Coronavirus: No help for those in entertainment working behind the scenes

John Van Norman is used to being invisible.

The Yucca Valley resident owns NextExit Productions and has spent almost 40 years as an audio engineer for corporate meetings and conventions, working behind the scenes to ensure events go on smoothly and successfully.

But with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, along with the efforts put in place to fight the spread of the virus, Van Norman worries that the show will no longer go on for himself and thousands of other unseen independent contractors in the entertainment industry.

After the cancellations of numerous large events in this region because of the virus and now a statewide shelter-in-place order that shutters all businesses considered to be non-essential, he's out of work and significantly concerned about his livelihood.

"It wiped out my calendar for the rest of the year," Van Norman said. "It happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to plan. I’m going to have to (find other ways to earn income) but this all happened so quickly and there’s been no time for me to decide what to do yet. Another source of income was (performing) my music and that’s vanished now too."

He estimates he has about two months worth of savings.

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"I’ve never seen instant industry devastation quite like this," La Quinta resident Damian Lautiero said. "The closest thing I can compare it to is 9/11. It shut everything down, but it didn't come with the widespread limitations of how many people can be in a room."

Lautiero is the director of event technology at an upscale resort in La Quinta, a position the hotel contracts for with PSAV, an audio-visual and event technology support service that staffs events and venues across the country.

He estimated the resort lost about $700,000 in revenue when more than 20 events canceled within 72 hours of Gov. Gavin Newsom's initial public health advisory recommending all non-essential gatherings larger than 250 people be canceled.

Gatherings have since been restricted to 10 people or less.

'We've always been a bit recession proof'

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees representative and trustee Carlos Cota said the union is still trying to gauge the economic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic on the hospitality/entertainment industry.

"After 9/11 and the 2008 recession, people still wanted to be entertained. We’ve always been a bit recession proof, even when the economy is slow," he said.

"This is the first time something has hit our industry directly. Nationally, 90% of our work is gone within a matter of two weeks — and that’s about 150,000 members nationally. We’re at less than 10% employment right now."

Cota said the remaining 10% of unionized employees still working are in box offices, editing or in scene shops making stage backgrounds.

"That’s probably not going to last long," he added.

For independent contractors such as Van Norman, who are considered self-employed, there aren't any options to pursue, even with possible stimulus packages on the way and assistance for small business owners.

"There’s talk right now of having independent contractors and self-employed people get some kind of unemployment insurance," Van Norman said. "As a (small business owner), I can’t do that, but that would be a big help. Right now, it’s too much uncertainty."

No help for independent contractors

Former Coachella Valley resident Cliff Horn, who now lives in North Hollywood, is a freelance camera assistant on a stop-motion production. He said he has worked in the industry since 2018.

Because he signed a non-disclosure agreement, Horn declined to say the title of the production he was working on. It shut down indefinitely March 16.

"I was fortunate enough to save money, but I'm basically living off my savings," he said. "I know a lot of other people who are scrambling to find any gig that they can, or considering working something like Doordash or Uber."

A salaried manager, Lautiero is able to work from home, but furloughs are likely coming in a few weeks. Nevertheless, Lautiero acknowledged that the independent contractors he uses for events are left in a much worse position.

"They might as well be Uber drivers, because it’s a gig economy," he said.

Brandon Henderson of La Quinta, a project manager for a video company in Los Angeles that specializes in projection mapping, content projection and video walls, also collects a salary and describes himself as "extremely lucky" for the time being.

“I feel sick to my stomach for the massive amount of production people that are immediately affected by all of this. I’d like to see this talk of federal aid for them become a reality," Henderson said.

Assembly Bill 5, the controversial labor legislation meant to provide wage and benefit protections to gig industry workers, such as Uber and Lyft drivers and as many as a million other independently contracted workers across other fields, was signed into law in September by Gov. Newsom. It took effect Jan. 1.

Entertainment unions such as The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Writers Guild of America, Hollywood Teamsters 399, and Studio Utility Employees Local 724, as well as IATSE supported AB 5.

Still, some in the industry say that for these kinds of workers there are still issues.

"The flip side to AB 5 is even though they’re independent contractors and classified (as employees), we have to build a safety net for them," Cota said. "If you aren’t covered by a union contract, you have no security at all. You can still be an independent or freelance, but we still need to have a mechanism to provide support. It doesn’t need to be this extreme, even if its seasonally slow or a recession, there has to be some kind of a safety net for freelance work."

He added that IATSE is working to include its members in the Family First Coronavirus Response Act signed by President Trump on Wednesday.

Though, it extends paid sick leave to workers diagnosed with or in quarantine for COVID-19, the plan only applies to employers with more than 50 or fewer than 500 employees.

Henderson said there needs to be safeguards for people who work behind the scenes in the entertainment industry.

"(It's) scary how entire industries are going belly up in such a short amount of time," he said. "Hopefully some safeguards will be put into play that keeps everyone safe during future catastrophes. Not really sure what those are at the moment, but I have confidence we can all dream something up."

The future is uncertain

It's not just the question of when things will return to normal for those who work in live production for events or as film hands, but what will be left standing? How will the industry look when events and film productions resume?

Henderson is concerned with many cancellations and not a lot of rescheduling during the fourth quarter of the year, adding in his specialty of the industry, "If it costs money, it gets cancelled. If it makes money, it gets postponed."

"The majority of events I do are perks for these companies. There’s probably a lot of companies saying, ‘We’re going to save a million dollars and not throw our big annual event.' It’s not producing money like Coachella where they’re saying, ‘Oh, we need to make that happen this year.’ That’s the problem with my industry.”

Lautiero said his company has re-booked a couple of events for September, but is unlikely to have any additional openings at La Quinta Resort and Club once business resumes.

"Now that your have (Coachella and Stagecoach) pushed into October, one of the challenges is what we ran into with Desert Trip in 2016, we don't have available hotel rooms." Lautiero said. "What they will try to do is move the smaller conferences and offer incentives to reschedule so they can free up some inventory. It is going to be a challenge if this clears up and Coachella and Stagecoach happen. There's going to be an inventory shortage on hotel rooms, which will drive up the price."

But Cota indicated how abrupt entertainment events were shut down and offered an example of where some of the industry currently stands.

"The Broadway shows that tour, they’re all (using) trucks. With a lot of the theatres that shut down, they basically shut the lights off and left the productions on stage. The day people can go back to work, it’ll be immediate and that stuff will (resume)," Cota said.

There are also concerns of what the state of the world will look like and if people will want to be in big crowds in the near future, even on the backside of coronavirus, as well as the world economies.

“Everything requires financial backing, and if we get thrown into an extreme recession, some of the money probably won’t be there to back some of these events," Cota said. "The smaller events that don’t have a large price tag are easier to mount. Festivals should be fine and will be coming back. But it’s hard to say, nothing has ever hit our industry like this, so what the backside looks like is anybody’s guess."

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4617. Support local news, subscribe to The Desert Sun.

Previous reporting by USA Today reporter Gabrielle Canon was used in this report.