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 Today, with award shows going
virtual, you're more likely to find the 20-year
veteran delivering food for Uber.
"My last full-blown premiere was 'Mulan,' I
think it was March 9 or 10th of last year," said
Rodriguez. "The next photo assignment I was able
to get was in October."
The coronavirus pandemic didn't just shutter
movie theaters, music venues and halt production
on scores of films and television shows.
It also threw out of work the security guards,
florists, caterers, waiters, limousine drivers
and photographers who make a living from the
parties, movie premieres and lunches that take
place around the Golden Globes, Grammys, Oscars
and multiple other show business events between
January and March.
A 2013 report by the Los Angeles Economic
Development Council said that Oscar season
injects some $130 million into the city's
economy every year.
But with awards this year relegated to mostly
online events, without live audiences, red
carpets, parties and screaming fans, those
behind the scenes are struggling to make ends
meet.
Rodriguez says he has lost more than half his
income, despite picking up some work delivering
food and going on unemployment.
"In the last year, photography-wise I've had
five or six days of shoots and that's over a
period where you can work up to 200, 240 days on
a regular year," he said.
One Events, a Los Angeles staffing agency that
provides waiters for Academy Award and Grammy
events, has seen its sales slump 70% in the past
year.
"We have really struggled as a company and as an
industry, and we've seen some of our friends go
under who weren't able to ride it out," said One
Events owner Nickolas Potocic.
His 85 or so trained events staff are mostly
made up of actors, musicians and models seeking
flexible work between auditions.
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 "They are getting the brunt of
this," he said. When small events started to
open up a little last summer, "there were a lot
of people that said they had moved back in with
their parents, or to another state. Others just
got out of the industry altogether."
One Events has turned to delivering boxed
dinners and lunches for clients holding virtual
gatherings, and to COVID-19 mobile testing for
emerging small-scale events. In
a normal awards season, Toni Kilicoglu's Red
Carpet Systems was supplying carpets to 25 to 50
events a week, including parties thrown by
Vanity Fair magazine, Elton John and music
executive Clive Davis.
"The record is 15 parties in one day," said
Kilicoglu.
"During awards season, I don't sleep much. It's
just nonstop," he said of his pre-pandemic life.
This season, Kilicoglu estimates he's lost about
80% of his events business. He has pivoted to
making plexiglass dividers for essential
businesses and large backdrops for people to use
in video calls.
"It's sad, it's depressing, but there's nothing
we can do. We just have to wait and be patient,"
he said.
Meanwhile, photographer Rodriguez is facing up
to the prospect of a very different Oscar
ceremony on April 25.
"It's an awkward feeling not being part of the
awards season, for the Golden Globes or the
Oscars, after 20 years of doing it," he said,
standing outside the deserted Dolby Theatre,
home of the Academy Awards ceremony.
 "You got to wear a tux, and you got to be
uncomfortable all day, but it's really like the
pinnacle of the entertainment industry, so I
miss it."
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Rollo Ross;
writing by Jill Serjeant; editing by Jonathan
Oatis)
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