Julie Harris Oliver: [00:00:00] Becky Morrison, welcome back to the other 50%.

Becky Morrison: It is my joy to be back with you. Julie, you have a different last name now?

Julie Harris Oliver: I do. I got married. Yeah, patriarchy.

I liked his last name better than the one I had, so I took it anyway. You listen to episode two 20, whatever, to get my full 10 minute rant on name changing.(223) , it has been a while since we've spoken. I wanna say, three years maybe. So I wanna have a quick catch up.

So I talked to you on episode 187 which I, I have to think was around three years ago. So if people wanna hear your entire origin story, go listen to episode 187. You can find it on the website, theotherfiftypercent.com. And it's probably still an Apple podcast if you search for it there. So give us the truncated version.

You are the founder of The Light .Go.

Becky Morrison: Yes, I am the founder and CEO of the Light, which is a commercial production company that's [00:01:00] dedicated to production, innovation, diversity, equity, inclusion, progressive production values, and really questioning and reevaluating the whole production paradigm itself.

Julie Harris Oliver: I love that.

And I think about you all the time as I'm doing this work and thinking about things, and I've quoted you in a million different meetings. So I wanna hear from you. Let's, oh God, where to even start? Let's go back to, I know you can talk really, clearly about kind of the history of film production and how it was set up.

So why don't we start there? How has this set up a hundred years ago and how's it been going?

Becky Morrison: How's it been going? Well, I'll start with how's it been set up? , yeah, it's really interesting. I've never, I never was somebody who particularly was drawn to history until I got further on in my career in production and I started to realize that so many things that we do don't make sense.

And I was like, why? Why? Who set this up? Who thought of this? This makes no sense. [00:02:00] And so I became like a voracious reader and researcher in when it comes to the origins of the production process, like you said. So I've done a lot of reading of articles and things like that, and what's interesting about it is that it is a little bit challenging to piece together.

I think one, probably because. It's people aren't interested in it, it's kind of boring.

Julie Harris Oliver: This is the way we've always done it. Isn't that good enough?

Becky Morrison: Exactly. And I think that one real thing when it comes to producers and production in general is that it benefits from the obscurity that we have as producers.

The smoke and mirrors of the behind the scenes itself is both intentional and useful for producers. As we hide our methods of doing things, it's, it's really like focus on what's in front of the screen, not what's going on back here. So what I did find was that, you know, Hollywood first began really as a response to people on the East Coast [00:03:00] wanting to get away from Thomas Edison, who I didn't realize was a straight up gangster, that guy, they don't teach you that in seventh grade.

Thomas Edison is a gangster. He essentially, you know, cause film, uh, he was one of the first people to be fabricating and inventing motion picture cameras in America and the celluloid in the film. And he created an association, a little mafia called the M P A A, I think that's, it's called MPAA. And it was, it had a lot.

Julie Harris Oliver: I'm sorry. Did, did you just call the MPAA a mafia??

Becky Morrison: I did. You can quote me on it. ,

Julie Harris Oliver: Becky Morrison said that. Okay.

Becky Morrison: and he, like, he basically, if you wanted to make films on the East coast in New York, New Jersey, at that time, like at the turn of the century, you had to do so at the behest of Thomas Edison.

He had to grant you the ability to be able to make films. And George Eastman of Eastman Kodak was part of [00:04:00] that little clique. So they controlled the actual celluloid itself. So he was, Thomas Edison was ruling over that situation. So a lot of the early upstart filmmakers, they were called the Independents at the time.

They left the East Coast and went to California.

Julie Harris Oliver: I had never heard this ever to get away from Thomas Edison.

Becky Morrison: That was one of the factors. Yeah. And uh, there are other factors too, right? Obviously the weather being one, the California, you know, having big the days of sunshine. Exactly. There's, there were other factors, but that was a big one because at that time, because there was still just railroad travel, they could go make films in California and like Thomas Edison's henchman couldn't really stop them because they were so geographically far away.

, and what's interesting is that those independents, they were the ones who became these huge studios that we know of now. They were the Warner Brothers. They were fox, they were those ones who, you know, we think of as huge conglomerates now, but at the time they were really upstart [00:05:00] independent filmmakers.

So, you know, thinking about people landing in, in Hollywood, let's say around 1915, at this point, they start to design a process around making motion pictures because motion pictures had already hit the scene. Like in 1905, Nickelodeons were opening and people were lined up around the blocks wanting to see motion pictures.

They had a nickel in their hand and they were like, give us movies, give us movies. And the people in Hollywood were like, whoa, we can't make them fast enough to fulfill the demand. So we have to figure out a way of making these that's more efficient.

Julie Harris Oliver: We gotta mass produce these things.

Becky Morrison: Exactly. Cuz at the time they were making them one motion picture at a time, and the director was responsible for everything.

The director wrote it. Filmed it, directed it, edited it, everything. So that was slow. And they were only able to make a movie at a time. So, uh, person that I often reference is Thomas Ince, who [00:06:00] was the first person who designed the shooting script and realized, wait a minute, we can film things out of order to make this more efficient.

And actually we can break up the roles. We can have a cinematographer, we can have an editor, we can have a director. And by putting those things together, we can churn out movies much faster. And if you also think about that time period, what was happening around then is like one Henry Ford's assembly line came out in 1913.

So they were looking around like, oh, the factory assembly line model had just been revealed. So they're like, huh, we'll make Hollywood a factory of dreams. Like, we'll model it off that and also World War I was going on. So if you think also about the time that they were immersed in looking at the militarized combat of World War I, and so in a lot of ways the reason why production feels so militarized and factory-like.

Is because that's exactly how it was designed.

Julie Harris Oliver: It's the movie industrial complex.

Becky Morrison: Exactly, [00:07:00] exactly.

Julie Harris Oliver: So that, , I think we can intuit from that, that the culture of it became very direction and control, top down, militaristic, do what I say,

don't ask questions.

Becky Morrison: A hundred percent. And actually what was interesting really early on, in many listeners may know this, that there were a lot of women in Hollywood mm-hmm.

In the early days really because it was a new industry and it was not yet gendered. The way a lot of other work was. So they couldn't, they didn't know at first like, is this man's work? Or is this woman's work? Like, it's gotta be one.

