Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief for Variety. Today's podcast is a departure from our usual format. We're doing a deep dive into the history of the Maiden New York Program. This is a job training program funded by the City of New York that is designed to open doors for
jobs as production assistants for low income New Yorkers. Maid in New York began in two thousand and six during the Michael Bloomberg mayoral administration. More than eleven hundred New Yorkers have since gone through the four week intensive program, and many of them are working in highly paid union jobs in the industry today. Maid In New York has just released a long term repar that shows for every five thousand dollars invested in the training, the participant's earnings
power grew eighteen times over a five year period. There are other glowing statistics in the report that reinforce the teach a person to fish value of these kinds of training and career support programs. In our discussion, we'll hear from Katherine Oliver, who was a key player in launching Made in New York. When the program was born, she was head of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. Today she's a principal at Bloomberg Philanthropies, which commission the study.
We'll also hear from others involved in the program, including perspective from a veteran line producer who has experienced hiring Made in New York grads. Here, I'll let our guests introduce themselves so listeners will know who's who.
My name is Venus Anderson. I'm the director of media programs here at the MAID and New York KA Training Program and also the Post Production Assistant Training Program.
I'm portb, a local by the way, depty commissioner for film with the Mayor's Office and Media Entretation.
Hello, my name's at Duado Holder. I was in the maiden New York Production Assistant program.
I graduated cycle sixty.
My name is Paradise. I was born and raised in New York.
Katherine Oliver, principal at Bloomberg Associates and former commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment.
This is South Iago Kenyonis, I'm a producer in New York.
Thanks so much. I can't wait to get started on a lively discussion about the ROI of investing in human capital that's coming up right after this break.
Strictly Business is presented by Universal Studio Group, which houses NBC Universal's four powerhouse television studios, Universal Television, UCP, Universal Television, Alternative Studio, and Universal International Studios. Collectively, the four premium studio brands produce over three thousand hours of programming currently airing or streaming around the globe and own one of
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Thank you all so much for joining me here on Monday juneteenth to talk about the success of an incredibly important and impactful program that has been changing lives in New York City now for going on fifteen years. Catherine, here we are in twenty twenty three. You have an incredible I think it's about a twenty five page report that just details the incredible impact in a relatively narrow area of employment, the incredible impact of focus and intention
and resources can do. Can you take your mind back to the two thousand and five two thousand and six era and talk about the spark. What was the spark for this program? What were you what were you trying to address in creating Maiden Aline.
The city of New York really experienced a renaissance of film and television production during the Bloomberg administration. And it was back at the end of four beginning of five that the Maid in New York tax Incentive program, the very first tax credit in the city and state of New York ever, was passed. And it was shortly after that the floodgates open and production escalated in the city. And we had been working really hard to make New
York City a premier shooting location. After a lot of the business left after nine to eleven, the industry was just surging and we were starting to hear reports that neighborhoods were getting burnt out. There was too much production in New York. So in a very short period of time,
you know, it was feast or famine. You know, there was a lot of production in New York and the Film office has got a very unenviable They're in an unenviable position that they have to balance the needs of customer service, making the production happy, giving them access, and also being sensitive that we're a city of eight and a half million people and their quality of life issues, you know, for residents, for businesses that thrive on the streets and sidewalks of our city. And so we saw
a unique opportunity. The industry was growing, and from an economic development standpoint, this was a sector that was growing, and we were looking around at the productions and seeing that they needed to be more diverse. The productions, the crews needed to be more reflective of the city that they served and were working in. And so there was a unique opportunity to create a pipeline for more job
opportunity in New York to throat industry. And at the same time, the Film Office had the task of maintaining law and order, if you will, on with productions in these communities. So we created so we thought, we need a training program, We need an extension of the film office, and a production assistant is the face of a production
in a community. And so we thought, if we work with the pas and train them and educate them about what are the requirements of a permit, what are the rules of engagement when working in New York City that everyone would have a more positive experience. But the Film
Office didn't know how to do job training. So we looked around and we looked at some of the entities in the city that we're doing job training in different sectors, and we discovered Brooklyn Workforce Innovations originally based in Sunset Park and they did job training for unemployed and underemployed New Yorkers. And you know, cold Call reached out to Aaron and team and this was in two thousand and five, two thousand and six, and said, we know about film production,
you know about job training. Let's work together. So we created this program and we set out on you know, launching it, and it's been phenomenally successful. We've heard a lot of anecdotes through the years and so now we have some data to put behind that that really paints a beautiful picture of economic development career opportunities for underserved New Yorkers. So we couldn't be more proud.
