Benefits, Programs and Initiatives of the Producers Guild of America [as of November 2022]

Networking Events

We host dozens of networking events throughout the year. These events may take place in-person or virtually. Some examples of regularly calendared events include:

• Monthly Thirsty Thursdays (LA)
• New Member Orientations (virtual)
• Bi-Annual Networking Cocktails (NY)
• Regional Happy Hours (NY, Atlanta, DC)
• Monthly ‘Schmooze’ hosted by the Animation & VFX Committee (virtual)
• Monthly Tea Time hosted by the AAPI Working Group (virtual)
  • Previous special guests include: Walter Hamada (President of DC Films/Warner Bros.), Bing Chen (Gold House), Janet Yang (Over the Moon), Christina Oh (Producer, Minari), Steve Tao (CW, VP Current Programming), Melvin Mar (EP, Fresh off the Boat), Julie Oh (Producer, tick tick Boom), Christina Chou (CAA lit agent), and Janice Chua (Imagine TV, VP).
• Bi-Monthly Coffee Breaks hosted by the Women’s Impact Network (virtual)
  • Previous special guests include: Janet Brown (President, Gunpowder & Sky), Toni Judkins (SVP, Original Programming and Development, Mahogany), Rona Dana (Director of Business Development, Tyler Perry Studios), Mitra Ahouraian (production attorney), Taylor K. Shaw (Founder & CEO of BWA Studios), Nikki Marshall (Warner/Chappell Music).
• Annual Holiday Party (LA)
• Annual Emmys Viewing Party (LA)
• Annual Oscars Viewing Party (LA)
• Annual PGA Dodgers Day (LA)

 

Professional & Educational Webinars

We have hosted a total of 109 webinars since the launch of our virtual programming in March 2020. Our professional & education webinars are recorded and available for replay on either our member-exclusive Vimeo channel or the PGA’s YouTube channel. Some notable sessions available to members include:

• “Pitch Perfect: How and What to Sell to Peacock/NBCUniversal”
  • Featuring: Cara Dellaverson - EVP, Drama Development & Current Programming; Alex Sepiol - EVP, Drama Development & Current Programming; Jeff Meyerson - EVP, Comedy Development & Current Programming
• “Betting on International Co-Productions: The Path Forward”
  • Featuring: Rola Bauer, MGM International Television Productions President, Gareth Neame, Executive Chairman, Carnival Films, Jane Root, Founder and Chief Executive Producer, Nutopia, Christian Vesper, President, Global Drama, Fremantle
• “How Best to Pitch Virtually”
  • Featuring: Laurie Zaks (President of Mandeville Television), Kesila Childers (VP of Development at Paul Feig’s Powderkeg), Stacey Carr (SVP Unscripted Dev. Nickelodeon), and Lisa Roos, (SVP of Drama Development, NBC)
• “Producing TV and Film with Netflix”
  • Featuring: Bela Bajaria (Head of Global TV), Scott Stuber (Head of Global Film), Kira Goldberg (VP, Studio Film), Ian Bricke (VP, Independent Film), Matt Thunell (VP, Overall Deals, Series), Irene Lee (Director, Drama Series) and Pete Corona (Director, Drama Development)
• “Connecting Producers and Agents in the Non-Fiction Space”
  • Featuring: Amanda Lebow (CAA) Katie Zwick (CAA)

Additionally, we have hosted a total of 47 virtual mentoring roundtable sessions since the launch of our virtual programming in March 2020. These are intimate opportunities for members to connect one-on-one with mentors during a 90-minute session. Past mentors participating in the series include:

• Shelby Stone, Basil Iwanyk, Mike Farah, Bruce Miller, Lynette Howell Taylor, Mona Scott-Young, Scott Stuber, Jac Shaeffer, Sarah Aubrey, and more.