Julie Harris Oliver: How much money is it gonna make?

Becky Morrison: There we go. That's right Julie. So when, you know, in, in the 1920s then, , there was a recession and then Wall Street got into Hollywood because they realized how much money could be made and they brought the whole culture of the boardroom and of Wall Street.

And that was really when women started to get pushed out of Hollywood in massive numbers from the late 1920s. Women [00:08:00] were not really represented again until the mid 1970s in the way they had been before the mid 1920s in Hollywood.

Julie Harris Oliver: Wow. So then as, as it got, I think it started making a bunch of money and the investors, and I think a lot of power came with that.

And then it really became, I'm, I'm gonna say it, it became kind of an abusive culture that weeds people out or treats them badly for many, many years. And because it's a place where people, you know, dream about getting into it, people have put up with a lot of nonsense for a lot of years anyway, cut to now we're trying to

make a change.

Becky Morrison: We are, yeah, I'd love to speak on that actually, cuz I think it's this very something that we don't often talk about is that relationship between the abuse and the desire to be in this industry. Mm-hmm. And how we, and I can speak for my own personal experience, can conflate those [00:09:00] things as being one that the, you know, as a little girl, I watched movies and I dreamt of like one day working in the movies and growing up in New York and seeing everything filming on the streets of New York, you know, with the motor homes and the honey wagons.

I was like, it's thrilling. Yeah. And so when I first got into it, the, that magic of movie making was very quickly mixed together with the abuse, with the exhaustion, with the. Being in the trenches feeling and it all got mixed together. And I think that's one of the reasons it's a little bit diff difficult to unpack or even imagine that there is another way of doing things because we don't think of those as separate, but really they are.

Julie Harris Oliver: Well, and

there's a, I think there's some pride in like, I've made it, it's so hard and I've made it

Becky Morrison: exactly that. We wear the diff the challenge like as a badge of honor. Like, yeah, I drank 14 Red Bulls today and I only slept two hours and I [00:10:00] smoked a pack of cigarettes. Yeah. This is production, like, there is that like feeling about it that we're taught in the culture Yeah.

To, to glorify that in a way.

Julie Harris Oliver: Well, and I think there's also a real swell right now if it's not sustainable, it breaks people, it breaks bodies, it's, you know, it's unhealthy. And so, let's talk about how to break those apart and how to do it differently.

Becky Morrison: Yeah. I think what's interesting about now also is the generation that's coming up, you know, we've talked about this too, like Gen Z, they just have a very different tolerance.

I e a lack of tolerance for working in the way that my generation was able to work or willing to work. That we were like, oh, okay, I guess that's okay that you said that to me, or that, you know, I'm not gonna get paid for the work I did, or whatever it was. We took it in a way that they're too,

Julie Harris Oliver: well, they're onto us.

They're onto everybody. They're I, they're onto, they're onto capitalism. I remember Michael Moore talking about like, the [00:11:00] way they kept us is the American dream and the thought that someday you too are gonna be rich. So you gotta leave those rich people alone and let them do their thing, because someday you can also be, and I think Gen Z is like, guess what?

That's bullshit. They're gonna be rich because they're oppressing the rest of us. And so we don't have to put up with all of that. Mm-hmm. And so there's gotta be a better way where you can do this and fulfill your dream and not, not

be abused and take it.

Becky Morrison: Yeah. Exact. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that there is a way to, to unpack those two, that there is very truly, this real alchemy that gets created when you bring a group of people together, each with their own roles, each with a passion for storytelling in this industry.

And we work together collectively as a team on making something creative art.

Julie Harris Oliver: It's kind of getting back to let's put on a show.

Becky Morrison: Yeah. You mean like getting back to you in the se in the vaudeville sense or like

Julie Harris Oliver: just like, just like in the attitude [00:12:00] of, you know, but it, it's, let's do some magical creative thing in a way that's really great.

Becky Morrison: Exactly. I mean, that's why we're here at the end of the day. I mean, like, if you're an electrician, you could be an electrician in a construction, in in building management or, and in many different places we need electricity in our everyday lives. But if you choose to be an electrician on set, you're there because you do have a love of the craft and of the process of being, you know, collaborating with other people to make something.

That's ultimately creative. That's why we're there. So I think it is important to kind of tap back into that, that very, that childlike thing, that excitement, that passion and ignite that back in people because it is, it is inside of all of us and it was always there from the beginning. And sometimes it can become dormant or lay it covered over after years and years and years of working in a certain way and being treated a certain way.

And that we can, you know, dissolve all those crusty layers and just tap [00:13:00] back into the, that light. Joy. Yeah. Joy. Joy.

Julie Harris Oliver: And, , is that hard to do?

Becky Morrison: , I would say that it is, that's a good question. I would not personally say that it's hard. I would say that it requires a willingness to be uncomfortable and it requires doing something different than what's been done before.

So that in and of itself is different and is challenging, but I don't personally relate to that as hard.

Julie Harris Oliver: Well, it's funny cuz I think it's, I think it's hard and it's not hard. Like it's, it's simple. It's, I think it's, there are easy steps to do and sometimes it's the yes. The change that's hard is the will to do it.

That's hard. It's the coming up against power structures that are inflexible. That's hard.

Becky Morrison: Well, I think hardness is so much a part of what, of the old paradigm also, it's like what we were just talking about, it is like hardness is the old paradigm, which is a very [00:14:00] masculine, construct. So I think what, what changes something that's already very hard is softness, is flexibility, malleability, innovation, those kinds of, those kinds of things.

So I think that coming into something that's very established and hard and trying to change it in a way that's hard isn't going to get us to the promise land. It requires a different, you know, kind of setting.

Julie Harris Oliver: So I know that you are doing it. So what does it look like?

Cause I think you do a lot of short form, right? So you have a lot of opportunities to set up a production and set up a culture, and I know you think about that very intentionally.

So what are some of the things you do if you think, oh, I have this new job coming in. I'm about to hire a bunch of people, I'm about to set up a set. How do you think about that and how do you set your intention?

Becky Morrison: The first thing that I would say is, is the kind of the umbrella that it all sits inside of is something that I call production experience design.

