Guild Evolution

Change is in the air… and other news

Kia ora all.

Is it just me or has this year flown by? They say when you are busy time flies and I have to say here at the Guild it feels like a ‘sonic boom’!

Earlier this year we applied to the Film Commission for core funding support. After three days locked in a room, Richard Bluck and myself emerged with a proposal that we hoped would be enough for the NZFC to consider the Guild worthy of support. Over the years the Guild has been able to function on a day-to-day basis but it has been somewhat hamstrung in advancing areas of infrastructure that seriously needed upgrading. One area in particular was our website which in IT years was ready for a Zimmer frame. Early June we got the good news that our proposal had been successful. With this in mind we were now in a position to look at, amongst other things, our aged website. But, cart before the horse, for some time there had been rumblings of a name change, and of course if we are to upgrade our website we needed to decide whether our name would change. All Guild members would have seen the roll out of Special Meetings held in all the branches throughout August. Follow- ing the branch meetings there was a postal ballot for those who did not attend the meeting so that all guild members were given an opportunity to have their say. The results from that ballot of all those that voted in both the meetings and email ballots came in at 81% in favour of change. The process from here will be a fairly methodical and will be done somewhat like the flag referendum – but won’t cost us $26 million. Over the next month we will be calling for name submissions. So have a think and look out for your opportunity to put your suggestions forward. Names submitted will then go to a ‘Name Change Committee’ who will narrow the submitted options down to the most popular and/or most appropriate. Then it’s back to you as members to vote again. Like the flag referendum, the original name will be presented as an option if you as a member feel there has been no better alternative offered. Trusting the final vote brings us to a new name, a new logo will be designed and all will be incorporated into a fresh new-look website that will reflect who the Guild is ‘now’ and for at least the next 10 years.

In the meantime regular Guild work continues. Two issues that have arisen in recent weeks, that I felt I would like to impart with all members, concerns invoicing and quoting. Firstly invoicing. This enquiry related to whether there are any rules on terms of payment. Crew have generally accepted the terms of payment as being the 20th of the following month. There are no hard and fast rules on terms and conditions of payment, and the 20th of the month is not the rule of thumb as this particular crew member found out. Terms and conditions can vary dramatically – in fact it is whatever is agreed. Australian companies have been known to pay 30 days after invoices are received. So if you are working for a new company it is worth having this discussion on acceptance of the job to ensure the terms of payment are what you expect and suit you. If necessary, this is the time to make alternative arrangement. Regardless, it is good practise for all techni- cians to state clearly on every invoice terms of payment.

The second enquiry is to do with quoting. There appears to have been a practice amongst producers and production managers to compare quotes from different jobs by the same contractor – not at all kosher. Often if you’re quoting you will be considering the nature of the production, the budget, etc, so quotes can change from job to job. I got legal advice on this question. To ensure your quote remains exclusive to the production you are quoting for at the time it is advised that you state clearly on your quote wording along the lines of “the rates quoted are confidential and exclusive to the parties mentioned on this production only and must not be shared”.

A little more on good invoicing practices can be found in this issue of NZTECHO on page 5.

Til’ next time – be safe out there.