"2ADS! If you are concerned about your future — attend this event," read the notice for the Saturday, June 18, 2005 Second Assistant Director Breakfast. Members took this message to heart as more than 100 showed up at the Western AD/UPM/TC Council event to participate in discussions about issues specifically related to this Guild category.  The goal of the breakfast was to bring together 2nd ADs from every area of the industry and give them the opportunity to discuss these issues in an open forum with their peers.

“We knew through our 2nd AD friends that we all ran into the same problems,” said 2nd AD Melody Beam, one of the organizers of the breakfast. “We wanted to put our heads together collectively to solve them and/or change the system.”

The morning also supplied attendees with information on how to access job related materials such as contracts, rate cards, the Jeffords Rules, and production forms. However, the main impetus was to have the members break up into focus groups where topics ranged from the 2005 Negotiations as viewed from the 2nd AD point of view, to how to make the transition from film and television work to commercials and vice versa.

“The main purpose of the focus groups was to garner ideas in order to create a specific long range agenda for a 2nd AD task force,” said another breakfast organizer, 2nd AD Vince Duque. “The task force’s goal would be to find innovative ways to more effectively communicate progress and elicit feedback from our working peers on a more regular basis.”

At the end of the sessions, the focus groups all came together to present the results of the issues discussed. “UPMs, continuing education, the current state of the Training Program, the changing face of the traditional career path, creating work opportunities and the current DGA admission policies were all equally hot topics,” said Duque. “The industry is rapidly evolving to become an environment that is drastically different than that faced by 2nd ADs of 10-15 years ago, but the job and the career path of the 2nd has not evolved at the same pace. The mantra of this event was ‘to pursue positive change in our careers, in the DGA and the industry.’ The first step was to listen to what we had to say.”

“This was a very important event because the 2nd ADs who serve on the AD/UPM Council took it upon themselves to put this breakfast together,” said DGA Assistant Executive Director Louis Zogaib. “They felt they were not getting the necessary feedback from the members, so they did something about it. The turnout was tremendous and I believe this was just the first step.”

The breakfast was also the final event of DGA member Kim Kurumada as Chair of the Western AD/UPM/TC Council. Duque and Beam acknowledged his tremendous support, as well as that of others whose efforts made this event a reality including AD/UPM/TC Council Members Herb Adelman, David Larson, Elena Santaballa, and Sean Hobin; and DGA Members Ellen Rosentreter, Topher Wolfe, and Michael Mullen.

“This event was long overdue,” Beam added. “So many of us have the same issues but feel helpless to change our situations, we are like small islands floating disconnectedly through the ocean of the business. Now we know we aren’t alone.”