So first of all, knowing and thinking of the [00:15:00] production experience is something that's malleable and that can be designed, you know, cuz we talked about that. It was designed a hundred years ago by some guys in top hats who were riding around in horse drawn carriages and smoking cigars. They designed it and then after that we've been replicating it pretty much unconsciously for the past century.

And that what I really am passionate about is encouraging all of us and all of you out there who work in production to realize that we can consciously design the experience that we have on set. We don't have to just replicate what we've been told. A lot of that doesn't, is not a fit for our world anymore.

So when I have a production coming up, or with PR production in general, I think, okay, how would I design this experience if I could start from a blank slate, from the orientation of the people who are on set, if the intention is for them to leave feeling better than they arrived. If the intention is

Julie Harris Oliver: wait, that, that alone is a revolutionary statement.

Yes, so you're gonna be here for 12 hours and you're gonna leave [00:16:00] feeling better than you arrived. Okay, carry on.

Becky Morrison: That is the principle orientation that I would, I, I start from, because I think it's possible, to design an experience. Same way, if you go on a ride at Disneyland, you're not gonna get off of it and be like, grumpy.

I mean, maybe, but for most people, they leave feeling elated after, you know, after you get off the incr coaster, you feel elated. And that's designed, it was designed to have you feel elated at the end. So I very similarly with a production experience, you can design it so that people feel anything. You can design it so that they feel exhausted.

You could design it so that they feel mistreated. You could design it so that they feel uplifted. You could design it so that they feel, you know, elated. You can design it in the same way that a, a writer can write a screenplay to leave the audience feeling in whatever way they choose at the end. We can do the same with the production experience.

So if I start from a place, it's like, okay, I want people to feel better when they leave, set them when they arrived. I want people to feel. , [00:17:00] connected to each other. I want people to feel respected and cared for in some capacity. One, because it's better for them, but also it's better for the production.

It's better for the thing that we're all making if we're really in it together. That's usually the starting point

Julie Harris Oliver: and does that become a whole nother job, or does that become just a different way that you work?

Becky Morrison: I think it becomes a whole other job. I think there's ways to do it inside of the jobs that we already have, but I really think it's a whole other role on set in the same way that we have an intimacy coordinator or a COVID compliance officer, because otherwise, who's gonna be doing this, production?

They busy. They are busy. I'm in pro. You can't give one more thing to production to do. Right? Everybody out there in production, I think you would agree with me.

Julie Harris Oliver: They're going, what? Now? I gotta make it a ride.

Julie Harris Oliver: Okay. So you're proposing a whole nother, A whole nother, yeah.

You can't [00:18:00] write that. You can't write that word. Whole nother with an N You're proposing a whole nother position that is really in charge of. The crew experience really?

Becky Morrison: Is that what you're saying? That is what I'm saying. I think for it to be fulfilled to the level that I see it possible, it does have to be another position.

Yep.

Julie Harris Oliver: And then how are you thinking about that intersecting with, , like the d e I work? Is that helping to create a more diverse space? Is I think it's helping to create a more inclusive environment and a better experience. Tell me how all those things intersect.

Becky Morrison: Yeah, I think they're all, there's so many, , positive results that would come out of being oriented around the experience that people have on set and, when we talk about that, it's the crew, it's the client or it's the talent.

It's everybody who's there. If you think about it, it's very unusual for there to be such a large group of people in an environment and there's no one there to really guide their experience or focus on their [00:19:00] experience. It's like we just don't do that in other areas, other industries.

Julie Harris Oliver: It's like the cruise director,

Becky Morrison: it's cruise director, summer camp counselor,

Julie Harris Oliver: chief, chief of staff.

Is it like a chief of staff job?

Becky Morrison: I, I really see it as the person who's directing the crew.

Cuz if you think about it, the director's directing what's happening in front of the camera. The AD is, telling people what comes next and keeping the crew on schedule. But there's no one directing the crew to be inside of the vision, to be mobilized as a team working well together.

That role doesn't currently exist on set. But if you think about it, that role exists in so many other industries. Like you have a coach in, sports, you have an orchestra conductor, you have people, you have a camp counselor, you have in corporate America. We understand that like we, it's important to get a team in a high performance environment.

You want the team to be connected and working as a team. But the way it works right now [00:20:00] on set is that people show up. Sometimes they walk in, they look around, they're like, am I in the right place? I guess so. I see someone I know why wouldn't even talk to me. Yeah, they eat breakfast, they go with their department, and then they work within their department.

For the day, and because everyone's so good, things get done. But it's very rare, and I've worked with hundreds of directors that the director or anyone will actually address the crew as a unit and get them mobilized inside of this project that we're doing. Sometimes that does happen with directors, but it's a very specific personality, and that's really not inside the director's role on its own.

Julie Harris Oliver: So it reminds me of that, , remember that viral video during Covid of Tom Cruise yelling at everybody about the covid protocols? It, it's sounding like, like what if that were, , a preemptive at the beginning that kind of rallying the truth, but in a [00:21:00] kind. Kind

way.

Becky Morrison: Exactly. Great, great example. Yeah. And some people do do that.

Like I've heard things about Joey Soloway that they do things like that on set, or Greta Gerwig or the Daniels certainly do, you know, people do do things on set.

Julie Harris Oliver: Lynn Shelton did.

Becky Morrison: Okay. Yeah. And, and so, but the thing is that all of I'm, I imagine Ava Du Verne might, but these are all people that have other functions on set.

So I'm talking about having somebody who's really dedicated to, you know, crew relations to the experience and to getting people inside of, of the vision.

Julie Harris Oliver: That's

so interesting. Cause I know a lot of people, myself included, have been focused on helping the leadership of a production. Gain some of those skills, you know, and have those skills and, and make it required as part of leadership skills on a crew.

Is that, that people also need to have some sort of, , culture building or diversity and inclusion or some sort of skills that everyone needs to additionally [00:22:00] acquire these as kind of a leadership requirement, I mean, in the world right now. Right. , but it sounds like you're saying, I mean, I say that as if I'm like reading between the lines.

You're explicitly saying it's probably gonna require a whole other person on set who's full-time job that is.

