A Reflection on Lockdown
Hi all,
And welcome to issue #85 of your NZTECHO magazine, and also to a printed edition of issue #84.
Along with the entire film industry and country as a whole, issue #84 went into lockdown in the last week of March and didn’t make it to the printers. Even if it had, the distribution would have been too risky, if it was possible at all.
Just writing those sentences gives me a moment to reflect on how dramatically New Zealand and the world changed, and how quickly it happened. Every commentator and their dog has been writing and talking about the significance and impact of the lockdown, and I’m not here to add to the pile. But, I reckon we can all agree there was a lot of reassessing of our relationship with the world and reminding ourselves of what really matters in our lives.
Being able to get off the treadmill, while everyone around us did the same, was an unexpected way to spend a usually busy month, but I think there was some unexpected value in it.
So, as we head back to work, and look forward to what might be an incredible next year or two, as New Zealand is one of very few countries in the world to have our studios safely open, maybe the lesson from lockdown that we can all take with us, is that the safety and health of the people around us means more than anything.
Let’s keep on looking out for our co-workers, keep on looking out for the land and water we have the luck to be working on, and keep on looking out for ourselves.
We work in a fast paced, high stakes business. It’s an industry that attracts some of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever met, but also some exceptionally driven and intense personalities who can unintentionally create a far less healthy workplace than they realise. Not everybody can ‘speak up’ about those people, but make sure there is always at least someone you can talk to.
Enjoy this issue. As always, it’s a pleasure to assemble an issue of NZTECHO, great to read the contributions as they arrive, and a real honour to send it out to you, our industry.
Love your work,
GT