For all of you that are now engaged in this work. What as as growing up as youths, what was your awareness of the potential for job opportunities in this area. Were you aware that film and television production was a thing, and that there was a lot. There was a lot and more going on film and TV and even Broadway. What was your awareness of employment opportunities at less than the movie star and you know, top big name director.
What was your awareness of the kind of job opportunities that you're involved with now when you were growing up as youth city New York City.
As a born and bred New Yorker, I knew very little about the TV and film industry. When you're growing up as a kid in the eighties and the nineties, you hear about people becoming passion models and maybe even actors on soap operas because that was a big thing, but not so much people working behind the scenes. And I remember talking to my uncle, who, when I was younger,
wanted to be an actor. And he's very unique in terms of almost every one of my family has a city job bus drivers, police officers, and things like that, but he wanted to be an actor and that didn't quite pan out. He wound up having a family and wound up kind of moonlighting as a parking PA on this show in the nineties called New York Undercover. And I used to think that was so cool because they
even threw him in as an extra. So I had to be maybe about twelve or thirteen years old, and I remember seeing him on camera, but he said, you know, most of my work happens behind the scenes, and I was like, you know, I need to dig more and do more research about the TV and film industry. I think at that time, I was still disillusioned with the fact that everything happens in Hollywood, and maybe there's those one or two shows that were The New York Undercovers
or the Law and Orders. Back then in the nineties, there really wasn't too much going on that, you know, you had to move to Hollywood. So when I went to school, my roommate was really into TV and film and she told me after she graduated, she was going
to move to LA to pursue that career. And I was like, well, isn't there a scene in New York And you know, I'm going to move back to New York and maybe you can just move back with me, and she's like no, So she went to LA and she works in TV and film, and when I came back to New York, I still did not see those opportunities here. There was no one waiting for someone with a college degree to say, hey, why don't you work
in the film industry. I would apply to internships, and no one was taking anyone for an internship that wasn't enrolled in school.
My mom was a single mom, and so we didn't really have many opportunities to like view people going to college and stuff like that. She kind of had to go straight to work. And my mom was the best mom that she could be given the circumstances. But we grew up not in the best situations, and so I got a ged in Rikers Island. I didn't really have.
Like a path or I.
Didn't know where I wanted to go, and when I walked into BWI, I still was unsure. I thought I was going to be an uber driver and they were like, we'll teach you how to get your license. So I was like, I'll get the license and see what we can do. And then they said, you know, we have this training program where you could work on TV and film, and I was like, well, you got me.
The ad works for me.
I'll go I'll give it a try.
And then you know, that was my first introduction to working in TV and film prior to that The only you know, understanding I had was like you had to be a rapper or you know, that was pretty much it, Like you had to be a rapper model to be on TV. Other than that, like you weren't really getting anywhere.
I came into it because I was shooting music videos around my way around my neighborhood. A friend of mine's know about the Maid of New York program, and I just happened to give it a chance, and I walked into a life changing thing. Because that moment right there, I was like, this is where I belonged. You know, this is where I need to be. I thought you needed to be educated with degrees and you needed to have certifications. You just need to be willing to work
and learn. That's the first thing I noticed, And I was like, okay, And it opened doors for me I never thought open. So I'm always grateful for that. I never thought about, you know, the film industry. I never thought that I would let alone be in it.
