LEANNE ITALIE
Lighting for the entertainment industry is Ryan Meyer’s lifeblood.
Before the Hollywood strikes, he worked 40 hours a week or more as a gaffer or director of photography. He also has a company that usually earns more than a million dollars a year in production support.
Most of that is gone, for now, dried up in the contract disputes that have led to months of picket lines by writers and actors. One day recently, the 50-year-old Meyer, who lives in Los Angeles, lit an actor’s home foyer, “so when she opens the door,” he said, “she looks good.”
While waiting out the strikes, Meyer and many thousands of others in the business are taking most any paycheck they can get, from Trader Joe’s to teaching to hitting up friends for writing gigs. Some are turning hobbies into money. Most anything to pay the bills.
“We’ve become handymen,” Meyer
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