By Laura Frank

๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ:๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ as an entity has many goals. I would like to see a future of our work that has less stress and better remuneration. I am concerned about the wellness of our community and itโ€™s longevity. However, the topic I feel strongest about is client education.

Our peers have been showing up on job sites for almost 20 years now. In the beginning, video screens were typically a supplemental add-on whereas now those screens are a foundational element to entertainment design. I have spent years refining communication with the video content creators to help them achieve their goals. I have not seen the same progress in communication with our clients, improving their understanding of what it takes for us to be successful in our work.

Clearly there are producers we work for who understand who we are and what we provide. Someone in a similar role to yours established the budget line items that we constantly fight to improve. But what have we done to clarify our roles, our process, and our time requirements on a project? What have we done to help our clients communicate their needs and expectations back to us?

๐™’๐™š ๐™–๐™ง๐™š ๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™š๐™ซ๐™ค๐™ก๐™ซ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™™๐™ž๐™จ๐™˜๐™ž๐™ฅ๐™ก๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™š ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™–๐™จ ๐™จ๐™ช๐™˜๐™ ๐™ž๐™ฉโ€™๐™จ ๐™ช๐™ฅ ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™ช๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™™๐™š๐™˜๐™ก๐™–๐™ง๐™š ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ง๐™จ๐™š๐™ก๐™ซ๐™š๐™จ, ๐™˜๐™ก๐™š๐™–๐™ง๐™ก๐™ฎ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™ฅ๐™ช๐™ง๐™ฅ๐™ค๐™จ๐™š๐™›๐™ช๐™ก๐™ก๐™ฎ.

Client education is not something we can expect to happen simply because we are heroes at what we do. Our success at delivering impossible projects has only earned us the opportunity to do it again and again with no gain in time or budget. We tend to be an unhealthy combination of innovators, challenge-junkies and workaholics and regularly trade our wellness for opportunity – because we love what we do.

Ultimately the result of building this community will be thoughtful client education. We as a group must first work to understand how we see our own roles and how we see each other. That community awareness will build client awareness, making the relationship stronger and our work life better.

Iโ€™m not going to stand on this soap box and demand a radical shift in labor practices. Life has already done that for us. But I will provide a platform for us to discuss ways to come back stronger. We have a moment to pause, reflect and carve a new path forward.