Former Hawaii Five-O showrunner Peter Lenkov is rolling out a new website this week that seeks to match out-of-work pros in Hollywood with employers in need of skilled craftspeople.
Dubbed Between Gigs, the website is currently onboarding set carpenters, makeup artists, hairstylists, costumers and other below-the-line workers to create a database for “clients who need their expertise for projects, tasks, and services.”
“Our professionals come from entertainment,” the site says. “Our clients are anyone who could use their expertise.”
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The website is billed with the line, “extraordinary talent. Every day solutions.”
“We’re just in the early stages,” Lenkov tells Deadline of the website that went live September 28. “I just put it up on Facebook and Instagram. We haven’t really gone wide with it at all. I was sort of testing the market as we’re building out the site to see if there’s proof of concept. We got a ton of people signing up right away. So it seems like it’s a necessity.”
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Lenkov said the idea came after watching how the industry contraction impacted so many people.
“A great editor had called me and said, ‘Do you know anything? The show that I was working on is moving out of the state,'” says Lenkov. “And I thought, my God, this is world-class talent that’s available, and this person may not get a job for three, four, five months. How do you sustain yourself during that time? I called my sister, who’s a corporate headhunter, and said, ‘Do you think there’s a marketplace where we could have these people?'”
Lenkov admits there is nothing particularly unique about below-the-line workers accepting short-term gigs outside the industry. “It’s been going on forever. I remember on productions I did over the years where a producer would hire somebody on the weekend to come fix something at their house and would pay them extra. It’s a tradition that’s gone on, using people in their free time, but it’s never been organized on a real bona fide platform. These people are really skilled at what they do.”
Lenkov has been working on indie movies and serving on nonprofit boards since parting ways with CBS TV Studios in 2020 following an investigation into the work environment he fostered on MacGyver. He was based at the studio for more than a decade and was its go-to writer-producer for procedural reboots, having successfully brought back Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver and Magnum P.I.
“It really was an implosion of my life and it was terrible, just terrible,” remembers Lenkov. “As soon as that happened, I had a lot of people reach out to me who I never had the time to help with their own projects. So I started doing a lot of that. We made a lot of smaller movies, some big ones. I joined two boards, one is World Housing, the other one’s the National Hispanic Media Coalition. I got to do things that were outside my wheelhouse. I feel like in hindsight, it was life-changing in a very positive way.”
The website is not a way for Lenkov to make extra cash. “It’s not a business. It’s a mission,” he says. “I’m trying to do something that’s tombstone worthy, that adds some value.”
Frickin awesome. This is a great idea not only in these tough times, but a resource for all industries for the future. Bravo and thank you Peter.
It seems they think production finance has zero transferable skills. I hope his bills, and payroll get done by those grips he got hired
This sounds great and so helpful for those workers to connect to people who seek their services. Bravo Peter!
If the jobs aren’t there, the website isn’t going to match with you a job. If you vote for a governor that doesn’t promise uncapped tax incentives that include above the line, then you just aren’t competitive with the rest of the world and you shouldn’t be surprised to see jobs continue to leave. Only one candidate has promised this. So get out of your cult, lose your cognative dissonance and vote to save the industry.
You’re absolutely right — there’s a huge lack of opportunities here in Los Angeles. What we’re doing is building a pool of world-class entertainment industry talent and making those skills available to the public for short-term work between gigs.
So instead of someone driving Uber or delivering Postmates while waiting for the next production to start, they can take on work that actually utilizes the incredible, set-honed skills they’ve spent years developing. It’s about creating new opportunities for talented people by connecting their expertise with people and businesses who can genuinely use it.
I luv this idea. Thank you for doing this!
Think its a great idea. At least he’s trying, rather than just complaining about a problem.
depressing