Guild Update
2012 is nearing the end and our Techos’ Guild office is as busy as ever, if not more so.
Firstly, hats off to our executive officer Karla Rodgers! Her ongoing efforts for our Guild are showing in increasing membership numbers and more benefits for members. Not least to mention the first lot of a series of four Guild workshops went off without a hitch. Thanks also to Carolyn Brooke for her efforts with NZTECHO, it seems to get better with every edition.
As you may be aware, Karla managed to acquire funds from the New Zealand Film Commission to run the previously mentioned workshops. Take advantage of them because they may be the first and last, we just never know in this industry.
In the application for funding Karla pointed out the number of creative technicians (Karla’s phrase) who have won Oscars, and there are quite a few – heaps in fact. The workshops are on a range of subjects with a view to broadening discussion and facilitating inter-departmental understanding. Well, that’s my take on the workshops. The DoP lead one, ‘Behind the DoP’, which Simon Raby, Karla, and I ran in Auckland, Wellington, and Queenstown.
The trickiest stuff for the Guild (Karla) to deal with over the past year must surely have been immigration issues. Since this Government changed the immigration laws and processes earlier this year, we have found immigration issues still occupy much of Karla’s time even though we are now unable to charge for a lot of it.
Dave Madigan can take considerable credit for fine-tuning and maintaining the system in the past, which was working fine. Sure there was the need for negotiation at times but it worked and we generally knew what was going on in our industry. Now it’s much more difficult to keep track of what work is coming into the country and some producers are looking for ways to circumvent the work-visa application process altogether. The immigration processes are to be reviewed in September next year. We will have to be well prepared with our submission in the hope of changing processes.
Work continues to fluctuate, as it does in our industry. The Hobbit is taking a break from shooting while the first of the three films is prepared for release. The dash to release date is over and prep on the next shoot can begin.
Even though the commercial scene seems to be steadily diminishing, Auckland remains the main hub of our industry with a lot of television series work, while Wellington generally goes from one major production to nothing, with the occasional ‘little film’ and waiting for another major production to come to town.
And what have I been up to this year? I shot a little Kiwi feature film (digital) early in the year. I took a trip to Ireland and London shooting a wee freebie doco. And talked about all sorts of ideas and schemes, but one never knows what will come to fruition.
One feature film project which I was looking forward to shooting next year has fallen over, for now, but I’m sure I’ll be busy enough come 2013. In fact, I’m due to reach retirement age in 2013 so I might just retire!
I’ve also done a bit of tutoring at Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) in Invercargill in the Media Studies department. They run a no-fees course there which I truly believe is the way tertiary education should be. It concerns me that we are bringing a generation of young people into the world of work already burdened with student loan debt. I can’t see that this system serves anyone other than the banks.
I’m inclined to continue my connection with SIT because of its no fees policy.
Back to the Guild for a moment, since Karla took over as executive officer she has put a lot of effort into raising awareness of the Guild’s work and thereby raising our membership numbers. She has also managed to score some more special deals for members.
We seem to be constantly sailing close to the wind financially. Hopefully our membership numbers will continue to increase since this is the Guild’s main source of income, fingers crossed and all power to Karla’s ongoing efforts in that regard.
Catch you all next year!
