Industry Updates and Challenges

What’s been happening over the past year?

I know I’ve had a fairly quiet time work-wise, but it seems, from the safe distance of the wild West Coast, that the industry has been ticking over quite nicely.

There was a close call with Under The Mountain, but the valiant efforts of the producers got it back on track. The Charles Upham project was not so lucky, or not so well-managed, and may not get back up and running. We’ll keep our fingers crossed because, as happens from time to time in the building business, contractors have been left out-of-pocket; that’s us.

We had the introduction of the Screen Production Investment Fund (SPIF) earlier this year, and I don’t think any of us saw that coming. It has the potential to put a rocket under screen production over the coming months and years. What else will change over time is virtually impossible to predict. How will the public funding body’s roles change, particularly that of the NZ Film Commission?

Even with an updated Blue Book, contracts are an ongoing issue which crew and the Techos’ Guild have trouble sorting out with producers. I find it interesting that we don’t have true collective bargaining power, but producers want all crew on a job to sign the same contract even though they prefer to see us as individual contractors for employment purposes. I see this as contradictory, and I believe crewing employment structures will change over time, with more of us becoming employees and fewer of us working as contractors. We shall see. As I’ve said before, contracts are, by and large, bollocks. (What happened to the good old-fashioned handshake?) But if we are to be expected to sign them, then we can reasonably expect to have a hand in the writing of the contract.

Screen production workers should be aware of which ACC category you come under. We work in ‘Services to the Arts’ and should fill in our ACC forms accordingly, regardless of which area of the industry you apply your particular skills to.

Looks like there’s a rise in Techos’ Guild subs coming up. This bit of extra capital will, hopefully, help us gear up our operation so we can better address the needs of our membership. There may be a need for an industry negotiator or three to assist with discussions between producers and crew.

As we near election time, we may want to look more closely at what the various political parties have in mind for the screen production industry, and for the arts in general. But will policies stated before election time really tell us what might happen in the future?

As we head into the summer months, it looks like our industry will be busy. Make the most of the work opportunities, but don’t forget to take time out for rest and recreation, time with friends and family.

… AlBol