Wes and I are struggling and our financial situation is dire.

A little over a year ago, Wes was laid off from DreamWorks after 18 years, partly due to outsourcing and partly due to the impact the strikes have had on Hollywood. They have been slow-walking production ever since, and thousands have left the industry altogether.

Wes has applied to over 100 job listings but has only had one interview, which went nowhere. He has looked into the games industry, but it's also in disarray with dozens of studios closing and thousands of layoffs. He has looked into teaching, but nothing has really panned out. He continues to look for work almost every day, but as we are finding with others we know in the film, TV, and game industries, there are very few opportunities and tens of thousands unemployed right now. Sadly, ageism is clearly playing a part in the job market, as the studios, if they hire at all, hire interns and kids right out of college.

He briefly found work at Disney, but it was only for a few months. We have even considered moving somewhere where there might be more work, but anything we find is short-term and pays far less than we can survive on. The cost of living here is high, but moving somewhere else isn't an option without good, long-term employment on the other end.

We did have savings, but after a year, that is almost drained now and cannot last more than another month or two. Fortunately, we were out of debt, but recently we've had to start using credit cards again.

We also had several thousand dollars in unexpected medical expenses to cover that worsened our situation. Fortunately, we are both healthy and on the mend. But our union-provided insurance will expire at the end of November, and then we will no longer be covered.

When all this happened, we immediately cut our spending to bills, food, and fuel only. We canceled everything but our phones, internet, and utilities. We are even having to try to sell off some of our possessions, though that hasn't gone as well as we hoped either. Wes did file for unemployment insurance, such as it was, but it ran out in March.

We have both been looking into other types of employment, but not only is the job market thin, there are just not many other things he is qualified to do after nearly 30 years in the movie business. Wes is trying to get his amplifier repair side-business off the ground, but that takes time and exposure. It's happening, but too slowly.

We love living here. Wes loves what he has been doing for the past 27 years, and we hope that if we can hold on for a little while longer, the work will start coming back. If any of you have seen any of the 28 films Wes has worked on, you understand his passion and talent.

We've never been well off, but we've always gotten by.

But this time we need help.