Where to begin. Let’s start by saying it’s definitely apart of the industry’s boys club sprinkled with liberal inverse 'Susan Estrich' (bombshell) types here and there. Let me stress, the whole apple isn’t rotten but take a look before you take a bite. I want you to know this review is an unbiased truthful account of my time with Company 3.
I was reached out too specifically, I’m assuming Bc I worked in the LA circle before. Should've been the first and only necessary red flag Bc I fled LA to NY to get away from that circle.. but we all need money. They fed me a pipe dream decorated with vows of growth, support and opportunity. But what was at the end of that tunnel was two of the most self absorbed and fake artist (colorist) I’ve ever met.
Everyday was filled with mindless and albeit inane rejiggering of schedules, non-collaborative support calls with operation (not gonna lie, the 'green' or new people, of all backgrounds, were great. I suspect it’s because they’re untainted by the jaded lights of “Hollywood”), and crushing self inflated egos. I was met with disrespectful condescending conversation disguised with artistic effervescence at every turn.
Client intake is delineated by the colorist choice. Which made it impossible to create a schedule that balances the life of all parties on the team (operations, producers, colorist and even clients). At its core, this was my job. This lack of balance is what fuels the every man for themselves atmosphere which is truly the root of all problems for new or more junior employees. Whom of course are weighed down with the brut force of the work. I often tried to advocate for them but was told, “well they’re junior. That’s what they’re there for.” The disregard for my well being was of course bothersome. But this disregard for the support staff really hurt me. I truly hate being forced to make the lives of hard working hopefuls more stressful and being shaped as the bad guy. I’m not a dream killer. When confronting upper management with these issues, they’re simply brushed under the rug. Is this support? No.
The colorist are assigned with booking quotas managed by producers, but time and time again they pick & choose when to play ball. I’ve tried to suppress it but I have to speak on a racial issue as well. Considering colorist have the final say of what clients to take... I must make this clear. Certain clients a forced to the back of the bus. An influx of clients of color came requesting to work with the colorist I was assigned to. I’m assuming Bc I myself is a POC (the only black person on the team and one of the few POC at time)... but again, this is my assumption. I was told company 3 prides itself on granting clients world class service but many times I was given excuses to lessen the care given to them in comparison to other even smaller budget/named clients. It was painful. It hurts me to have to admit that these jobs were constantly turned down, unnecessarily pushed back or strangled for time/attention. Producers are given no control in these situations so was I working to create efficiency or was I made the Samuel L Jackson to their Leo DiCaprio from D’jango Unchained?
Due to staffing, many projects are split between the LA team and NY team, where I was. The LA team is even more careless. On multiple urgent client request the LA team was unresponsive or utterly unhelpful. Leaving you alone to console the client and save face on easily solvable hiccups if they’d just done their job. Speaking of clients, many of them are industry ppl who’ve moved up to in-house positions or friends of the colorist. They aid in creating unnecessary disarray. It’s a sick and twisted cycle designed to make you question your own personal worth or intelligence. But since i'm not up for a pulitzer here, we'll call it hazing.
From an operations standpoint, producers have no access to file in take nor have any visibility to the projects they’re supposed to be managing. How does this make sense?! For the person who interfaces with the client to have no way of knowing the status of projects on the fly. Constantly having to keep clients waiting for answers due to redacted information. Seriously? It is idiotic. Simply a play to keep producers at bay of any control. Ultimately, you’re forced to constantly reach out to more senior operation staff who are in on the boys club and are also purposely unhelpful. It’s honestly sabotage. I was even hung up on when trying to get answers for a client. These practices turn you into a scapegoat. A puppet to place all the blame.
When addressing this laundry list of concerns instead of helping better the situation, upper management will let you go vs addressing their colorist’s awful work ethic or lack of team player professionalism. I could go on and on with my destain for this company but I think my points have been made. Unless you have your boys club ID, AVOID AVOID AVOID.