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What do \u201cBarbie,\u201d \u201cMission: Impossible \u2014 Dead Reckoning\u201d and \u201cIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny\u201d have in common? Besides being the summer\u2019s big-budget movies, they were made in Britain, filmed in part at some of the country\u2019s most esteemed studios.<\/p>\n
Big Hollywood productions are a critical part of Britain\u2019s film and television industry<\/a>. For years, they have brought in money, jobs and prestige, and helped make the sector a bright spot in Britain\u2019s economy. But now, that special relationship has brought difficulty.<\/p>\n The strikes by actors and screenwriters in the United States<\/a>, which have ground much of Hollywood to a standstill, are also being strongly felt in Britain, where productions including \u201cDeadpool 3,\u201d \u201cWicked\u201d and Part 2 of \u201cMission: Impossible \u2014 Dead Reckoning\u201d stopped filming. Throughout the late summer months, when the industry would be at its busiest to take advantage of the long days, soundstages at Pinewood, Britain\u2019s largest studios, were instead nearly empty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Film crews, like camera workers and costume designers, are out of work after productions abruptly stopped. Bectu, the British union for workers in behind-the-scenes roles in creative industries, surveyed nearly 4,000 of its film and TV members and 80 percent said their jobs had been affected, with three-quarters not working.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIrrespective of whether you think the studios are right or whether the unions are right, there are people who are suffering in the U.K.,\u201d said Marcus Ryder, the incoming chief executive of the Film and TV Charity, which supports workers who are struggling financially.<\/p>\n In August, the charity received more than 320 applications for hardship grants, compared with 37 a year earlier.<\/p>\n Since the first \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie was filmed partly in a studio in England in the mid-1970s, British film studios have been a top destination for American productions, and that impetus gathered pace in the past decade thanks to generous tax incentives and moviemakers\u2019 demand for experienced crews. More recently, Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services have snapped up studio space so quickly they set off a boom in studio building.<\/p>\n These big-budget productions employ thousands of local workers, and pour billions into the economy. Last year, a record 6.3 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) was spent on film and high-end TV productions in Britain, according to the British Film Institute. Nearly 90 percent came from American studios or other foreign productions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The number of films or television shows delayed in Britain since mid-July, when Hollywood actors joined the writers\u2019 strike<\/a>, is relatively small, maybe about a dozen,<\/a> but they are the big productions that require lots of crew and support an ecosystem of visual effects companies, catering and other services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Charlotte Sewell, an assistant costume designer living in London, was working on the \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d movie when the strikes stopped production. For a few weeks, she was able to work one day a week, but now that has ended, too.<\/p>\n \u201cNow my one-day week has gone, I\u2019ll be trying to find some something somewhere,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure where yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Sewell, who is also the chair of the Bectu committee for costume and wardrobe department workers, said she supported the strikes, and she was confident she would be able to return to \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d when the disputes ended.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the meantime, she\u2019s nervous about her finances, especially paying her next self-employment tax bill, which is due in January.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I\u2019ve been in the industry a long time, I suppose, mentally, I\u2019m more equipped to deal with the downtime, but financially not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She started in the business in 1992. Back then, the film industry was in \u201cdire straits\u201d after a funding slump, Ms. Sewell said, but recent years have been \u201camazing.\u201d There has been a noticeable shift in her work toward big American productions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe depend so much on U.S. studio-based productions for our work,\u201d she said, because British productions have died down. \u201cI used to work in independent film all the time. I haven\u2019t done it for years because it just isn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n The problems for British workers has been exacerbated by a slowdown in domestic production, said Philippa Childs, the head of Bectu. The BBC\u2019s funding from viewers, through a license fee, was frozen by the government for two years<\/a> until April 2024, and other British broadcasters are struggling with a drop in advertising revenue, restricting their ability to commission new work, especially as production costs are high. At the same time, film workers have been facing a squeeze on their own budgets from stubbornly high inflation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Bectu is supportive of SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood union that represents actors, Ms. Childs said, in part because the issues that have provoked the U.S. walkout, like the use of artificial intelligence by studios, will \u201cinevitably\u201d have a big impact in Britain, too.<\/p>\n Most workers in the industry are freelancers, but unions say that does not mean the work is always precarious. After the pandemic lockdowns, demand for workers was high, and the industry was full of stories of people suddenly moving to other productions for better pay.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gone from feast to famine,\u201d Ms. Childs said. <\/p>\n The ripple effects from the strikes are mostly on productions with stars who are SAG-AFTRA members \u2014 who tend to be U.S.-based actors. But the impact is expected to grow, affecting more workers. Many parts of the British film industry are insulated from the strikes, however; domestic productions, with British actors or British union agreements, have gone on.<\/p>\n That could change. Equity, the British actors union, is closely watching the Hollywood negotiations ahead of contract renewals in Britain. A request for a 15 percent pay increase has been submitted to the production companies and will be followed by negotiations on working rights and conditions. Equity has a campaign called \u201cStop AI Stealing the Show,\u201d arguing that British law is failing to protect the rights of performers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re obviously going to want what the Americans want,\u201d said Paul Fleming, the general secretary of Equity. \u201cSo we are facing the prospect of industrial unrest in the middle of next year.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For the past 13 years, Ian Ogden has worked as a grip, a crew member who moves and supports the camera. He was on reshoots for Disney\u2019s live-action remake of \u201cSnow White\u201d when strikes shut down filming in July.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been pretty bleak ever since,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Last month, Mr. Ogden said, he earned three-quarters of what he needed, and was using savings set aside for his two young children to pay for groceries. For weeks, he struggled to find new work as the productions still running tended to be smaller, not requiring as many cameras or grips, he said. Recently, he has found work on a British television production.<\/p>\n A member of Bectu who also holds a position in a charitable organization for grips, Mr. Ogden said, \u201cI support the fight for rights.\u201d But he does not support the strike, he said, because it is hurting the offscreen workers who don\u2019t have the kind of financial support that Hollywood actors do<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe people that it\u2019s affected in this country \u2014 we\u2019re not millionaires,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n