is not for you. You want to know if you’d like that job before you invest four to eight years of your life in education. Or, you may not need an undergraduate or graduate degree for the role, depending on your career path.
Being in a union is key to working successfully in NYC in the TV and film industry. That doesn't always require a college degree or an advanced degree. So, if you decide that you do want to do this, you might be able to jump into this type of work right out of high school, or right out of undergrad, and just start getting hours on set.
Working on set and in the industry will provide you with a more realistic experience and will better prepare you for work than college classes will. If you know that you want to be a sound person, a camera operator, or an assistant director, etc, you should look into whether you need a college degree or not for that. If you don't, then start trying to work in the industry, because it can take a while to understand how to navigate working on TV shows and films. You can learn all of that in the same amount of time it would take to get a degree. But if you want additional options for your career path, then go ahead and get your degree.
– Rehema Trimiew, #IATSE Local 52
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View Rehema's photography profile and her video work for the MTA.
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A photography project of Workforce Development Institute - Shining a spotlight on women emerging in the union workforce.