Becky Morrison: I think it depend, it depends on the circumstances and it's, I certainly don't wanna dis discredit the, the idea of people learning this stuff themselves. I think that's really important for people to do it themselves.

I just,

Julie Harris Oliver: well I think it also needs

to happen cuz you can't have people at the top who have no regard for the work ultimately undermining the work that's happening.

Becky Morrison: Completely. I, I just know in working on set, if you want something to be paid attention to, there has to be somebody whose role it is to pay attention to it.

Like I, I mean I, I've been on sets before, you know, back in the day that there were like short budget films, low budget films, I did that shorts where we didn't have a makeup person. We're like, we don't want a person, we want it to look [00:23:00] natural. But then the come on's hair look crazy. And it was like, no one's paying attention.

And then we get into the edit and we're like, oh my gosh, their hair looks crazy. Of course, cuz there were all these people on set, but it was nobody's role to pay attention to it. So if you want, that's why the wardrobe person's, paying complete attention to the wardrobe. That's why you have the departments.

Julie Harris Oliver: I do that once on a, a commercial and it was so low budget cuz it was spec and, and the talent just said he would bring a couple sweaters. We were like, fine, we don't need a, we don't need a wardrobe person until we get in post. Need a big stain on a sweater. We could get it out. I mean, so yeah, I take your point.

Becky Morrison: You can take the whole

thing down. Right? It's, it, it's so in the, in the way that if you want something to be handled, there needs to be someone there to do it. The same way with sustainability. Like if you wanna have an eco-friendly set and you wanna have metrics around the carbon impact, there has to be somebody dedicated to it.

You can't, who's gonna do that? Uh, like. Uh, there's no, there has to be somebody. So [00:24:00] I think when it comes to de and I, and, and I don't even really wanna speak about those as a unit. I mean, let's speak about them as separate things cuz the I is really what we're talking about here. Yeah. That even let's say if you're talking about diversity and wanting to have those metrics reported, who's doing that?

Like there has to be somebody whose role it is to do that. And I think it's the same with inclusion, which is what we're talking about here. Uh, I just read this great quote actually by Priya Parker who said, diversity is a potentiality that needs to be activated. Hmm. And I love that because it's, she's saying, or the way I hear what she's saying is that diversity is the bringing together of people from different walks of life, but that in its, uh, of itself is not enough to activate the potential and the payoff of having those people there.

Something has to be done to bring it out. And what, what that is, is what I'm talking about. Yeah. Which is an inclusive production experience, is in how do you then [00:25:00] have those people feel safe, feel good, feel connected, feel in the flow? How do you have them get to know each other? How do you have all the richness of those different experiences activated on set?

It's not simply gonna happen by bringing those people into the old production model, because the old production model tells us all that we don't matter, that we are replaceable cogs in a machine, and the only not welcome matter are above the line. Which is also a term that I like will not use. Like it's literally like you are either above this line and you matter, or you're below the line and you don't matter.

And if you're below the line, you don't matter. So how is anybody going to be bringing the richness and of their lived experience to a project if they're receiving those signals explicitly or implicitly when they arrive on set?

Julie Harris Oliver: That's it. How

do you do that?

Becky Morrison: , so the way that you do it is really thinking about their experience.

So I'll give you some [00:26:00] practical examples of what I mean by that. well, I'll tell you three things that we do on our set and the intentions behind them because I do think that the things themselves matter less than the actual intention of those things.

Okay, so here's an example. Greeting that is the intention greeting when people arrive on set welcoming, have like creating a moment of people being welcomed. Let's say that word instead of greeting

Julie Harris Oliver: the bar is low, is it not? The bar is so low. Could you say hello when I come?

Becky Morrison: So sad, but it's real. But it's real.

Yeah, it's totally real. So let's say beat number one, welcoming. When people are arriving on set, they feel welcomed. So that can be done in many different ways. I don't know, there's pro infinite number ways you can do that. The way that we do that on set is we have someone who we call a greeter who's stationed by the entrance and they welcome people onto set.[00:27:00]

Another thing we do on our sets is that we have name tags pre-labeled for everyone. The intention underneath that is to create a sense of belonging. So when people arrive on set and they have all the name tags laid out, you can see this look on their face. At first they're like searching kind of anxiously and then they see their name and their face like lights up and relaxes.

And it's a way of unconsciously like telling them, you belong here. Yes, we were waiting for you. Welcome

Julie Harris Oliver: again. So simple. What's on those name tags?

Becky Morrison: We have, we have magnetic name tags. Cause I'm a big, I also do not like it when I'm given a name tag that requires me to pin something into my clothes, create a hole inside of my clothes

Julie Harris Oliver: or a sticker.

Do you put on the outside? Do you put it on the

Becky Morrison: off? We did used to do stickers back in. Just put

Julie Harris Oliver: it on your boob. Like where do you put it?

Becky Morrison: Yeah. Well that is a d that's the user's choice. They can put it wherever they want, but we have magnetic metal name tags that are pre-labeled with everybody's name, crew [00:28:00] position, and pronouns and, uh, they put that on and wear it around set.

And what I've realized, especially in a shorter format, like, like commercials, is that by everybody knowing everybody else's name, it's, it creates a whole other level of, , relationship, of inclusion, of communication. It just changes the whole dynamic of the crew when everybody knows each other's names.

Julie Harris Oliver: A hundred percent.

And let me share a little anecdote here. , two, two things I wanna say in what you just said. , one thing, I just, in my last job we did a million, , production workshops around d e i and one of the questions, , that would be asked would be, you know, what's something that made you feel included on set?

Or what's something that someone did that made you feel not included? So many times people would say, you know, they didn't learn my name. I was there for six months. They called me grip. One guy said they called me Obama cuz I was the black guy on the set. [00:29:00] I mean, the bar is so freaking low that if learning people's names will make such a difference, like just do that.

You, it's, it's incredible. I mean, can you imagine any other job where you'd work there for any period of time and people wouldn't learn your name? Like, hey, analyst, like, hey, engineer. I mean, it's ridiculous. , the second thing you said, so very casually, , name, position, and pronouns. Yes. , pronouns is a big deal.

A lot of people are still like, what the heck is that? And what does that mean? Just speak to that for a second. Why do you include pronouns?