 

Hire PGA

At the start of the pandemic, we launched Hire PGA in collaboration with the Employment Committee in an effort to help get members back to work as quickly as possible. Since our launch in October 2020, we’ve shared well over 150 job listings. Some positions that have been shared with members in recent months include:

• Producer, Immersive (XR) at The Walt Disney Studios
• Executive in Charge (EIC), Production (FT) at ITV America
• Production Executive at Funny Or Die, Inc.
• Post Production Coordinator at Amblin Partners
• Line Producer for an HBO Max/Nat Geo series
• Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) – at Syracuse

Version 2.0 of Hire PGA rolled out in late October 2022.  Members must now “opt in” to receive job listings via the Hire PGA initiative. Once a member has successfully opted-in, members automatically receive an email with four mandatory questions related to their work experience. Members will receive all listings which are a one-to-one match with the fields indicated by employers submitting listings. Since the new rollout last month, nearly 20% of the membership has enrolled. Increasing member awareness of the program is a priority for Q1 of 2023. Later in 2023 we anticipate launching a campaign to promote employer awareness and utilization of the program.

 

Producers Guild Screeners hosted by Indee

Launched November 22, 2022, PGA members now have access to view screeners for awards consideration on an exclusive platform hosted by Indee. This platform provides a secure and quality viewing experience for PGA members with native apps across all major platforms such as AppleTV, iOS, Roku, and Amazon Fire. It is not necessary for members to purchase any new technology to access these screeners. Since the start of the pandemic, all PGA members, regardless of location, have had increased access to digital screeners. The platform with Indee goes a long way in further democratizing access.

 

Independent Production Safety Initiative (IPSI)

The Independent Production Safety Initiative (IPSI) provides free training and legal services to productions to create a safe and harassment-free environment on set. Through IPSI, you can apply for free on-set training, legal services and more for your indie production and access free resources for ensuring a safe, harassment-free workplace through the IPSI Content Library.

 

Green Production Guide (GPG)

The Green Production Guide (GPG) is the premier industry online toolkit designed to reduce the film, television, and streaming industry’s carbon footprint and environmental impact. The GPG was established in 2010 in a joint effort between the Producers Guild of America Foundation’s PGA Green committee and a major studios partner group, now known as the Sustainable Production Alliance (SPA).

The site features a worldwide database of vendors that provide sustainable goods and services for film, television, and streaming production. The GPG also offers tools and resources to help implement a sustainable plan for any size or kind of production. These tools include the Production Environmental Accounting Report (PEAR), which calculates a production's carbon footprint; the Production Environmental Actions Checklist (PEACH), which details best practices for each department on a production; Sustainable Production Infographics, which provide helpful visual guides to ensure best practices in the office, on location, and on stage; and sample memos, signs and flyers to help communicate sustainability efforts to cast and crew.

 

PGA Awards & Related Events

The PGA hosts 5 tentpole annual events for the membership in the week leading up to the Producers Guild Awards Ceremony.

Breakfast with the PGA Awards Nominees for the Zanuck Award in Los Angeles

• On the morning of the PGA Awards, we host a breakfast celebration and panel conversation with the producers of the 10 films nominated for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. Free to all PGA members.

Nominee Cocktail Reception in Los Angeles

• A cocktail and networking event in celebration of all producing team members from each nominated production across all categories. Open to nominees and PGA members only. In order to ensure that this event happens consistently every year, staff is now managing this event.

Nominee Cocktail Reception in New York

• A cocktail and networking event in celebration of all producing team members from each nominated production across all categories. Open to nominees and PGA members only.

A Roundtable Conversation with the Documentary Motion Picture Nominees (virtual)

• A virtual session with the producers from each of that year’s nominated Documentary Motion Picture titles.

A Roundtable Conversation with Non-Fiction Television Nominees (virtual)

• A virtual session with the producers from each of that year’s nominated Non-Fiction Television titles.

 

Produced By Conference

PGA’s Produced By Conference is a networking event and educational forum that reaches across film, television and emerging media to ignite conversation and action around the most pressing issues facing the industry and how producers are shifting the future of the industry. The Produced By Conference provides the opportunity for attendees to obtain first-hand advice from notable producers during the Conference’s popular Mentoring Roundtables and Pitch Perfect sessions. PGA members receive an exclusive discounted rate for the 2-day weekend event.

