Television City Partners With Women In Media On Training Program For Women Seeking Production Jobs

Matt Grobar
·3 min read

Television City is partnering with Women in Media and its CAMERAderie Initiative to provide a training program for women seeking below-the-line production jobs.

Participants in the new program will be taught on-set technical skills, both virtually and on-site, and will ultimately produce and premiere several short films. On-site training will take place at the Television City media campus, owned and operated by an affiliate of Hackman Capital Partners, as well as a number of other iconic L.A. studios owned by HCP, and operated by The MBS Group.

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The training curriculum will hit on the following topics:

  • Basic Grip Training: A skills-based class to expose primary learners to the basic skills of Gripping.

  • Basic Electric Training: A skills-based class to expose primary learners to the basic skills of Set Electric.

  • Production Technician Training for Set Construction Techniques & Management: An introductory immersion into basic “Hollywood” set construction including hands-on application of techniques and management of the set construction process.

Television City is supporting the initiative through its $1 million Changing Lenses pledge, which promotes efforts to increase equity and diversity in the industry.

“Women In Media is thrilled to partner with Television City and The MBS Group on this game changing program,” said Women in Media’s Executive Director, Tema Staig. “The industry can no longer wring its hands and wonder where the women are. We’ve had an overwhelming response from our members who are eager for hands-on training from working experts, and we hope this continues to remove the glass ceiling that prevents women from being hired for these good-paying, sustainable career opportunities.”

“As part of our effort to help increase diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry, we must take steps to increase opportunities for women in professions where they have been traditionally excluded,” said Michael Hackman, Founder and CEO of Hackman Capital Partners. “I’m so proud of The MBS Group – and particularly Irene Phan — for identifying this need, forging a partnership with Women in Media, and providing individuals with the opportunity to participate in this program, which will offer potentially life changing skills building and career prospects.”

As Hackman noted, it was The MBS Group’s Vice President Irene Phan, herself a member of Women in Media, who came up with the idea for the partnership between WIM and Television City. She observed, as the New York Times and other outlets have, that there are still unfortunately few women working as grips and electricians on set, and filling other technical roles which are so vital to the industry, setting out to remedy this. “Women are more than capable of excelling in these on-set jobs, but it’s so hard to break in without specialized training,” said Phan. “When I devised this program, it was to introduce not just skillsets, but the jobs themselves, which pay well and are transferable to other parts of production.”

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