Becky Morrison: We include pronouns because they're important. It's important for people who have, , you know, different kinds of pronouns that are not as mainstream and historically used to actually have people know how they wanna be referred to and be able to be referred to in the way that they want.

And it's also important for, , everybody to have those, in my opinion, so that we normalize, , people being able to choose their pronouns.

Julie Harris Oliver: I think that's the thing. It it [00:30:00] normalizes it and it creates a space where, oh, this is no big deal. You can, you can have whatever pronoun else you want. Exactly.

No, no big, no big whoop. We're just gonna respect that.

Becky Morrison: And it's part of, you know, this whole idea, I think a main tenant in what I'm talking about here is really a re a rejection of the dehumanizing historical nature of production. Like so much about that traditional production process is dehumanizing.

It's intentionally dehumanizing. That whole idea of also you're replaceable, I mean, you're replaceable, you're grip number three. We don't actually care that your name is Joe, because you're grip number three to us, and we can have another grip number three in here tomorrow. So it is a revolutionary act to be like, we do care that your name is Joe.

We care what your pronouns are, we care what snacks you like to eat, or your dietary restrictions and our call sheets also have photos of everyone on it. We care what, how you wanna express yourself in this world. We see you. And if you're not here, Joe, we're gonna notice, you [00:31:00] know, that is a totally different context for people to work inside of.

Yeah. And in a, in a, in a creative industry, it produces much better results when people feel the way that I'm describing versus the way that they're just in a mechanical, industrial environment. Because this is a creative industry. We're not, you know, making widgets.

Julie Harris Oliver: Right. What's the third thing?

Becky Morrison: A third thing that I think is really easy to implement is, you know, the intention behind that. Would be, , unity. That's what I call it. And that happens in the safety meeting. So to have a moment, and that can be anything we're you're bringing the crew together to acknowledge the fact that, hey, we're all here.

We're all a team, we're working in this, on this together, and we have a moment to set that. As a group before we get into the day or before we get into the, you know, all the different hours and things that are gonna come to have a moment of unity that can happen. How we achieve that happens in so many different ways.

Like I got, I did something on set [00:32:00] yesterday, which is really fun actually, which I got from the Daniels that they do this, they really integrate movement on their sets. They do a lot of different things, but they have an exercise. Have you seen this where they mm-hmm. Shake their hands. Okay. So I'm not sure how well it's gonna play in audio form, but essentially everybody, they get the whole crew to put the right, their right hand in the air, and then they shake it four times and count out loud.

And then they shake the left hand, right foot. Left foot. The hokey pokey basically. Three times. Three times, yeah. Two times, one time. So it sounds like, did you say ready? Everybody Okay. Right hand up in the air. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2. 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. And everyone's shaking their hands and their feet.

And what is fun about that is that it's, it's like impossible to do that with your body without smiling. Like I think it's actually like physically impossible. Cause looking [00:33:00] around the room, it is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it's a low bar for people to participate and,

Julie Harris Oliver: and you can't

do it great. Like you can't have any attachment to you.

It's ridiculous. I'm gonna be the best one at this nonsense.

Becky Morrison: Exactly. So it's stupid and it's silly, but it's fun and it's a way to just get everybody to move their bodies, shake it up and laugh. Before you start the day, you know, I've also done other things that we've talked about too, like where we ask everybody to say a word about how they'd like to feel at the end of the day.

And then you go around in the circle and everybody says a word like inspired, respected, you know, all of the appreciated. You can go around a circle. There's lots of different ways to achieve it. So to recap, the three ways that I just were recommended, which all really happened in the first on our sets.

They happened within the first like few moments of set, first half hour, which would be welcoming, belonging and unity.

Julie Harris Oliver: Well, and then you set the tone, which sends the message, oh, this is [00:34:00] gonna be different. Exactly. And also might give the hint, oh, maybe I can't be a dick here. Maybe I should watch myself.

Not that people have that intention, but I think people have that habit.

Becky Morrison: It's true. And actually it doesn't stop people from being a dick, that's for sure. But it, it almost like makes people's being a dick like more obvious. Yeah. And what, what's really interesting, and this happened on the set the other day, so I'm doing this thing and I'm, I, I'm talking about The Light's philosophy on set.

And I can always see when talking to a group, some people are really into it. They're absorbing everything I'm saying. And some people are looking at me like this dumb be like, when is she gonna stop talking? Like they're giving me like God guy. Yeah. And in those moments it's hard because I'm a human being.

Like I don't really want people to be looking at me like they wanna kill me, but I am speaking to who I know they are going to become. At the end of the day, at the end of the production and not who they are in that moment. And so often when those people are [00:35:00] coming with their, you know, being a dick energy, it's because they have so much trauma because they've been mistreated by production in the past.

And I don't really speak to that. I don't lower down to that plane. I really raise it to the place where I know that they're gonna be by the time we get to the end of the day and they feel connected and cared for and respected.

Julie Harris Oliver: And

have you seen them make that journey in a day?

Becky Morrison: Yes. A hundred? Yes. Yes.

Reliably. A hundred percent of the time I've seen the crew. Cuz what we're talking about here is really shaping the energy of the crew, you know, like shaping the way that that organism. Feels, and so a hundred percent of the time, what I'm talking about with production experience design, it reliably delivers people into a different place.

And you may have a holdout, there may be like one [00:36:00] person who doesn't quite get there, but I would say for the most part, like the vast majority of people can't help themselves. They get swept, they get swept up in it, and they do feel different by the end of the day. And if they don't, that's okay too. It's like they're welcome to be however they wanna be, but the group dynamic, you know, tends to win out.

Julie Harris Oliver: It's funny, I was, , talking to MyKhanh Shelton the other day, and I was just listening to it again this morning, but we were talking about. How so often in doing this work, we've been so conditioned, especially as women, to be apologetic about it, to be like, mm, sorry to bother you, but we're, we're gonna do things differently here.

Or, sorry to bother you, but we're gonna be nice on the set. Like, and I, I, I think that's such, uh, such a deeply ingrained just, just to be apologetic about things like this. And in this regard, you really can't be, and you really have to just push forward. And how do you, , what kind of self-talk does [00:37:00] that take in the face of resistance to really push through and continue doing the work?

