When I think about the people who make up Hollywood, I think of action stars, red carpet icons,

A-list directors, and big studio bosses.

But the vast majority who work in the industry have jobs that are way less glamorous.

You wouldn't know their names, but these are the people who actually make films and TV shows,

mostly behind the scenes.

My colleague Ben Fritz covers the entertainment industry.

They're assistant directors.

They're grips who hang the lights.

They're sound recordists.

They're animators.

They're working writers. they're production managers.

There's so many jobs that make a movie and TV show work.

Just think of the end credits or the end of any film.

If you ever actually sit through them, they're really long, right?

There's hundreds and hundreds of names.

These are the names that make up the backbone of show business, Los Angeles' creative middle class.

Ben's been talking with a lot of these workers lately, and things haven't been good.

What sort of things have they been telling you?

They've been telling me that there's not nearly as much work as there used to be, just bottom line.

And it's been, it's not one of those things where it's been slowly falling and slowly falling.

It's not like the frog boiling in the water, you know.

It's a dramatic drop-off.

...