What was it about the work that intrigued you? What was it that excited you about the about and made you want to learn more about it?
It was so much how it's so much different departments and that how we all have to work as one to make.
This whole thing proud.
So I never knew about you know, HMU and the grip department and the electrics, the shadows, the lights that the props department down to the It's just so intricate and you know detail that I found myself learning about every department and why the lights here, and why there's a shade here, Why do we need a prop going or why do we have prop loud? Everything is just so intriguing because it's a reason for something and it's working as a unity. So everything just became you know, a study.
Program Santiago and you have had a great experience in hiring made and why graduates can you talk about you know, what what it is you look for when you're hiring people, and what it is that made in and why people bring to the table for you.
The things that I look for are the things that intrinsically are also what make people successful in this business, right, And it's like, you know, somebody who is helpful to the process, somebody who's willing to work, somebody who understands the work and the long hours and how hard it is to be in this business. Are some of those things that we're looking for. So well, I didn't go through the maide in New York program, I can certainly speak to the opp unity gaps you know that existed.
Certainly when I started, there was, you know, there was there was really no way unless you knew someone or unless you work for free, which is what I ended up doing. And I think one of one of the things that Made in New York program does.
Is that it it gives you, It gives that graduateal leg up uh and and that's at least one advantage that you're bringing to the table when somebody is going to consider whether they should hire you or somebody else.
Right, you need a mature person that that has that has the knowledge to pick up the baton and keep running. That matters, especially because production, you know, I don't want to be little war. Production in a sense is like war, uh where we have a lot of moving parts and people talk to here about coordination, and there's a lot of coordin that needs to happen in a very short
amount of time. And usually I hire a person, especially the first time I'm hiring someone, they're hired as an additional for that one day in particular, and what I expect from that person is to know the job that I need them to do.
And that's what's exciting now because the new tax credit in New York, which is going to get signed into law shortly, is a game changer. I mean, it's astonishing and there's going to be a lot of production. And even though we have the writers build strike now, when the strike is settled eventually it will be hopefully sooner
than later. This is a great time to be training people and getting people into the industry because New York is probably not going to see production levels that they've ever seen before, which is so heartwarming and wonderful to give so many people an opportunity that they never had before.
Will this new text credit, will the Will there be an expansion of support for it made in inly or other programs in this same spirit.
Definitely. We are working with the New Film and Television Council that is directly tied into the Mayor's office, and it comprised of multiple stakeholders and labor industry local workers. And within that council there's a workforce subcommittee, So we've been working with them stakeholders locally, studios networks unions to try to figure out better ways that we can increase
the pipeline for New Yorkers into the industry. As we expand and growth capacity, the need for infrastructure and workforce will be there, so we definitely want to make sure that we use this opportunity to diversify the workforce. I always say that I won't be happy until the crews here look like the subway cars, and I think you have an amazing opportunity with this diverse city to have a lot really to first for force Base.
Don't even think about hitting the pause button. We'll be right back with more on the Maiden New York Program After this break.
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and Collider calls it an immediate delight. Harlem is for your Emmy consideration in all categories including outstanding comedy series, and.
We're back with more on the Maiden New York Production Crew Training program.
Venus break it down for us, how do you go about applying for the maid in New York program and what does it entail if you are so fortunate it is to get in sure.
So, if you're looking for an opportunity to enroll in the MAIDA New York PA training program, you can go to our website at bwiny dot org. Every Monday at one pm, except for federal holidays such as today, we have a zoom meeting where it's an information session. You can hear an overview of what the program in jails for weeks of training, and at that time you can submit an online application. It's been like that since COVID, so we don't meet in person for the for the orientations.
