Hotcam owners, Henry Coulam and Pete Green, sat down with Televisual to discuss the industry, innovation and how they see the future for Hotcam. Here’s what they had to say…
When we went into business together, we committed to some basic principles which can essentially be boiled down to always putting the programme first. But with such fervent belief in our mission statement, we knew we’d need to truly recognise and address some of the inequality and welfare issues in our sector if we were going to be able to sleep at night. We think that you should be able to put the programme first, but it shouldn’t have to be at all costs – especially for the people who are making it.
Our industry is fundamentally a gig economy, with freelancers working project to project. At best, it’s a wonderful mish mash of creatives and technicians collaborating to create brilliant shows – but at worst, it’s a chaotic landscape with little sense of permanence where mental health problems and financial hardships can easily take root.
Short production cycles and unpredictable commissioning make for an inherently unstable space which makes it challenging for long term initiatives, such as inclusive hiring policies, personal development and pastoral care, to gain traction. With so much energy being put into surviving until ‘25, who is really looking out for each other, let alone looking much further ahead than the next job? Whilst there are plenty of people out there with good intentions, such a volatile ecosystem is a tough one in which to foster change.
When we took over Hotcam in April ‘22, we both immediately felt responsibility as owners. We realised there are probably few people in our industry with the opportunity to shape the landscape in the way that we potentially could. We decided that we wanted to set a benchmark and hopefully lead others in the space who care about the long-term future of our industry. We took the decision to invest directly in our workforce; bringing in management training and personal development opportunities for the staff as well as recently training our first mental health first aider. Having both worked in rental and TV in junior positions through the reality TV heyday, we can with confidence say that this is probably a first in our space. It was not great for our generation, there’s no reason we can’t break that cycle, improve it and set a new benchmark for future generations.
We also knew that we were building one of the largest intakes of junior techs and broadcast trainees in the country. If we put effort and recourses into the the recruitment process we could help chart a course towards a more progressive, inclusive future. We really want to challenge why our subsector has been so heavily weighted towards one demography for so long. TV is about creativity and problem solving, and diversity brings different perspectives to the table and has a positive effect on team dynamics and on-location culture.
We fully admit that we still have a long way to go, and there is only going to be so much we can do to shield our community from the chaotic commissioning cycles of late. But we can be accountable for own actions. It’s our way of building a stronger, more inclusive industry – one that’s as committed to its people as it is to its programmes.
