Dubbing mixer and ADR recordist Emma Butt has called on senior industry figures to end their “complacency” over the lack of diversity in craft and technology roles.
Accepting her Achievement of the Year trophy at the Women in Film and Television Awards, Butt said that since she compiled her damning report on the issue, ‘Diversity in Post-Production Sound’, for the Lenny Henry Centre in 2020, she felt very little had changed.
Scrutinizing credits for the 55 people working in 60 post-production and sound roles across the highest-rated British shows in 2019, Butt found that just one person was mixed-race and only six were female.
She said that despite efforts to improve diversity on- and off-screen since then, “we’re often shoe-horned into a mould that isn’t fit for purpose, never receiving the attention we need and deserve”.
Butt used her platform to appeal to the industry directly.
“The industry has become complacent in accepting that craft and technical roles aren’t diverse and inclusive, instead of questioning why that might be,” she said.
“So while I have the opportunity to stand here in front of some of the most influential and powerful people in our industry, I am asking you to please make a change. The next time you go to hiring crew, or you go to a post house, you have the power to say no to the post mould, and instead demand a rich and diverse team that truly reflects the multicultural world that we live in.”
Butt’s credits include ADR for Game of Thrones and Sex Education, and sound editing and mixing for ITVX’s upcoming drama Stonehouse.
Other winners at this year’s WFTV Awards, held on Friday 2 December, included a producer award for Working Title’s Surian Fletcher-Jones, who executive produced BBC3’s Everything I Know About Love and Channel 4 comedy We Are Lady Parts. The latter’s creator Nida Manzoor took home the director award.
Nadine Marsh-Edwards, founder of Greenacre Films, received the Disney+ Contribution to the Medium award. The indie’s output includes upcoming ITVX drama Riches and ITV’s Unsaid Stories anthology.
Emma Butt's speech in full
"One of the reasons I’m standing here is because of a report I wrote in 2020 for the Lenny Henry Centre. I looked at the highest-rated TV shows across all of the major UK broadcasters across all of the period of 2019 and the breakdown of diversity and inclusion across the key post-production sound roles on those productions.
"I found that out of 66 available job roles, only 1 person was mixed-race. Out of 66 job roles, only 6 were women. [Emma subsequently corrected this figure - it is out of 55 people in 60 roles] Every other person identified as a white man. I was told of experiences of sexism, where women were not being hired in case they fell into a relationship with a fellow male member of their team and caused issues. I was told of black colleagues feeling like they had to bring white colleagues with them into meetings with clients because they felt like they were entering the lions’ den.
"Although these figures and stories are three years old, I fear very little in them has changed. And I know similar experiences and figures are replicated across other craft and technical roles.
"While conversations continue about more diversity on screen, craft and tech roles are rarely raised in the conversation. When training and development schemes are being designed and launched, we’re often shoe-horned into a mould that isn’t fit for purpose, never receiving the attention we need and deserve.
"The industry has become complacent in accepting that craft and technical roles aren’t diverse and inclusive, instead of questioning why that might be.
"So while I have the opportunity to stand here in front of some of the most influential and powerful people in our industry, I am asking you to please make a change. The next time you go to hiring crew, or you go to a post house, you have the power to say no to the post mould, and instead demand a rich and diverse team that truly reflects the multicultural world that we live in."