If you are selected based off of the qualifications, you have to be eighteen and older, you have to be a New York City resident, you have to be passionate and wanting to work in TV and film, and you have to have a driver's license. If you don't have a driver's license, we do have a very limited amount of driving driver licensed scholarships available to folks who are interested in entering driving school. So those are basic our basic minimum qualifications and in addition to being low income
and no income. The four weeks of training will consist of learning the basics. We set it up. The first week is essentially, you know, learning what department is, which, who's who on set, the vehicles on set, how to do runs which are like errands for different people on set. Because you're training how to be entry level. We also have a walkie talkie training, so we set them up to do the walkie lingo and from then second week we're going on field trips. We'll go to like a
grip or electric house, We'll go to a studios. Kauffman Astoria has pretty much been open to us and letting us tour the studio, so the students get really excited and seeing the set as Sesame Street, that's usually a big one every time. And then third week we're gearing up for our mock shoot. The mock shoot is essentially all the work that they put in with the walkie lingo and learning how to do lock ups, which is basically stopping pedestrians in the community from walking through the sets.
Is you don't want to have any stragglers just coming by and trying to get an autographed it. It is a skill. It just gets a skill, and not everybody loves it, but it is very necessary in the entry
level position of a PA. So during that mock shoot, we're putting our students to the test to see if they can be you know, in the fort where our offices at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, So we're usually in Fort Green or Clinton Hill, and we're working with the community while we're setting up our own film shoot and
let them know like, hey, listen, we're here. We're representing not only BWI, but the City of New York Mayor's Office Immediate Entertainment in putting a program together, and a lot of people do stop us in the street and they ask, well, how do we get involved? And people will wind up coming to our orientations in that way. So it's a great way for us to not only teach the students, but we're in the community and in the community that we are are training in. Also, fourth
week we set up mock interviews with industry professionals. We have a lot of goals setting exercises for our students so they can set up, you know, the trajectory of their pathways and where they want to be in the next three.
To five years.
And then from there, as Catherine had highlighted in the beginning, we have a graduation for them to celebrate, you know, those four weeks of the training. It's a really special moment for them to be able to not only get their certificates, but to speak to their classmates and knowing
that they're setting up their very first network. You know, they may get out there and not know anyone, but they know each other and now they're strengthening those bonds, and those are the bonds that they'll take with them throughout their careers.
As anybody in the entertainment business knows, it's you get your next job by who you impressed on your last job. I mean, it is just so true. Paradise and Wardo. Any any thoughts about the training, and I'd also love to hear about you know how you advanced. I know you both have advanced rapidly since since your graduation from made from New York.
I had no income, I was a felon. I had lots of skills, but I had no certifications to actually take those anywhere. And so I was really just very malleable. Like I was at a very vulnerable point in my life where it could have went left or it could have went right. I was still on parole. I was still deciding what type of lifestyle I was going to live. And so I went into made A New York and I was like, you have to be here every day
at eight am, or else you get kicked out. And I was like, eight am, all right, I'll be there. And I continue to be there and I continue to show up, and I just I was like a sponge. I I ingested everything that you know, was thrown at me. I think the most helpful thing to me was learning the luck with a walkie lingo, so that when I walked in and they said, you know, oh we're rolling, I was like, you know, rolling where we're rolling out to?
You know, I didn't say the wrong thing. Instead, I blended in with the community, and I was able to make it work for me, you know. And so it just laid such an amazing foundation for me that, like I could never express in words how gratuitous I am to Made in New York. I met my wife through the program. I've excelled in my career, I've moved up
into positions. I am a union member, I have a pension, you know, like all these things that I'd never thought about as a twenty three year old person walking into Made in New York and ultimately as an overall person with so many things, you know, I think held against me. The fact that I was a woman, the fact that I was a lesbian, the fact that I was a felon.
All of those things I thought would be hindrance, like they would hinder me in moving forward and making good money, making legal money making you know, positive.
Positive changes.
