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ARRAY Crew Q&A with Executive Assistant & AFI Alum Jordan Tyner

 

This month, AFI spoke with ARRAY Executive Assistant and AFI alum Jordan Tyner (AFI Class of 2020) about ARRAY Crew, a new database for diverse below-the-line workers that hopes to expand opportunities within the film and television industry.

 

AFI: What inspired ARRAY Crew?

Jordan Tyner: ARRAY Crew was inspired by the lack of representation of women and people of color on production sets. ARRAY Crew’s founder Ava DuVernay and the Crew team worked on the development of the inclusive hiring database for more than two years before it launched on Feb. 18, 2021.

 

AFI: How do underrepresented filmmakers sign up to join ARRAY Crew? What are the criteria for joining? 

Jordan Tyner: Below-the-line crew members 18 years or older, living in the United States, with at least one verifiable, below-the-line film or television credit, are eligible to sign up for ARRAY Crew. There is no cost to crew members at any time.

 

AFI: Geographically, in what communities is ARRAY Crew accessible? For productions and studios looking to be more inclusive when staffing up, how do they take advantage of ARRAY Crew? 

Jordan Tyner: Currently, ARRAY Crew is available in the U.S., including key production hubs such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans and Washington, DC.

Any production that is currently working with one of ARRAY Crew’s launch partners—Amazon Studios, Apple TV+, FOX Entertainment, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, ViacomCBS, and Walt Disney Studios—can gain access to the service through their studio contacts.

Once confirmed to access ARRAY Crew, productions can add their project to the database and search for member profiles by departments, job title categories and location.

 

AFI: With beta-trials, what has the initial response been both from the studios and from up-and-coming filmmakers looking for work who’ve used it? 

Jordan Tyner: The response from the industry has been outstanding! During the beta trials, we successfully onboarded 3,000 crew member profiles. 70 studio film and television projects ready to staff up were included on the site. We just celebrated Crew’s one month anniversary; we have more than 4,000 crew member profiles and more than 200 projects currently staffing through the platform.

 

AFI: How does ARRAY hope to create systemic change in the industry through this initiative? 

Jordan Tyner: Our hope is that the database will be used, not just by studios, but also by crew, and that we will see the difference when we step on set and see a production crew that mirrors what the world looks like.