Cricket World Cup 2015: A Techos' View
Major events in New Zealand bring both opportunities and challenges to the TV and film industry. It may not be easy to maintain local industry standards while capitalising on the opportunity, but on the heels of the Cricket World Cup lighting director James Newman says let’s at least try.
Outside broadcasting is a small community in NZ. Sky Sport is the major player, they keep a few hundred freelancers fairly busy. Major events such as sport world cups provide welcome additions to our balance sheets. The Cricket World Cup (CWC) is the International Cricket Council’s premier event. The biggest major event to come to NZ since the Rugby World Cup 2011. For the 2015 Event STAR TV of India, founded in 1991 by Rupert Murdoch now owned by 21st Century Fox, was the ICC’s Host Broadcaster. ESPN Star Sports (now STAR Sports 4) held the contract until the end of the 2015 CWC. Last October that contract was again awarded to STAR TV, rumours of price ranged from US$1.8 to US$2.3 billion.
STAR TV contracted a Singaporean Company Broadcast Solutions (BS) to supply facilities and engineering crew. Star would provide production crew and look after logistics. By mid-December last year some local crew had been contacted but none booked. Frustrated by a lack of communication with BS and hearing how upset others were at having been assured work then told “no, you are too expensive”. Note that the cost of three Indian camera operators is less than one NZ camera operator. I contacted the Techos’ Guild and asked Karla for help and the positive response was heartening. Following this, on December 27th I received renewed inquiries from BS and Star started seeking local crew. I later found out that a letter had been sent from the office of the Leader of the Opposition to a Senior ICC contact on December 23rd expressing our concerns. This letter was prompted after Karla got in touch with his senior press secretary. I am sure that letter secured work for myself and a few other Kiwis. So a big thank you all concerned.
International, reciprocal, legislation governing ‘major events’ provides relaxed, group, Visa applications. That legislation has served Kiwis well when they work overseas. Skilled crew are always sought after despite large numbers of inexpensive local crew being available. In NZ by contrast available local crew are few and relatively expensive. The conditions of, and the impacts on, the various local markets are not the same. The battle to get a fair representation of local crew was lost but the Guild and others fought on to bring the issue to public attention. Those efforts culminated in a press release by Labour Party leader Andrew Little in early February following a national talkback programme focused entirely on the CWC issue. An element of chaos is always present in these major events. STAR TV’s organisation was refined chaos. No effort had been made to understand and work with the local market. Travel and accommodation, arranged from India with little attention to personal details (even gender) led to a good deal of friction. For example, our first game day and derig of 18 hours ended at our Hamilton hotel at 4am, the bus to the airport departed at 6am. We arrived at our Wellington hotels about 10.30am and of course rooms were not ready. Unhappy crew of Kiwis, South Africans, and Indians.
Does the major events legislation exempt the visiting employer from local OSH obligations?
As of the writing of this article, no STAR TV employed local crew had been paid. Repeated requests for documentation, already provided, have been made. Another story related to me was of an Indian rigger earning a local crew member’s per diems of US$80 per day. He was happy, and the trip to NZ a big bonus. Does the Major Event legislation exempt the visiting employer from local labour laws? Thanks to the fantastic performance of the Black Caps on the field, the event ignited the public imagination. Behind the cameras, the local crew also punched above their weight. It came as a surprise to our visitors that here, even for international cricket, we set up one day and broadcast the next. Although one camera operator cannot simultaneously man three cameras, generally, local crew contributed more to the job, person on person, than our visitors. The folk I worked with were great people. I grew to enjoy working with them, though I did not get used to the language difference. I was rarely sure that I understood them or that they understood me. However, they clearly showed their respect for the quality of work being done by the local crew. More local crew would have allowed us to be even better hosts, further enhancing the product and, by extension, further enhancing the world’s impression of NZ.
Largely the broadcast crews on these major events work in a silo, transported city to city, country to country. For each event, the crew is shuffled depending on availability, the code, country, and company. Those crew do not identify with the country they broadcast from.
More major events are coming to NZ, and each will have opportunities and challenges. It may not be easy to maintain the culture and standards of our local industry and capitalise on the opportunities, but I think we can do both. I think it is at least worth trying. We might not seem to have won much on the CWC 2015, but I have heard a whisper, as yet unconfirmed, that the ICC is not happy with STAR TV’s handling of the 2015 event. Contract conditions may be reviewed. Perhaps the mouse did roar.
