New submission from ARC Award Final Report webteam@langara.ca Wed 8/10/2022 11:27 PM To: Scholarly Activity Name of Researcher Dr. Gagun S. Chhina Department/Faculty Sociology Position in Department/Faculty Instructor Project Title Making the Cut: Experiences of Minority Entertainment Workers in Hollywood North Term of Project Spring 2022 - Summer 2022 Please introduce yourself – include pertinent background information relating to the topic of your research project. I have completed a PhD in Sociology from the University of Manchester, a Masters in Policy and Applied Social Research from Macquarie University, and an undergraduate degree from UBC in Sociology. My past research experience includes working for Census Canada. Furthermore, this is my fifth research project using interview related methods and my second ARC (RSAF) grant. My specialization within sociology focuses on the areas of new media (film and video gaming) and international educational (specifically South Asia). This research melds my research specialization of race and ethnicity with the medium of film production. Please discuss your educational background and your work experience that led you to taking on this research project. If possible, include a quote that helps define your interest in this project. During my PhD, I focused on video gaming as a cultural medium in India. Through the cultural exploration of the video gaming in India, I explored how Indians both navigated and culturally situated video gaming in India. This project explored similar themes. However, my focus was on how minority film workers (focusing on extras) identify with working in Vancouver amid a myriad of cultural factors. Please summarize your project in plain language that others not in your field could understand. This study critically examined the representation and experiences of minority entertainment workers (focusing on extras) in the Vancouver film industry. My research attempted to understand the experiences of minority film employees, both from the perspective of the minority workers and the cultural producers (i.e. directors, producers, etc.) themselves. It is my hope that the results of this study will help to better understand one of the largest and most important industries in Vancouver from the experiential perspective of a group that has been traditionally both academically and culturally ignored. Identify the project goals and objectives. Explain how the results may be used to solve a problem or inform further research in the field. The research project was grounded substantively through three key research questions: 1. To what extent does the narrative of working in the film industry in Vancouver’s align with the lived experiences of minorities employed in the industry? 2. What is the relationship between a person’s socio-cultural identity and the nature of their work in Vancouver motion picture industry? 3. Why are minority groups historically absent from the roles as cultural producers, and what factors lead to them to being historically lacking in such occupations? Each of these questions were answered through the research. I believe that this information may serve to have profound understanding of cultural production in Vancouver. As Vancouver is one of the largest video production cities in the world, the socio-cultural relationship of the film industry filters down to many facets of Vancouver identity. Further research may be informed through exploring other aspects of the film industry. Briefly explain the steps taken (methods used) to conduct the research, and describe the key findings. A total of 30 interviews were conducted with 13 male and 17 female participants. The interviews consist of 23 extras interviews, two extras agent interviews, a booking production assistant, one background coordinator and two directors and one locations manager. The average age of the participants is 37. The interviews were conducted either over Zoom or in person in the Langara staff lounge. These interviews were semi structured qualitative and varied form 45 minutes to 2 ½ hours in length. All interviews were transcribed verbatim by the research assistant, Christy Leung, and two student assists. A coding framework using thematic analysis was developed based upon multiple readings through NVivo. Over twenty-five different codes were generated when analyzing the transcripts. Five of the most prevalent were: Past Experiences, Racial Representation, Motivation, Negative Experiences and Racial Acting. Some quotations that exemplify the dominant codes are: Past Experiences “I was a biologist. And I was practising alternative medicine like and not not never imagined myself working for the film industry” The quotation above is typical of individuals in my sample group who are working in the Vancouver film industry. They have “fallen” into the industry, and it is not a position that they would be working in except for some happenstance in their life. “In retail, I never really moved. Vertically, I never really became anything. I got into a level of assistant manager at a couple of different locations. Uhm, and and just plateaued. And even at that plateau, I didn't experience any personal growth. The work wasn't interesting at. All I don't. Passion for anything I was doing. “ This quotation above shows how the participant did not progress in other industries, and consequently, he choose to join the film industry. Ironically, even those participants who began working in film from other industries did not progress “vertically”. However, they kept their working in film, because extra work is significantly easier and less stressful than work in other industries. Racial Representation “They want more people to engage with the content. 