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Seth Hallen had been on the board for seven years before being named president in 2016. For much of that time, he had been extremely active in the organization; attending events and forming committees, including serving as co-chair of the HPA Awards committee for its first ten years. Despite his active participation, Hallen admits to feeling nervous about stepping into the role of president, following Leon Silverman, who had founded the organization and led it for 15 years.

“Filling Leon’s shoes was a tall order. At the time, honestly, I was terrified. Leon had done so much. But in true Leon fashion, he told me, ‘Just wear your own shoes, pal.’ So that’s what I did. When I became president, I wanted to hit the ground running. I hope that the past nine years have built on the foundation of HPA’s early days and helped usher in a new era of engagement and enrollment.

What comes next

It’s the future that has him most excited, Hallen notes, “Every organization needs new fresh leadership and I am about to pass the baton to someone who is an outstanding leader. I have full confidence that Kari will continue the work we’ve done and push HPA forward with her own vision and leadership. She’s backed by a first-class executive team alongside her and the passion and intellect it takes to steer this ship.”

Hallen knows that the industry is challenged and fueled by new technologies and the impact of recent events. “Our industry is undergoing fundamental transformative change, and there are many professionals who are deeply challenged at the moment. I believe that HPA is exactly the venue to help our industry embrace the knowledge necessary to navigate and thrive through these evolving times.”

Keeping HPA relevant

Just before Hallen became president in 2015, the HPA changed the ‘Post’ in its name to ‘Professional’ signaling a widening of the community. This branding change proved prescient, as the industry has undergone vast technical transitions in the past decade; from streaming to IP, cloud and AI. Postproduction itself has become steadily absorbed upstream as workflows between production connect more seamlessly. No matter what, change will continue.

“We keep HPA ahead of the curve to every new change in technology and frame discussions around cloud, virtual production, VR and, more recently, AI,” says Hallen. “We are the ones to shine a light on things that are about to happen. Bringing education, engagement, and collaboration to our industry is part of our DNA. For instance, as segments of our community are afraid of AI, HPA will continue to provide context in a way that enables professionals to better navigate their careers.”

Engagement and enrollment

Building an organization that inspires involvement was always a priority for Hallen and he was armed with the support of HPA’s Board of Directors who set the strategic vision for the organization. Growing the inclusivity of the Board was an early goal. And ten board members including Kari Grubin, Chuck Parker, Wendy Aylsworth, Renard Jenkins, and Graylind Wherry, were added during his tenure. More changes to the board are coming in 2025.

Fostering the next generation of leaders was a priority for Hallen and the Board. “When I began the presidency, I was in my forties and realized that I was one of the youngest people in the room,” Hallen says. “That’s not a good thing for the future of any organization, so it was clear that we needed to support and bring up the next generation.” The Women In Post committee established the first HPA Young Entertainment (YEP) class in 2016. Under the guidance of Loren Nielsen and Kari Grubin, the YEP program aimed to attract bright young professionals to be paired with mentors to build the next generation of leaders and has grown into a vibrant aspect of HPA. “YEP has done just what we aimed for it to do. We focused on building a vibrant group of working professionals who would be in line to lead the future of HPA. With every passing year, I am constantly impressed and amazed by the amazing young people who join YEP. We know that the industry is in great hands, because we are collaborating with this smart, engaged, creative group of people.” He adds, “We’ve passed 200 YEPs with this year’s class. And they are all under forty!”

Revitalizing the Sales Career Resource Group (SCRG) -which he helped found – was important to Hallen. “SCRG was successful and illuminated the need for ongoing discussions of technology, mixed with connection. We spoke to the business and technology sides of the business and it was supported by a highly engaged committee. SCRG was reimagined as HPA NET (Networking Education Technology). NET events remain one of HPA’s most popular.”

When Board members Renard Jenkins, Grubin and Nielsen brought the Board the concept for HPA All, Hallen was enthusiastic to greenlight it and stand behind it. HPA ALL is HPA’s initiative that focuses on educating the industry about diversity, equity and inclusion with recognition and action.

Keeping business and hope alive

Hallen has the dubious honor of serving as president during two of the most difficult events in the industry: a global pandemic and debilitating strikes. The future of the industry could have been derailed by the pandemic during the winter of 2020 but the HPA Board, recognizing the severity of the impact, launched the Industry Recovery Task Force (IRTF) that would maintain connections with the community and help it come out on the other side fighting fit. “Having the privilege to be in this role with this board at that time is one of my proudest experiences,” he says. “When the lockdown happened on Friday 13 March 2020 and everything was shut down that weekend, nobody knew what it meant. It was simply the most bizarre moment we will hopefully ever experience. The following week, we convened the HPA board and continued to meet online every single week for over a year to try to get our heads around events and to explore how we could serve the community through this dark time. To say the HPA Board and staff rose to the occasion is an understatement.”

