Guild Updates and Support

Well, here we find ourselves again with COVID on our doorstep and uncertainty in the sector.

I would like to recognise the stress this causes for most of our members, especially those in Auckland, and we encourage you to reach out to the Guild if you require any support. At the bottom of this article, I have included some external support to help you through these challenging times. We hope that the MIQ situation will change so we can have more international production coming in and support our domestic market to get their productions underway to get back to work. Relevant groups in the sector are talking with the government to share the sector needs, so watch this space, and hopefully, we will have some clarity soon.

The ScreenSafe COVID Health and Safety group has finalised the revised ScreenSafe COVID-19 Protocols to support the sector getting back to work in a safe environment. I want to say a big thank you to guild members Paul Andreassend, Robert (Gibbo) Gibson, and Kristian Eek for their hard work on getting these finalised and ready to share. I would also like to thank the Health and Safety officers who gave their feedback on these protocols and producer Bex Kelly for supporting this process.

Last week we held our annual general meeting in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown. Thank you to everyone who attended these meetings. Auckland and Wellington were held on Zoom calls, and we got a great turnout. Christchurch and Queenstown were able to meet in person, and fingers crossed, the rest of us will be able to do that next year.

I would also like to thank Brendon Durey, Sioux MacDonald, and Tyrone Payne for putting their hand up again to be President, VP, and Treasurer this year and to Jane Scott for all of her hard work in the accounts department. I would also like to thank the chairs of the branches: Christian Gower (Auckland), Adrian (Wookie) Hebron (Wellington), newly voted in Zac Beckett-Knight (Christchurch), and Wayne Allen (Queenstown), for putting their hands up to support their branches. I would also like to thank Amanda Jenkins for all of her hard work and support over the past year as chair of the (Christchurch) committee; she has been very proactive in getting the Christchurch branch off the ground and supporting local crew.

Thank you to all of the new and existing committee members. I will be releasing the names of the new executive over the coming week. Last but not least, I would like to thank all of the members for your continued support of the Guild that enables us to do all of the important work we do.

For those of you that didn't attend, below is a list of projects and initiatives we have worked on or continue to work on over the next few months:

Professional Respect Training Program

ScreenSafe has continued with the Professional Respect Training program over the past year. To date, there have been over 340 people attending these workshops, and the feedback has been incredibly positive from all who have attended, with many commenting they would like this program to be mandatory for all HODs.

We are also in the final stages of completing the online Preventing Bullying and Harassment training module for the whole sector. The module will be available on the ScreenSafe website in the coming months.

Extra Support of Sector Training

We have partnered with Emma Slade and Victoria Dabbs to support their Share the Knowledge training initiative. This training covers key areas: Grips, Production Accountants, Line Producers, Location Managers, and Location Coordinators.

We have partnered with Screen Skills workshops facilitated by Marg Slater to roll out the Set Ready Go pilot program for newbies that we hoped to run this month. The program will be rescheduled pending alert level changes.

We have also been working with the Script Supervisors group and hosted two Script Supervisors courses in Auckland and Wellington.

Hardcases – Addressing Bullying and Harassment

The Screen Industry Guild (with funding from NZFC) has engaged an independent company, Hardcases, to manage all disclosures for bullying and harassment. Anyone from the industry can contact me confidentially, and I will connect you with them.

Working with Children Guidelines Review

ScreenSafe is working with industry professionals and external organisations to review the Working with Children Guidelines for the Screen Sector. This review is being finalised and will be shared with the sector in the next month or so.

Rate Card Review

The Guild has been contacted on numerous occasions regarding crew rates. A formal subcommittee of HODs has been created to review the current rate card and break down the rates depending on the production type and experience. The rate card can be utilised in the future to ensure there aren't any inflated rates being charged due to a lack of availability in the sector. We are also taking into consideration pay parity and fairness. This is a large project and will take the rest of the year to complete across the sector. We have engaged an independent Project Manager to finalise this review.

SIGANZ Project Development

The Guild has undertaken an independent project manager to set up a business toolkit and series of workshops. These will be ready over the next three months to share with our members.

The project includes:

1. Improved access to legal and business tools, including templates and workshops online to help explain contracts, production policies and procedures, ScreenSafe policies, regulatory forms, and self-employed tools.
2. Create Screen Industry Bill workshops for members to understand their rights if the law changes.

Lawyer consultation

Last year the Guild engaged the services of lawyer Tim Riley to check any of the concerns you may have with your contracts. Please don't hesitate to send them to me confidentially if you have any questions, but please do this before you sign them or receive your first payment. Your contract can be reviewed by Tim free of charge.

Links for mental health support, coping with financial stress, and WINZ:

1. For mental health support, go to www.health.govt.nz and search COVID-19: mental health and wellbeing resources.
2. If you are experiencing money concerns, go to www.depression.org.nz/covid-19/money-worries.
3. For more information on financial support available, go to www.workandincome.govt.nz/covid-19/index.html.

In closing, I know this situation isn't ideal, but hopefully, this will pass, sooner the better, so take care out there and look out for each other. If you have any questions on any of the initiatives above, please email me at info@screenguild.co.nz.

Ngā mihi nui,

Kelly.