So now I get up and you know, some days I wake up at to thirty in the morning to be somewhere by four, and I'm like, well, there's other
places I could be. And I enjoy the ride to work, and I get to work and I'm respected, and I have a title, and people come to me to solve their problems, and I feel I feel good, you know, like I feel well within myself, and every and every step of the way of that, like Made in New York has been a cornerstone of those things, you know, Like if it hadn't been for me to New York, I wouldn't have gotten the jobs that I that I do.
I did the Made of New York program to make my mom proud, and every single day I just make my mom more and more and more and more proud. Every time I tell I worked on the show, or I met this person or I did this thing, she just sent me my own IMDb Like I don't know what that is, you know, like it's just it's given me so much more than just finances that I can't express.
Oh my god, I think you just did beautifully, Eduardo.
I mean for me, the program told me everything we needed to know to walk on set. I think the lingo was like the walkie lingo kind of helps you blend in knowing the departments and it just you know, the the scenarios that we went through. So when we was on set making a run for someone, it prepared me so much that I knew what other people needed
before they knew. So I just paid attention. I remember being this thing was you know, if it's nothing for you to do, act like you're busy and find something to do, you know, make yourself look like you're busy. I came into The Equalizer season one as a COVID compliance officer. Three months onto the job, they made me set manager and I've been on the Equalizer for four seasons. So I've been set manager for four seasons. Through those four seasons, I've had the honor to meet so much
people who makes some good connections. I was able to meet the stunt coordinator on the Equalizer. He came across some of my videos that I post on social media and he asked me, you know, a question that kind of changed my whole trajectory. He was like, what do you think about being Kevin Harsh stunt double? Now this is the rock stunt double. It changed my mind about stunts. It changed my mind about, you know, everything I do. And I had long locks. My hair was very long.
I say, a week later, I told myself, I see myself doing this. I see myself doing stunts. I see myself, you know, on TV. I see myself doing this. I cut my hair. I started training ten times harder, get together, and you know, I started working out a lot more. And that following end of the year, I got my first on side, my first stunt job. Since then, I've worked for stunt jobs on the Equalizer and I've been training, networking with so many people. I never in my life
thought that I would be a stunt actor. I never in my life thought i'd be talking to actors and having conversations with them, people that I grew up, you know, looking up to, and they're looking at me as a friend and as associate. They're appreciating the work that I've done.
I always say this.
My first day on set was seventeen and a half hours. My first four days on set was seventeen hours. I remember the Friday, coming into work, I told myself, I can't do this. I boughderline about the crowd. I don't know what I'm gonna do. And it was a classmate I had, Brian Hardison, I won't never forget this. He see me in the corner and I was just like I was going through it, and he was like, hey man, you got this, and it snapped me right in the shape.
And had he not did that, I probably would have gave up. And I'm thankful I didn't because it brought me here, you know, made in New York, prepared me for something I never thought was possible. You know, it gave me a door that I was allowed to see a whole different life. You know, I'm able to provide my family because of them, I'm able to do something life changing that my kids look up to, my friends and my family look up to.
You know.
I think some folks touched upon some of the most important parts of success once your foot's in the door, and one of those is networking, right, And I always say to the young people, you know, who were willing to listen, at least you're going to grow with your peers, and someday your peers are going to be, you know, hiring you, or you're going to be hiring them, et cetera,
you know. Or so so I think the foot in the door part and the closing of the opportunity gap is it's hard to put that into words, you know, especially someone like myself who didn't have those kind of opportunities.
This is a great proof of performance. The ROI is there, and so I think that is great. But I think that more people, the studios and the unions need more awareness and need to hear more of these heartwarming stories because it's giving very disadvantaged people in our city and an opportunity and a real opportunity, and you know, creating and strengthening that pipeline so that we can do that for more of the residency.
Has IOTZI and it's support for the base, you know. So the baseline disciplines that are that are covered here, have they been a factor in the success of the program? Do you think they have?