 

Contract Services Administration Training Trust Fund Safety Pass (CSATF) classes

The Safety Pass Program was conceived by the Motion Picture and Television Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee as a means of addressing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's requirements that employees be trained in the safe use of equipment and work practices on their job. Because of the freelance nature of many motion picture and television assignments, the Safety Pass Program provides valuable assistance in meeting the training needs of the Industry by providing industry-wide general safety training.

The classes offered include:

• General Safety Training/Injury & Illness Prevention Program (A) (1 hour)
• Environmental Safety (A2) (3 hours)
• Harassment Prevention 2 (HP2) (2 hours)
• Hazard Communication (P) (3 hours)
• Confined Space Safety (L) (1 hour)
• Noise Exposure (K) (1 hour)
• Bloodborne Pathogens (H) (1.5 hours)
• Respiratory Protection (I) (1.5 hours)
• Location Safety (Z1) (2 hours)
• Hand and Power Tool Safety (E) (1.5 hours)
• Compressed Gas and Fuel Cylinder (N)
• Environmental Safety (A2)
• Excavation and Trench Safety (L2)   
• Fall Protection (D)
• Firearm Safety for the Entertainment Industry (S)
• Hours of Service (HOS)         
• Lockout/Tagout (M)
• Scaffold Use (G)
• Traditional Insert Car Safety (B5)
• Welding and Cutting (J)
• Workplace Elec. Safety: Facilities & Other Permanent Installations (V2)    

 

Discounts on Services and Events

PGA members receive member exclusive discounts to a variety of services and industry events. Current services available to members for discounts include:

• IMDB Pro
• Men’s Warehouse
• First Entertainment Credit Union
• Preferred Hotels & Resorts
• Bitmax Media Services
• The Hollywood Reporter
• Variety
• The Wrap
• TerraCycle
• Budget Rental Car
• Final Draft, Inc.
• Largo AI
• Scriptation
• Showbiz Software Store
• Yamdu
• Center Theatre Group Productions
• Working Advantage
• Corpay
  • Through our partnership with Corpay, PGA members can take advantage of Corpay’s cross-border payments and foreign currency exchange solutions at no cost. Corpay provides integrated cross-border payments and currency risk management solutions.

 

Produced By magazine

Beginning in 2021, the quarterly Produced By magazine has been made available in a wholly digital format as well as digital versions of all individual articles.

 

Social Media Presence

PGA’s most important channel for outreach and engagement is LinkedIn. Content shared on LinkedIn is generally about PGA programs, events and initiatives. It is an important additional communications vehicle through which PGA reaches members outside of the weekly newsletter, press releases and website. (We also use the Guild’s social channels to promote member-only events.) Some of the most popular content on social: the weekly New Member spotlight, announcements about the PGA Awards and Produced By conference, DEI initiatives within PGA programming and the broader industry and PGA’s sustainability initiatives and those within the broader industry. Sample content here.

PGA Social Media Accounts	Followers / Subscribers
	a/o 11/21/22	a/o 11/1/20
LinkedIn *	83,248	56,659
Instagram	18,900	11,368
YouTube	17,700	N/A

Our legacy accounts of Twitter and Facebook continue to exhibit slow growth. Respectively, they have 22,700 and 21,000 followers.

* PGA has more followers on LinkedIn than any other guild or union (including SAG-AFTRA). The closest comparable is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences with 90,099 followers. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences trails with 20,678.

 

PGA Create

PGA Create was launched in Fall 2021 with the lead sponsorship support of Google. It is a lab for emerging and mid-career creative producers in active development, financing or packaging of a feature or series. Annually, there are two program cycles of 10 producers/teams each: Scripted and Documentary. Now in its second year, the program’s focus is on supporting producers from underrepresented backgrounds. To date, five Fellows (with a sixth in the midst of the vetting process) have become members of the guild.