‘We’ve Gone Backwards Over the Last 10 Years’: Channel 4 Panel Demands More Diversity in U.K. Post-Production

U.K. post-production leaders speaking as part of a panel hosted by Channel 4 have called for proactive measures to increase diversity in the industry.

The virtual session held on Wednesday was chaired by dialogue editor and dubbing mixer Emma Butt, a long-time campaigner for diversity in post-production.

A recipient of the ITV Studios Achievement of the Year prize at December’s Women in Film & TV Awards, Butt has worked on ADR for shows like “Game of Thrones,” “Doctor Who” and “EastEnders.” In 2020, she published a paper on the lack of diversity within the post-production sound sector in TV, supported by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.

Butt was joined by TV and film editor Zeb Achonu; Neila Butt, creative diversity lead at Channel 4; Bob Clarke, founder of MAMA Youth Project; Dean Webster, head of development at Ten 66; online editor Jay Francis; and Jasmin John, editor and founder of Black Women in Post Production.

The session began by addressing the question of why diversity has rarely been the subject of discussion in post-production. The general consensus was that the trickle-down effect of increasing diversity in front of the camera has taken time to reach post-production because the bulk of activities take place after the rest of the production has packed up.

“Often once those cameras have stopped rolling and everything gets hidden away, people aren’t checking anymore if those boxes are being ticked,” said Achonu.

The editor, who has been in the industry for more than 20 years, stated that it has “gone backwards over the last 10 years,” citing an increase in freelancing leading to a reduction in HR personnel overseeing inclusivity measures.

The panel also discussed the need for increased outreach and skills training for people from underrepresented groups, in keeping with Butt’s research findings that “there are no opportunities or schemes currently available for training, or progression for post-production sound freelancers.”

Butt’s 2020 report found that risk-averse tendencies in hiring practices often led to the same teams being hired, taking away opportunities for new entrants. “We need an inclusive culture within the companies,” said Francis. “In doing that, we create loyalty and people want to work for you.”

“We need to make people realize that inclusion is actually good for business,” added Clarke, whose org The Mama Youth Project trains young people for employment in the media industry.

The speakers also discussed their own experiences with a lack of diversity in the industry. Butt recounted a story from an early job where she was told that she had been hired because she was a woman. Although offended at first, Butt says she realized that the company’s female clients were more comfortable working with her, and that it was a sound business decision based on merit and not solely on her gender.

The panel agreed that diversity hires must be done for the right reasons, and unless talent and merit are placed first, an employee will always feel the need to prove themselves. “I’m seeing a lot of independent companies that I work with who are really diverse without trying. They’re not ticking boxes. They’re just opening themselves up from the top,” said Achonu.

It’s also crucial to bring people along at “every career level,” said Jasmin Johnson, expressing the significance of higher level executives recommending diverse names from their contacts.

“We need to learn from what we’ve done with regard to on-screen talent,” said Webster. “Having diverse people around the table brings a richness of voice and better programs to air.”

About the discussion, Channel 4 diversity lead Neila Butt said, “I really hope that the conversations that we are having don’t stop at Channel 4, but can be more industry wide and [that we can] work with external partners to tackle what we talked about.”

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