A Year in Review

Things that make us go Grr...

Kia ora all. Well what a great year! With a solid stream of productions it is refreshing to speak with so many technicians who have been working steadily throughout the year. A lifetime from the dark days of 2013. The Guild has seen a number of issues cross its desk in 2015 with a majority of positive outcomes. At the recent AGM I reported on many of these but for those unable to attend here is a brief recap.

Contracts. Yes, I know I’ve gone on about these all year so I promise this will be the last time for 2015. Ultimately, bad contracts, late contracts or no contract would be the most common enquiry that caused conflict between technicians and productions. The Guild will continue to work on ways to make the contentious issues clearer to technicians. For those who missed it, issue 65 of NZTECHO ‘Behind the Scenes’ gives advice on dealing with your contracts. So for 2015, my final word on contracts, be vigilant.

Breaches of The Blue Book (BB). More often than not the biggest offenders have been Australian and Korean TVC production companies. These companies appear to be cherry picking conditions, selecting standards from their own country and some from the BB and conveniently stacking in favour of their ‘own’ needs. To nip this in the bud, technicians need to be united. It is a case of ‘when in Rome’. We have an established way in which we operate in NZ. It is not acceptable to allow other countries to impose conditions that differ from the approved practises that the NZ industry has agreed to operate. Educate overseas productions on how we do things.

I can address issues with production companies and am always happy to make a call on your behalf but ultimately technicians need to take owner- ship. Accept less and you erode your own work conditions. With many of you looking at long careers in the film industry consider how you want it to look in the future. Don’t let conditions slide. When it comes to locally funded productions, the NZFC and NZ On Air share a common clause in their contract that “expects that the Producer and Crew will adhere to

The Blue Book,” so realise you have some autonomy as to how you work on these productions.

Crew Pay Rates. The Guild has approached both the NZFC and NZ On Air and directed them to our ‘Guide to Crew Rates’ on our webpage. We have asked that they encourage producers in the early stages of budgeting to be guided by the advised rates so that budgets truly reflect what the pro- duction will cost. The rate card gives a wide range of rates bearing in mind that overseas productions can often offer higher rates but the Guild does not want to see rates fall below the lowest recommended rates. Unfortunately this has been the case. It is once again up to technicians to not sell themselves short. Settle for less, and you erode potential earnings for your own futures in the industry.

Work Hours and Turnaround. Refreshingly, enquiries about work hours and turnaround over the year have not so much been from technicians but pro- duction companies wanting clarification. Although the breach of turnaround has not been alleviated there is more awareness from production compa- nies as they recognise greater liability for the new WorkSafe legislation.

Another sign of this greater safety awareness has been an increase in the sale of the Safety Code of Practice over the last year.

This naturally leads me to the updating of SCOP. As explained by Richard Bluck in NZTECHO issue 66 ‘Presidents Report’, work on SCOP has taken a new direction with the ScreenSafe working committee and the NZFVTG working collaboratively with other industry parties. This alliance is encouraging and shouldn’t be fraught with debate as the words “identifying all possible risk’ make it very clear there are no half measures.

**The Blue Book Revision. **The Blue Book requires a little more consideration but we can say a big “woohoo” and should be ready to pass to SPADA and NZAPG in the near future for their approval.

Immigration Issues. Generally running smoothly with a good amount of ongoing consultation and discussion with Immigration NZ. Our letters of non- objection were slightly up on last year but we have had a fairly buoy- ant flow of overseas work throughout the year. Letters of non-objection are only issued when acceptable due diligence has been shown by the production company and all viable options to employ NZ crew have been explored and exhausted.

This has been a tough one. Earlier this year with the hosting of the Cricket World Cup (CWW) the broadcast sector felt the impact of this classification. Major Event Status may be issued by the Governor General by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the Economic Development Minister after consultation with the Commerce Minister and the Sports Minster. It is an international agreement amongst nations. Specific new rules were introduced for the 2015 CWC allowing non-resident technicians to be issued one visa by Australian immigration covering both countries for the duration of the CWC. The Guild worked together with the Media Entertainment Alliance Australia (MEAA) who were also affected with the same status. The upshot of this was that of the 200 positions available in NZ, less than 25 were apportioned to NZ residents. We changed the position marginally with help from Andrew Little and the media attention we created definitely ruffled some feathers. We were how- ever unable to change the situation to an acceptable level as agreements with the International Cricket Council were put in place years before the event. In 2020 NZ and Australia will host the International 20/20 series. Early November I met with the MEAA and work has already begun as to how we can avoid a possible recurrence of the 2015 CWC.

Our membership. Over the past 12 months we had an increase of 46 new members. Additionally we have had nine members who have re-joined. The Guild is owned by its members so Guild membership and recruit- ments needs to be a greater priority for all those in the Guild. We represent the broadest and largest number of skills and people in the industry so I implore all members to become active in recruitment. If each member were to encourage just one other technician to join the Guild, our membership base could be close to 1000 this time next year giving us an even greater ‘strength and voice’ in the industry. And our voice is for no greater gain than a healthy, safe and fair industry. Why wouldn’t you want to support and be involved in that?

Drawing to a close, I would like to thank the stoic group of members who regularly volunteer their energy and time and ask that more members con- sider becoming active in the Guild. In the future those doing the work now may not be around so the Guild needs new blood now to remain sustain- able. Volunteer, attend branch meetings, contribute your ideas and time or just ring me up and engage.

So as we say goodbye to 2015 I feel positive as 2016 looms near. I wish you all the best for a safe and happy holiday season and a prosperous and busy 2016. Finally one more note of caution as paraphrased from that ‘exceptional document’ SCOP section 5.9.4: Protection of Skin from Ultra Violet (UV) Levels, remember to wear your sun block!