Community Agreement

Thank you for renting studio time and/or equipment from Desert Island Studios.

Renting our resources means supporting our mission driven studio facility and production company. The revenue we generate from studio and equipment rentals goes directly toward supporting our mission of providing job opportunities, affordable studio space, equipment, and creative leadership roles for underrepresented communities. 

This Community Agreement outlines our mission and our hopes for co-creating harmonious work environments that prioritize wellness, safety, equity, inclusion, and mutual respect between all Desert Island Studios crew, cast, and community partners.  

Please read through this document carefully. We ask all Desert Island Studios participants to commit to upholding our community values to protect and uplift one another. 

DESERT ISLAND STUDIOS MISSION

Desert Island Studios supports media creatives, technicians, performers, and community partners from traditionally underrepresented communities within the film/TV/Commercial/Media Art industries. We are devoted to creating job opportunities, affordable studio space, equipment, and creative leadership roles for BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+, womxn, and persons with disabilities.  It is important to us to cultivate and maintain supportive work environments that are free from racism, sexism, ableism, discrimination, microaggressions, and violent communication.

In addition to creating production environments safe from discrimination we also strive to create working conditions that take into consideration our complex needs as human beings. We prioritize standard production working hours, regular breaks as needed by personnel, food service that takes into account dietary restrictions, and general mindfulness about wellness and the health needs (both physical and mental) of everyone on our teams. We also strive to have our department heads lead with positivity and kindness instead of hierarchical domination.  All of our producers are aware of our guidelines when signing onto a production and are held accountable for creating healthy working environments that are safe and inclusive for everyone involved in our projects. 

We ask that people who rent our equipment and studio be equally as mindful of the health, wellbeing, and safety of their collaborators.  Utilizing our affordable resources makes you a partner in our mission, and it is our hope that you will be devoted to creating intentional safe productions.

DESERT ISLAND STUDIOS SAFE SET POLICY

It is the policy of Desert Island Studios that racism, sexism, ableism, and discrimination of any type will not be tolerated.

WHO: All production crew, cast, partners, community members, resource renters, and volunteers. Any person involved with Desert Island Studios and our projects at any time throughout all phases of production.

OBJECTIVE: Desert Island Studios strives to create supportive media production environments free from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation of any type based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, social status, mental or physical disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. As well as working environments that fulfill COVID safety protocol and additional healthy working conditions as outlined in our mission.

DEFINITIONS: Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group. Discrimination is defined as disparate treatment of an adverse nature towards any member of our productions based on race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, social status, physical or mental disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Microaggressions are particularly insidious and common examples of racism, prejudice, or discrimination. Microaggressions are everyday slights, indignities, put-downs and insults that members of marginalized groups experience in their day-to-day interactions. Anyone in a marginalized group — be it as a result of their race, gender, sexual orientation, social status, nationality, disability, religion, etc. — can experience microaggressions and these should be reported to Desert Island HR.

DESERT ISLAND STUDIOS COVID SAFETY POLICY

Desert Island Studios is following the most up to date guidance for COVID 19 Safety provided by the CDC and OMPA. We request that our partners renting studio space and equipment also follow the most up to date COVID 19 safety protocols. Desert Island Studios Productions requests that all partners will do the following:

  • Have a designated COVID Safety lead who will be responsible for the wellness and safety of your team.  

  • Ask that all Crew, Cast, & Personnel coming to set must be fully vaccinated or provide an official medical exemption from a doctor. Personnel with medical exemption should be required to test bi-weekly and/or provide a negative test result before joining a short project. Fully vaccinated personnel should be required to test based on the infection rate in our area at the time of production. This will mean either testing every three days if we are in Part 1 for case rate, or once a week if we are in Part 2 (according to the SAG-AFTRA Return to Work Guidelines).

  • Ask all Crew, Cast, & Personnel coming to set to wear a new n95 mask at the start of each production day and wear it for the entirety of the work day.  Masks may be taken off only to eat and drink and all personnel should follow strict social distance rules during unmasked time. 

  • If anyone tests positive on your production they will be sent home immediately for a ten day quarantine, and you will pause production until all personnel have been tested and cleared to resume work.