A Quiet Start to 2013
Word on the street seems to be 2013 has started off quietly for most techos. We’re not feeling the down time at the Guild though, where we’ve certainly had lots to keep us busy. Great to see new member numbers continuing to grow (keep the good word out there people).
Being a non-profit organisation (with the equivalent of one fulltime person across Karla and me) there simply is never enough time or resource to do everything … but there is an easy way for you all to take a little bit off our plates – pay your membership fees on time! It’s not a lot ($211 plus GST) and is income-tax deductable.
Enough about that anyway, back to the magazine now. We thought it’d be interesting to look at two contrasting areas of our industry. Perhaps it could be summed up by the idea of blowing stuff up safely – an oxymoron in itself really. Film Effects’ **Brendon Durey **talks to us about doing special effects the old fashioned way – that is, using real explosions, sounds and fires (not the CGI kind). Meanwhile **Willy Heatley **gives some insight on where safety is at in our industry in our Safety Notes section.
We examine another artform also – juggling young children with a job that is often all over the place (literally), perhaps another oxymoron. Dot Kyle, **Annie Weston **and **Sarah Cook **tell **Dara McNaught **how they’ve balanced sole care of children with busy careers in production.
Sound recordist **Ande Schurr **talks to three producers about why overseas filmmakers choose New Zealand as their destination. Perhaps more impor- tantly, is how to keep them coming back.
On a sad note, the industry had a huge loss in December with the tragic death of Oscar-winning sound editor and Techos’ Guild member Mike Hopkins. Friend and fellow sound editor **John McKay **shares a celebration of Mike’s life with us. On another very sad note, TVC and film director **Adam Strange **also died very tragically in February. Many of you would’ve worked or been friends with Adam. You can make a donation to help his wife Meg and young daughter to James Bell Accounting Ltd Trust Account 06-0193- 0262946-03 (important to use suffix 03) with ADAM as a reference. Both men will be dearly missed by friends and colleagues. Thoughts of course are with the families.
Carolyn Brooke, editor