Becky Morrison: It really has to do with like, where does my loyalty lie? That's what I ask. That's what I say to myself. Am I loyal to my ego and feeling comfortable and looking good? Or am I loyal to creating a change? And am I loyal to the difference that this is gonna make for people at the end of the day? And when I can keep my eye on that, the second one, then that is what pulls me through the embarrassment, the humiliation, which often happens, the discomfort, the all of that is okay when I'm, it's in service of something that I really care about

Julie Harris Oliver: because it's going to be uncomfortable there.

There are times doing this where you're just like God, . It's, it's such a spiritual practice, right? To [00:38:00] keep that vision and to keep that motivation and to keep that, , uh, as you said, that loyalty to the higher good, that it doesn't matter what you're going through as a person. Cuz imagine how, if, if it's hard for the white lady to stand up and do the things.

Imagine how hard it's been for everybody else for the last a hundred years.

Becky Morrison: Exactly. I think especially, you know, we're talk, I'd say production experience design includes, but is not exclusive to the work of diversity and inclusion. But it is a similar kind of mechanism that we're talking about. And I think in the work, cuz I'm also somebody who's very passionate about diversity and inclusion and, , personal growth and, and all, and all of those kinds of things.

And it definitely takes being willing to be uncomfortable. Like there's no way to do the work of justice in any of its formats without being willing to dismantle all of that stuff in ourselves as white people, as women, as a producer. I mean, like, I've taken on all of these ways of being in ways of [00:39:00] seeing things and it's like if I wanna change things out there in the world, I have to dismantle them in myself.

And that is always going to be uncomfortable. Extremely uncomfortable because what's comfortable is maintaining the constructs that I have now and like, sitting on my couch, I'm just like eating ice cream and not like, it's fine engaging in any of it, but if we have a, a passion for justice, like we have to be willing to, you know, fall down and say things that are embarrassing and wrong and get blasted for it, and then just get back up and do it again and try again.

Julie Harris Oliver: I mean, you have to, you have to be willing to face the injustice if you're gonna find the justice. And think that, , I, I don't know what that is, but that, that can be really confronting and it's easy to not wanna

do that.

Becky Morrison: It is. Yeah. but again, it's, I always come back to, for myself, like, what is my life for?

Like, why was I born? You know, I took incarnation. I don't know, it doesn't really may even matter what your beliefs [00:40:00] are, but at some point, like, I wasn't here and now I am. And that goes for all of us. And I feel like I'm here for this. I'm here for this purpose. And so for me, that comes before everything else that comes before me feeling comfortable in the moment or, and any of, or any of that stuff.

And like you said, it's a spiritual process and I feel I'm very lucky that I have had, uh, a very spiritual upbringing and I've been in the spiritual path for a long time. So I have those tools of when, like, the shame comes flooding through my body, like allowing it to move through me, transmuting it, like, and moving through that and getting up and keeping going, and not letting the, those really intense feelings that can come up, take me out of the game.

Julie Harris Oliver: Well, not

to be stopped by it

Becky Morrison: exactly.

Julie Harris Oliver: To recognize, oh, this is a feeling that is indeed going through my body and it's gonna take a minute and I have to let it go through and not let it stop me and fixate on me and make everyone in the room take care of me, [00:41:00] because I'm feeling this

feeling,

Becky Morrison: oh my God.

No, definitely not that totally not bad. Oh God, definitely not that. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's, it's, you know, none of this stuff is a, is a path for the faint of heart. It's not the easy path, but that's the good one. You know, it's like carving a path where there wasn't one before and that's obviously gonna take grit and it's gonna, we're gonna get cut and it's, you know, there's gonna be things along the way, but it's so worthwhile like to look back at the end of that and say, Hey, I carved that and, you know, hopefully it's gonna make things better for people.

Like, that's what I really want. I really want things to be better for people on set.

Like,

Julie Harris Oliver: I mean, that's a real legacy thing. I mean, to have that perspective of I'm not just here to make the Nike commercial, I'm here to change the process by which the Nike commercial is made.

Becky Morrison: Yes, Julie. Exactly, exactly, exactly.

Julie Harris Oliver: So part of it is you've, you've started the revolution [00:42:00] in your own company, and that's kind of your incubator, right? Is that that's where you get to experiment and prove it out and do proof of concept. And then how do you have a plan for evangelizing this across the industry?

I mean, you're here, Lord knows everyone in the business listens to this podcast. , so , how do you think about, about really rolling it out broadly?

Becky Morrison: Yeah, cuz that is, that's exactly the, the ultimate goal. I mean, I feel like right now I have been doing this at my own company for many, many years and we have tried things that bombed, we've tried things that have been offensive.

We've tried, we've gotten feedback and, you know, made a lot of mistakes and, you know, have found some things that really work consistently. So what I'm focused on now is designing this repeatable architecture of the production experience, let's say, or some very coming up with a design that's, that's replicable on sets.

And what I would really love is then to be brought onto other productions. So let's say feature a series other people's [00:43:00] productions as this production experience designer. And, , do that on their sets as well. So that's really, that's the goal, to be able to do it for me to come up with this design, to do it on other sets.

And then I really see this becoming like a viable position for anybody. Like I don't, this isn't just the Becky Morrison show, you know? Like I think that this could be anybody, like, very similar to sustainability, right? I think that's a great parallel that the way that you had a few people at first who were doing, you know, making sets green sets and finding a way to measure the carbon impact.

And you have these consultants, there were only a few of them at first. I mean, I've been around a long time. We, I was been doing green sets for a long time and then all of a sudden they s sprouted up all around the world. And now you have all these people who are doing sustainability on set. So I see this as something very.

Similar to that, where there's a few of us who start doing it and then it really becomes something that is available across the board, across the world. And people are doing it in their own [00:44:00] ways, but all with this intention. And I think that it definitely has an impact on the bottom line. It has to, I mean, this is Hollywood, right?

Like there's no way anyone's gonna do anything out of the goodness of their heart.

Julie Harris Oliver: , yes. A I think there is a Covid budget line item that is now available for this. Yeah.