'cause business? But you can't be stagnant. You can't only sell to white people, it's who cares you, you, you want to see new stories you want to see new people in the back in and the leads and in the. Background you want. To be more inclusive and to involve more people. Just accept that we need to have more representation in the background or in and in the foreground. More in the actors we need more representation in actors and and then in the background as well but. Yeah, people feel threatened. “ The above participant is speaking about how commercials in recent years have been striving for greater diversity to reach a larger audience. The subject of racially diverse commercials was often addressed among my participants, in that, commercials have much more diversity than series or movies because they are attempting to reach a wider demographic for sales. However, the diversity in commercials has increased even more, as with TV and series, and many white extras now feel threatened by minorities extras and actors. “Then I also got in, because it needed brown people. Yeah. And it's funny how they, they, they explicitly said, like, you need to be like brown. And when they can even if you're Latina and you're not brown, like, they rather find someone brown that is like Filipino, like from India, you know, just to fill in the brown.” The concept of “filling in the brown” is a term I coined where because demographics were originally seen as white, and diversity was black, now other coloured ethnicities are more commonly included. However, brown is used as a blanket term for several ethnicities such as south Asian, Arabic, Filipino, etc. Motivation “Background is basically you know, I did it because it films interest me. And I learn a lot on the set. And I don't only do the background, I just watch what are they doing, how the camera people are working, how the lighting people are working, how the makeup and other how they are coordinating with each other, and how they're communicating with each other and how things are smoothly going through all those things that are happening, how the shots they're taking from this angle, that angle, that angle? Why are they doing all of this?” Motivation for extras surprisingly was not usually financially rooted. Moreso, extras enjoyed movies, or meeting people. Often the motivation to work as an extra was break from their daily routine. With that being said, extras were not likely to do the job if it did not have a financial incentive attached to it. But because extras are usually paid minimum wage, most acknowledged that there were other more financially lucrative tasks that they could be doing. Negative Experiences “So their first day on a location with the comedy of errors that were multiple tents collapsing in on themselves. Rainstorms the expectations of US specifically having to go up a hill with. Relatively heavy equipment in the mud with rocks in, you know, heavy gear, including boots that are not our own boots and might be too big or too small. That was kind of rough and it was. Needlessly rough, it didn't seem like they needed to do. That with the backgrounds. Like why do we need to carry a wheelbarrow up a, you know. 60 degree incline that you could have easily have just carried shovels or just gone.” A film set is turbulent unpredictable environment. This is what attracts many people to work as extras in film. Negative experiences are often tied to unpredictability and poor planning as the quote above demonstrates. Racial Acting “As they need your accent, so one time they gave me an upgrade, because they asked me concept to say something in Spanish. They want to send us something very quick. But I said just one line. I said I got an upgrade. But that's because they needed it.” Even though there have been impressive strive in the last decade regarding diversity in film, the above quotes demonstrate that extra work is still racially rooted. Extras get hired for superficial characteristics such as age, body type and often race. “Upgrades” to an acting credit are often random, based upon what they might need on the set during that day. Unfortunately, minorities often still need to speak with accents, but this is lessening. Who was involved in this project (eg. faculty, students, community partners)? How did their involvement contribute to the project’s success? Were there any challenges to overcome? In total, in addition to myself, there was one research assistant and two student assistants. This project would have been impossible to complete without their involvement. The challenge was to find two student assistants who worked well together. I was able to do this, but it was not easy. The biggest tip I can provide is to hire student assistants who have worked together on class projects in the past so that they already have a working rapport. Please share any personal stories that made this research experience memorable/valuable. As all the interviews conducted consisted of stories, there are many stories to tell; however, none of them mine. Being of South Asian origin, some of the interviews resonated with me. Particularly, how people were typecast or placed in the corner of the frame where they could not be seen. What are the next steps for this project and for you as a researcher? I have collected much more data than I had anticipated. This is a substantial research project. At first my intention was to write an academic article. However, I easily have enough data collected to write a book. My intension is to turn this data into a book. However, on my list of academic tasks, this is number three. Langara Institutional Repository Consent By submitting, I consent to uploading my ARC Fund final report to the Langara Institutional Repository (The LaIR).