When I first started with me to New York as a staff member in twenty eleven, the Brooklyn Workforce Innovations had just finished a partnership with IATZI Local fifty two. It was a grip and electric training program to help people get advanced training skills because up until that point they had only trained pas. Beyond that, there was a Local six hundred training program. They did two iterations of that.
Our most recent one was in twenty eighteen, where ten out of the fifteen trainees actually went on to get their their union cards to become union loaders. So that open doors. I know, Local fifty two also had an opening for people to get on their availability lists because now we had visibility and credibility, you know, being around for so long. So we have over two dozen made in New York graduates are now members of Local fifty two. There could be a lot more, considering we have over
eleven hundred graduates, and there's so many other locals. We want to try to get people, you know, we've been doing this for seventeen years now, try to get people to that above the line, you know, WGA. We have a few people who are members there and DGA as well. But people are looking, you know, especially people who've been in this for a very long time, are looking to advance.
And I feel like we can continue strengthening those relationships with the IATZI and I know Catherine has helped us and introduced us to a lot of those folks you know in the inner offices and letting them know that, hey, we're a program of diversity. You know, as you read in the study, there's ninety four percent of our enrollees or people of color. You know, another unstated number is fifty one percent of our trainees or women or identifies women.
So that's that's a huge number in an industry that has literally not had its doors open to people who look like that. But like I said, moving forward, we would hope to continue building upon those relationships.
There is a commitment amongst the labor unions now that we haven't seen before, and it's a different attitude, and we're seeing that the studios are also being much more supportive financially and also in kind with diversity training programs, and so the tide is turned. So it's really it's a wonderful opportunity now to release this report get more traction with it, but we have to strengthen that pipeline web.
Is there an opportunity to scale this model in both entertainment and other sectors that might lend itself to this kind of targeted, intense training programs for people to clearly have the desire and the drive and the aptitude.
Absolutely, I mean we created the post production program, we have the Theatrical Workforce Training Program, Animation Project. I mean definitely, I think this is a program that we could use to scale in creative industries, which you know, media creative interface is one hundred and fifty billion dollars in revenue and it's half a million jobs for New Yorkers. So I think it's definitely something that's important, and we realize that diversity is not just a social justice issue, but
it's a it's a marketing and creative commercial. It's because you have content creators that want to work with people that culturally understand the product that they're creating.
Anybody have any last thoughts they'd like to share. I'm so grateful. I think this is this is so such, These anecdotal stories are so important to putting. You know, you have got great numbers, but now you've got a human face on these numbers. In a significant way.
This is venus. I just want to say thank you to all of you who participated. It means not only the world to me, but to the program, Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, also our partners at the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. Just to be able to have this platform to speak about the work that we do. I'm thankful for my staff and the hundreds of New Yorkers that we've served over the years.
I just wanted to to say. This final thought is that in addition to financially and the foundation and you know,
the future, that made a New York gives everyone. I personally think that it also gives you like a sense of like self worth and self respect because you walk in with a you know, as a PA, and you're like, this is entry level, but as you continue to move through your career and ultimately to your ultimate position, you gain more respect and more titles, and as you gain more titles, more people come to look, you know, to you for guidance, and then you're able to take that
back to me to New York and say, hey, these are the things I've learned throughout the years. Here, let me teach this to you. And it kind of just manifests itself in like a snowball effect of self respect, you know, be getting self respect from the proval.
Oh my god, and that is in such short supply in so many ways. Thank you all so much for your time and your candor and also all your great work. Really appreciate it. I'll look for your names and the credits. Thanks bye.
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UCP presents the true crime thriller A Friend of the Family, starring Jake Lacy. The series tells the harrowing true story of the Broberg family, whose young daughter jan was kidnapped multiple times in the nineteen seventies by a charismatic, obsessed family friend. The Hollywood Reporter says Lacy's innate duality suits the part perfectly, and Roger Ebert dot Com calls the show one of the best true crime dramas of the year.
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