My MEAA Story: Alyssa Blackwell
VFX production manager Alyssa Blackwell is part of a group of union members campaigning for a better deal for their colleagues in the screen sector.
I studied International Business and Screen/Media, before relentlessly applying at Rising Sun Pictures until they had an opening for me. I began in the industry as an induction and recruitment assistant, but it was my dream since I was about 12 to work in production so I was soaking up every bit of knowledge I could to move further towards that goal.
My break was to move on to Mill Film as a production assistant and do my first show — and, wow, it was the learning curve of a lifetime!
I’ve worked on more shows since then and worked at more companies, and the highlights every time are the people. We work crazy hours and spend so much time together, it’s integral to have a good team and a good working vibe. I have worked with some incredibly talented people and learn so much on every project.
There’s also nothing like seeing the finished movie/show you worked on; it’s a great high and seeing your name in the credits never gets old.
I first joined MEAA around this time last year. The screen actors and writers strikes in the US hit everyone very hard and VFX was a huge casualty of this. I saw my colleagues and friends losing their jobs in droves as work dried up. It was scary how quickly our industry was decimated and also how little control workers had.
A few former colleagues reached out about wanting to bring the VFX Union effort to Australia. Other countries were attempting it, so why not us?
Like everything, there’s power in people. The more people who are members of MEAA, the better. My housemate works on set and hearing first-hand from her how MEAA had secured working rights and benefits for her and the crew sounded brilliant. The more people who are involved from the VFX side, the more we are able to improve the industry.
Personally, I wanted to see some equality between roles. Production is often paid a lot less than other disciplines and work some of the worst hours. It’s seen as an unskilled role but most of us have degrees or qualifications and also a lot of soft skills you can’t quantify. So it was really this that drove me to get more involved too.
“We want to see people paid fairly for the work they do and the hours they do. We want to see increased protections for those on visas and fairer policies regarding contracts in general.”
Along with a group of like-minded people, we’re spearheading the VFX Union effort in Australia. I’m a part of the committee working through how this would all work and what it is we’re asking for.
Our biggest goal is to have some industry-wide cohesion across studios. Right now there’s no set rates/award, there’s no set over time policy and each studio is different. This can be really confusing for workers and also creates inequality between studios. All the things we’re aiming for help the workers AND help the studios. Happier employees = better work, better retention, better employees. A win-win, right?
We want to see people paid fairly for the work they do and the hours they do. We want to see increased protections for those on visas and fairer policies regarding contracts in general.
All of these are inherently good things that will only strengthen our industry.
I think people hear the word union and automatically get scared — they’re afraid of being blacklisted, of work moving to other countries, of studios not coming to the table.
What we are aiming for are not outlandish requests, they are things that our on-set colleagues already have and are standard throughout other industries. None of us want to see work dry up or studios not come to Australia, and I don’t think that will happen — we have too much incredible talent here.
Like I said earlier, there’s power in people — the more people who are members, the more positive change we are able to make. Get involved!
