Industry app to track diversity on screen projects

The Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network and Screen Industry Innovation has announced a new initiative to help organisations track and boost diversity in their screen productions.

The Everyone Project is a web app that invites people to self-identify on a set of characteristics around the diversity of the talent and crews working in their current projects.

“Strong evidence demonstrates that diverse and inclusive organisations are more innovative, resilient and effective. It’s our ambition that The Everyone Project will be a game changer and a world-leader that will extend into measuring diversity across a wide range of industries and sectors,” Adam Smith says.

SDIN Co-chair Tim Soutphommasane said: “Diversity and inclusion are crucial. Measurement helps us to get things right. Please join us in supporting this project.”

Hoodlum Chief Content Officer and SDIN Co-chair Tracey Vieira said: “Measuring and increasing diversity is not only a moral imperative but it also makes business sense. There is a proven positive link between diversity and financial performance. Our industry thrives from diverse narratives and perspectives both in front of and behind the camera.”

CEO of Screen Producers Australia Matthew Deaner said: “All the work that Screen Producers Australia does with its over 500 screen business members and through its activities to develop the sector is through the prism of creating a diverse community of content creators who reflect the world in which we all belong. We are pleased and proud to support this project.”

Head of Screen NSW Grainne Brunsdon said: “Diversity is a must for Screen NSW and we’re proud to be involved with any efforts that seek to embrace the topic and make their mark for a more inclusive outcome. This is a great initiative that we hope will be widely adopted across the industry and we will certainly be encouraging all of our supported productions to get on board.”

SBS Managing Director James Taylor said: “SBS continues to champion greater inclusion in our sector, both on screen and behind the scenes, because we believe the faces we see and the stories explored across the media landscape should be more reflective of the diversity of the nation today. We support this initiative by the industry to improve our performance as a sector, not only because it makes for better storytelling, but because a more inclusive society presents benefits and opportunities for all of us.”

Acting CEO of AFTRS Georgie McClean said: “AFTRS is thrilled to be supporting this significant initiative for the sector. The Everyone Project will give us a trackable snapshot of who is making Australian screen stories, and where talent from all backgrounds are still experiencing barriers to working in screen production. It will be a great guide for where our industry is seeing change and where we still have work to do in building a vibrant and representative screen culture.”

Screen Queensland CEO Kylie Munnich said: “Being able to capture data on the diversity of our sector will allow us to honestly reflect on how inclusive we truly are and what we can do better. It will show us where we need to commit more energy to increase pathways into the industry for diverse practitioners and how we can harness our investments in screen stories to help drive cultural change and connect with audiences.

The Everybody Project is a voluntary and confidential survey of on-screen and off-screen contributors to productions funded by SDIN members. The Project will benchmark the production industry for diversity against the broader population and over time.

The platform importantly also acts as a tool for organisations to themselves better understand the demographic make-up of their workforce, membership, crews and cast and to measure the impact of their efforts to make this more diverse and inclusive.

The Everyone Project has been developed by Sii, a benefit corporation established by long time screen industry executives Adam Smith and Alex Hannell, with the support of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), an Australian Commonwealth government statutory authority.

The platform aims to be easy and engaging whilst prioritising personal privacy, security, respectfulness and inclusion.

SDIN members subscribe to the platform and then invite all audio-visual productions they fund, both in-house and external to their organisation, to register a production on the platform. The platform has been designed to make the process of registering a project as simple as possible. For most productions, this should only take a few minutes. Significant input from industry has shaped the design.

The Project is committed to consent and privacy and the platform has applied ‘best practice’ privacy by design principles from conception and has opted in to be bound by the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act (Cth).

How is it being collected? Do producers list their cast and crew’s details?

Through general industry engagement, and direct producer communication, production contributors are made aware of the project and its purpose and how they as individuals will be asked to contribute. In their engagement agreements and/or in other forms their express consent will be sought to provide their role and contact information to the platform.

SDIN members require their in-house producers and independent producers commissioned to then register their productions on the system and upload their cast and crew details (name, role and email address – with their consent).

The platform contacts any individual who is not already registered on the platform and encourages them to participate in the voluntary survey. For most people, completing the survey should only take about two minutes.

What data is being collected?
From production companies, the platform collects information about the type of production (title, format, genre, funders etc.) and name, role and email address (or mobile number) of all on screen contributors and crew.

From contributors, the platform seeks to collect demographic data on: age, gender, sex, sexuality, cultural background, disability, carer status, geography and socio-economic status.

What data can be accesed? (e.g. can a broadcaster access data from their commissioned shows even if they were made by a production company?)
Platform subscribers will be able to access reports on productions they have funded, both in-house and produced by independent producers, with benchmarking against whole of industry reports and the broader Australian population. Data will be aggregated to ensure de-identification and preserve individual’s privacy. The protocols around the publication of these reports is to be agreed by SDIN.