The Movie Labor Tree

What kind of Labor is required to Make a Movie?

Making a successful movie is a complex process that requires the collaboration of several hundred people, representing various categories of workers. If you love Movies and are part of the movie business, Labor Day is the time to celebrate a great group of hard-working fellow employees.

The movie industry has been heavily unionized since the 1930s. And thank God because many of the big studios have been owned by corporations whose only purpose was to make money. I am not a fan of unions, but the entertainment business is one of those businesses that has benefited from strong union leadership. For me, it is a day to celebrate the unions involved as well as the thousands of workers behind the scenes who make filmmaking possible. Refer to the chart below, which illustrates the number of workers and the interactions required between worker categories to create a successful movie. If the workers of just one category drop the ball, the movie that is created could end up not being wort…