This month’s guest column comes from Lara Wickes, President of the Recording Musicians Association Los Angeles. 

Greetings friends and colleagues, I’m honored to get a chance to write my first column for the Overture and share some of the recent goings-on in the Recording Musicians Association. In our continuous task of representing the specific needs of recording musicians both to the AFM and the larger entertainment community, board members Sidney Hopson, David Horne and myself, along with local president Marc Sazer attended a very informative hearing at Burbank City Hall last Friday (March 20) hosted by Senator Adam Schiff, in which he spoke about a bill he has been drafting over the past year that will, if enacted, put into place federal tax incentives for film and TV production in the United States. A bill that is, in the opinion of every speaker at the hearing, highly necessary and long overdue. Especially with the impending merger of Warner Brothers and Paramount poised to wreak even more havoc on the livelihoods of entertainment workers. 

We are all, at this point, way too familiar with the dramatic decline in entertainment jobs both in California and the nation as a whole, as other countries seek to bolster their own economies by luring away film production and post-production with staggering amounts of tax incentives. However, I was heartened by IATSE president Matt Loeb’s answer to a question about whether or not Schiff’s proposed bill would be too little, too late. He replied that while that might seem to be the case, things can and do turn around very quickly in this business. Other speakers, who included congresswoman Laura Friedmann, executive director of the Future Film Coalition Jax, former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, among others, reinforced the idea that there could be a very high cost-to-benefit ratio for the bill. The star of HBO’s the Pitt, Noah Wyle, shared what he called a “replicable success story,” citing the exponential amount of employment his show brought back to California after receiving a modest tax credit from California, and how grateful everyone involved was to be working close to home. 

Of course, he failed to mention, as we can only expect, the musicians who recorded the soundtrack for that show, on AFM contract, also close to home. In fact, scoring was not mentioned even once during the entire hearing, which naturally, was frustrating, but also served as a symbolic reminder of what a small part of the whole process music scoring is, including its percentage of the overall cost of producing a show. Additionally, this omission gave us an opportunity to walk up to the politicians in the room after the hearing concluded and introduce ourselves (and remind them that we too need to be included in this effort to reverse the outflow of employment—which was well-received and acknowledged.) As we recall from the process that started with a few musicians showing up at the WGA picket lines to the masses of members of our fellow guilds supporting us at our most recent film/TV negotiations, even baby steps can ultimately get you to your destination. 

We will continue to make our presence felt and our needs understood as this much-needed legislation is developed. Let us know if you’d like to be involved!