Becky Morrison: Where's that Covid money y'all? We need that Covid money

Julie Harris Oliver: Yeah. So the Covid budget line item is there. Let's repurpose that to cultural experience.

And I remember you talking to me about, , everything everywhere, all at once tell me what you said about that.

Becky Morrison: Everything everywhere. All at once. In addition to being a movie that I, I loved and, and obviously other people did too cause it won crazy. All the awards. All the awards everywhere. All at once.

, I think there, it's a really great proof of concept because they work in this way and I think there's people out there who do work in a very similar way to this already. So I'm not reinventing the wheel. What I'm offering is a way to do this reliably on set over and over and over again

Julie Harris Oliver: systematically.

Becky Morrison: [00:45:00] Exactly. So when you don't have directors like Daniels on set, how you can do this on set with any director, you know, and I think that what's. That's such a great proof of concept for so many reasons. When I was watching that movie in the theater, I knew nothing about how it was made, and I said, I turned to my friend next to me.

I go, I bet you a hundred dollars. I would bet more than a hundred dollars that, that the AD was not yelling at the PAs on this movie. You can

tell.

Julie Harris Oliver: You told me, I bet those people were dancing and then there's videos that they were

Becky Morrison: Exactly. You can tell from watching it a movie that is unrelenting, creative genius like that, that the people on set were having a good time making it.

That they were engaged. You can just tell from watching it and Exactly. And then when I, I've done like a huge deep dive now onto the whole behind the scenes. And of course that's what they were doing. They were dancing, they had mash massage chains. They were doing different things. They were engaging the whole crew.

There was gratitude and there was engagement and all that kind of stuff. And I think what that does [00:46:00] is that it gets people. Clicked in, which is what they want. Everybody from the parking pa to the gaffer, the key grip, everybody is now clicked in and they, they shot that movie. I'm, I don't wanna get my numbers wrong, but I feel it was like 28 days or something for 11 million, which is such incredible, incredible, limited resources for what it was.

And the reason they were able to do that was because of the way that people were engaged, because of the creative shorthand, because of the relatedness and the relationship and the unity of that team. So I feel like that is such a great selling point for this way of working, is that this is a way that you can get, like for example, on that movie, Larkin, Sippel and Daniels have worked together for a long time, and Larkin Sippel is the, the dp.

So you have many, many, many years of working together. You have a shorthand, right? Same with other members of the team. But you don't always have that luxury when you work on a production. Sometimes you're working with new people and this is a big conversation when it also comes [00:47:00] to diversity. Yeah.

Julie Harris Oliver: Like lot of, they encourage you working

with

new people

Becky Morrison: and a lot of the reason that people say they don't, they don't wanna work with new people is because it's too risky, which is code for, I mean, that could be code for a lot of things, but one thing it's code for, I think is that I don't trust, I have a shorthand with this person.

I know. I trust them. I've been working with them a long time. They can, you know, they get me. I, I think that has a lot of value when it comes to working in production. And what I'm talking about is a way to design tho for those creative shorthands instantly so they don't have to take 10 years to create.

Julie Harris Oliver: Yeah. Cause

I think what you're looking for is to be creatively free and so presenting, I don't know, guardrails feels a bit too constricting, but, uh, but as you're saying, laying down the framework to create the environment where you can be creatively free as quickly as possible with whoever you're working with.

Becky Morrison: Exactly. Yeah. There's a great book I that [00:48:00] I, I'd read recently called, , the Art of the Gathering. By Priya Parker here. It's, and what I love about this,

Julie Harris Oliver: a 50% book club,

Becky Morrison: what I love about this book is, you know, she talks about how to design gatherings. So that could be a dinner party, it could be a conference, it could be your weekly marketing meeting, just the way that gatherings, , work best when designed.

And I think it has such a parallel to production right there, there is a way to design a gathering for maximum impact. To have an opening, a closing, to make sure you're inviting the right people, you set up how they're engaging. And she, you know, she talks about all those things and it, it's such a perfect example of why we need that on set.

We don't have that on set. Nobody has designed this gathering intentionally. So by just putting in a few simple beats that embed into the existing production process, that we can have a much more powerful. Way of working together than [00:49:00] what we have now.

Julie Harris Oliver: It makes me think of just kind of a micro example of that.

When I, , for a long time I was VP of sales at Entertainment Partners and we would do client dinners or we would invite 20 people to dinner and they may or may not know each other cuz we would do like a smattering of different companies. But they all had something in common, like they were probably at the same level or the same job or whatever.

And like, I'm, believe it or not, an introvert, the thought of going to dinner with 20 people, I'd rather die. My colleague Lisa Gewirtz. May she rest in peace. We all miss her very much. She would put these dinners together with structure. Like she could have written a book about gathering. And so it wasn't just this free for all, where you had moments of feeling like so awkward sitting at the table and I don't know this person and who do I talk to?

, but she would lead like a group conversation, like besides introducing people like, oh, you both have corgis discuss, which she knew about everybody in the most incredible way, but it would be, tell us [00:50:00] about your favorite vacation you ever took. And we would go around the table having one conversation.

So everybody was engaged, everybody was focused on the same thing. And there wasn't the opportunity for people to feel left out or to feel awkward or to be, you know, at the, as my friend Ayser Salman would say at the wrong end of the table where you're not having the good conversation. And so there's.

Something about that intentionality. Even as, like for me, I'm, as I said, I'm not a joiner. Like I don't, I don't wanna go to a meetup cuz I don't wanna do some free for all hike. But if there's something that has a beginning and an end and a, and a program where everybody is engaged, I'll do that all

day long.

Becky Morrison: Exactly. That's exactly what I'm talking, talking about is having set. Designed intentionally. The, the, the onset experience. And what's so interesting is that like, that is how the content that we're making is designed. It has a beginning, a middle, and an event. Yeah. Like when you go to the movies, that's what you expect to see.

It has an underlying structure to it. That's what, it's a container in those two hours, or [00:51:00] nowadays like three and a half hours, like when there's a container there. And inside of that, the experience is completely designed. It, it takes you on, on a ride. And, and I think there's, what I'm really interested in is creating that same parallel on set so that there's a container.

