A Lost Craft Perhaps?

Guild president Alun Bollinger lends his thoughts on crew reps

Crew reps – where have they all gone? There was a time when any long-term shoot would have a crew rep or two – the go-betweens if and when issues arose between crew and production. I always thought it was an efficient setup for all parties, a convenient line of communication. There now seems to be a reluctance to take on the role of crew rep and I wonder why there is this reticence.

Is it because crew reps feel they’re putting themselves in the ‘firing line’, so to speak? If this is the case, then it’s a sorry state of affairs. Of course, if we had a standard set of conditions that we all knew we were working to, then there may never be a need for negotiations to continue through a shoot. But as long as contracts are being rewritten from one production to the next, we need the ability to talk or to renegotiate if necessary, during production.

Why should this be necessary? Well, it seems there are often anomalies and contradictions within contractual documents. For example, I recently read a contract containing the standard clause about either party being able to end the deal with a week’s notice. We are all familiar with that clause, are we not? Further into the document, there was a clause outlining conditions under which the contractor could be immediately dismissed. No doubt you’ve read these clauses too, which outline unacceptable behaviours such as turning up to work drunk or otherwise unable to fulfil one’s obligations to the production. Okay, but this contract added to this clause: if the contractor’s services are no longer required. Now that is plainly in contradiction to the earlier paragraph allowing for one week’s notice by either party, but somehow the lawyers who wrote and/or reviewed the contract either missed that contradiction or they deliberately left it in there. Either way, it illustrates to me... well, what are lawyers contributing to the contractual process? I figure it would be better if we as an industry worked out some standard contracts for crew and cast with a few variations to accommodate various types of productions and get on with our work without having to effectively re-negotiate for every job.