The HPA IRTF evolved into a series of streamed events that brought experts together to share experiences, technical know-how and advice about remote work and life during lockdown. The 2021 HPA Tech Retreat was the first in HPA’s 26-year history to be online. The HPA Board’s programming committee, including longtime Tech Retreat expert Mark Schubin, created an innovative virtual event that appealed to even the most Zoom-fatigued. Alongside regular educational sessions, it included the familiar breakfast round tables for the community to join in at home.

“At that point, not being an online event company but knowing we need to keep the Tech Retreat going, we managed to build our own platform – with a special thank you to executive director Phil Kubel. It wasn’t perfect but the community was very appreciative about what we were trying to do. I have never stopped commending the board and our staff for all the work they put into making that happen. Similarly, the 2020 HPA Awards were presented as a live-stream with winners receiving their statues from home. The show must go on continuing to bring value to our community,” Hallen says. “We were passionately committed to not let anything get in the way. And, the community responded enthusiastically.”

The HPA Awards in November 2021 and HPA Tech Retreat in February 2022 returned as some of the first major events to come back in person. To successfully present that week of lean-in moments, required a huge effort to deliver, and of course to ensure everyone remained healthy. “We have no reports of anyone getting sick which is gratifying. And, it was an amazing Tech Retreat by any standard.”

Giving members a voice

As if one existential challenge were not enough, the WGA and SAG strikes fell hard on Hollywood during 2023. Hallen’s aim was to give the community a voice in political discussions about the true impact of the halt in production. “Even though HPA is a lobbying non-profit organization it had never done any lobbying or had any connection to public officials. We had no need to until then.”

The HPA re-ignited the IRTF which set about reaching numerous government entities and individuals to seek relief for businesses and workers in post.

During that time, Hallen was a board member of the Hollywood Partnership (a non-profit that manages the public realm within the Hollywood Entertainment District (HED) and was able to connect with public and elected officials including at the city mayor’s office, the county supervisor’s office, and the state government.

“HPA board members and I had dozens of meetings with officials to get our message heard. It was hard work because we’ve never had to formalize the position of our community before. We had to get our argument straight.”

State and federal measures were being introduced to help those impacted by the strikes. These included workers in set construction, wardrobe and catering and then local businesses like cleaners and restaurant workers, but not editors, VFX artists or sound engineers. When the rug was pulled from their feet this army of independent contractors received no state relief.

“While we think it’s important that caterers and costumers are supported – they were out of work too– but the policies missed an entire swathe of people. Post-production personnel are the unsung heroes of our business. They are the ones in the shadows, driving the business. We felt a responsibility to advocate for them.” An Open Letter from the HPA describing how vital its constituency is to the film/TV supply chain had an overwhelmingly positive response. “Many members of the community were grateful that the HPA, without taking sides, wanted to make sure that the post/VFX/sound communities were kept top of mind,” Hallen says.

The biggest result of HPA’s advocacy was that those making decisions in public office finally understood just how reliant media and entertainment is on the freelance community. The 2023 LA County Economic Development report called out the impact of the strikes on independent postproduction contractors and made more resources available to them. HPA should be proud of its part in making this happen.

Testimony to the HPA staff

Nine years on and the HPA is not only bigger in pure membership terms but it has also cemented its place in the wider industry. Hallen says, “We have mastered the ability to bring value to the supply chain in a meaningful way. Prime examples are the Tech Retreat events which feature daring live-without-a-net programming which is truly unique. Another is the HPA Awards which are a gold standard celebrating excellence in crafts and innovation. They consistently sell out and for which we receive hundreds of submissions and which are now hosted at the larger and more prestigious TV Academy.”

More than any singular achievement, however, Hallen wants to pay tribute to the HPA staff, board and members.

“HPA is all about the people. The staff are incredible. And as mentioned, working with the HPA Board has been deeply meaningful to me. It’s not easy for us to come together when we’re all tired from our day jobs. We’re slinging around ideas but we [the board] don’t have to execute on a lot of those. Our fabulous staff are the ones who have to take our crazy, wacky ideas and make them work. Which they do. And, of course, it’s all for the industry and our community. As I hand the baton to Kari, with excitement for what’s to come, I have to say thank you to our incredible community for embracing our work.”