I love that, that way of talking about it too, that it's structured, it's a structured container, the onset experience, so there's a rigor in it and a design, and that people are engaged. Nobody's left out that we're gonna notice if somebody is, you know, missing from the team. Yeah.

Julie Harris Oliver: And so you

know what to expect.

And so you have the structure within which. Then you can be free to be as, as creative and, , engaged and bring all your great ideas.

Becky Morrison: Exactly,

exactly. I feel like right now on set, you know, I, again, I work in commercials, so I. I really feel like if we were to go around on an average commercial set and ask the crew like, Hey, what are you working on right now?

Tell me [00:52:00] about this piece. Like what's it about and what's it for?

Julie Harris Oliver: I mean, it's about $1000 a day.

Becky Morrison: If, if 25% of the people on set could answer that question, I would be impressed. I mean, most of the time they would probably know the name of the job, but they can't tell you much more than that. And that's such a missed opportunity for the production itself. You know, we're constantly complaining about how there's less and less resources.

We have less, our budgets are shrinking, our timelines are getting shorter. So all of those, those, , resources are becoming more limited, but we have so much that we can still tap into on set that's untapped, which is can easily be tapped into by communicating clearly, for example, or just telling people, oh, hey, that's, this is what the project is, this is what it's for.

This is how what you're doing connects to the greater vision. If people even get that. They will make be me making different [00:53:00] decisions. They may have different suggestions and see things that not other people can see because they now understand what they're doing. Yeah. But when they just come and they just pu, you know, l mic somebody up and then just go sit and are on their phone, it's a missed opportunity for the production not to have their contribution and also for that person to not be able to have the fulfillment that comes from being engaged creatively on the job.

Julie Harris Oliver: Yeah. Like what is the story we're trying to tell? What is, what are we trying to make people feel? Like, how different would it be if, say you're having a very sensitive interview and it's everyone's job on set to kind of hold space for that for a minute. How different would that be than just shut up and don't make any noise while you're scuffling around in

the back?

Becky Morrison: A hundred percent. I. Exactly. It's being active versus being, you know, absent.

Julie Harris Oliver: Worse than passive. Absent. Yeah. Checked out. Checked out.

Becky Morrison: Yeah.

Julie Harris Oliver: All right. What did I not ask you that I should have asked [00:54:00] you? Oh, you talk about this all day long as we often do my

life.

Becky Morrison: This is pretty much all I'm gonna

talk about.

Julie Harris Oliver: We talk about, we have an ongoing text chat constantly about just this.

Becky Morrison: It's so

good, it's so juicy. ,

Julie Harris Oliver: well, to that point, I would say if you're engaging in this work, collect your allies. You know, there, there has to be not to, not to stay on the militaristic language, but we have to create an army to go in and make the change.

And I think you need to have people who are also in the trenches with you to talk to when it gets hard to bounce ideas off of, to have some inspiration to keep going when you've had a hard day.

Becky Morrison: Absolutely. I love that too, because the people in power are, uh, coalesced, they are associated, they are communicating.

There's all, all of that is happening when it comes to the status quo. So when it comes to those of us who are looking to do something different, to create a different way of working now and for the future, disrupting the industry, Viva. [00:55:00] Exactly. Yeah. We have to find each other and, and work together because it's certainly not gonna be any one of us on our own.

It's gonna take all of us together to disrupt.

Julie Harris Oliver: Well, it has to be bottom up. It has to be top down. And as someone told me the other day, middle out.

Becky Morrison: Mm,

omnidirectional.

Yes. Yeah. Amen.

Julie Harris Oliver: All right. What do you wanna leave us with if, I'm trying to think of a good question to, to elicit some good advice, but maybe I'll just say, is there something you would like to leave us with?

A little favorite quote of inspiration perhaps.

Becky Morrison: Ooh. Well I just gave my little, my little Priya Parker.

Julie Harris Oliver: know you !Gave it

too early. You should have saved that

bad.

Becky Morrison: Nobody sent me a list of questions.

Julie Harris Oliver: Too

bad. Nobody prepped for this podcast.

, do you have a, , do you have like a meditation mantra? Is there what you center yourself in the beginning of the day?

Becky Morrison: I, I do. I mean, for myself, I. You know, I think that the [00:56:00] work, as we've talked about, it happens internally and externally.

So I do, I I actually work energetically on every production that I have. I don't talk about that very often.

Julie Harris Oliver: Say more about that, please.

Becky Morrison: Sure. Yeah. And it's funny cuz I think that like, you know, energy or wellness, all that stuff has a lot of stigma that I'm very also don't identify with. Like, that's not my vibe.

I'm from New York, you know, I get my nails done, I'm like, I, I, I not dippy,

Julie Harris Oliver: I'm not, I'm gonna say the kids these days, gen Z has been talking about vibe since they came in and you know, and we have all this, all this junk around talking about energy and all that stuff, you know, cuz it, I think as we were coming up that was so like fringe, but you know, vibe is completely mainstream and it's real for sure.

And, and we're, we're affecting energy in places. There's your permission to talk about your thing.

Becky Morrison: Thank you. It's so true. I [00:57:00] love the word vibe too. A hundred percent. Yeah. So when I, what I do energetically is I, I work with the energy of the crew, so I, I envision the crew, I envision the day, I envision the set and I.

Work energetically with that. Like I bring light into it, I imagine with, you know, my imagination, everybody working together well, things going smoothly. Another thing I do on, on set when I'm there pre physically is I sage the whole set. Like, I'm big believer in like clearing the energy of what had been there before, because you never know what was on that stage before.

Mm-hmm. And , I also imagine like the violet flame energetically on the set, clearing anything of lower frequency so that we can enter into a space or work inside of a space that is a blank slate rather than it's coming with all of the energy that was there before. So cleaning the energy, I'd say that's the main thing that I do is like clear out anything of lower frequency that was there so that people can work [00:58:00] together harmoniously, se smoothly, seamlessly.

Clearly. That's something I, I do on productions.

Julie Harris Oliver: I love that so much. And can you imagine if everybody did that?

Becky Morrison: I can,

Julie Harris Oliver: as a matter of fact. Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Cool. Thank you Becky Morrison.

Becky Morrison: My pleasure. Julie Oliver. Thank you so much.

Julie Harris Oliver: No, thank you so much.