Jennifer Butcher
How long have you been in screen production and how did you get started?
My first job in the film industry was a line production TVC for Jane Gilbert in 1995. The job was massive – two jobs back to back (Suisse Bank and Motorola mobile phones). Lisa Kissin hired me as an agency driver/runner. So that means I have been in the Industry 19 years. Yikes!
I had just graduated from University of Auckland with a BA in English and Psychology. I had taken the stage two and three TV and film papers (under the umbrella of the English department at the time). I was heading down the path of an academic career, but some very inspiring lecturers (Roger Horrocks, Margaret Henley, and Annie Goldson) made me want to give working in our burgeoning industry a go.
After working in TVCs for a few months as a driver, runner, and assistant, I noticed the loud, organised, bossy people who pointed a lot. Being capable of pointing, being bossy, organized, and loud, I decided I would like to get into assistant directing.
I had been advised that the best way to learn this craft was to work on dramas, so the next six years were spent working on everything from Shortland Street and The Tribe through to Hercules and Xena, honing my AD skills and advancing up the AD ladder. In 2000, I started being the 1st AD on the occasional TVC (thank you Murray Francis and Film Construction for giving me a break), music clips, and short films. I later decided to work predominantly in TVCs and occasionally on dramas in an attempt to gain more control over my personal time.
What genre(s) does your work tend to come from?
I have worked on everything from music clips, live broadcast events, TVCs, TV dramas, and documentaries, along with short and feature films. Now I work mostly on TVCs, both line productions and local, with the occasional block or day on TV drama and the odd short film, or additional specialized units on features. I think it is really important to keep the drama skills and systems current. If you can work at pace on a drama shooting 8 to 10 minutes per day (or 25 to 30 minutes for Shortland Street) then you have many more problem-solving arrows in your quiver. It is like training at altitude for an event, and then coming down and being able to perform better at sea level. I also think it is important to work on and support local content and, in the instance of short films, give back and nurture the grassroots level of the industry. On the giving back side, and to perform some sort of ‘ethical cleansing’, I have served on the executive of the NZ Techos’ Guild for eight years and also as an advisory board member to Film Auckland.
How easy is it to make a living in this industry/how often do you work outside the screen production industry? How have your rates changed?
I have been fortunate enough to make a career out of the film and TV industry and earn 100% of my income through it. It has been tough though and like everybody else, when the phone doesn’t ring and the text bookings aren’t coming in, I have massive periods of self-doubt and “why am I still in this game” moments.
In my transitional year from 2nd AD to 1st AD, my income dropped by 50%. You have to trust yourself and stick to your guns though if you want to progress. Assistant directing is a really tough, stressful and political job which requires being both organised and creative. It is very much an acquired taste and as a result, there are not that many of us.
On the subject of rates, I am very concerned that over all, crew rates have not increased anywhere near inflation. I was recently offered a 1st AD position on a NZ TV drama, but the rate was less than I had earned as a 1st AD on dramas 10 years ago. It was less than half of what I earn per day working on TVCs. I like the show and the production company but with a crazy Auckland mortgage, I had to turn them down, as quite literally, I couldn’t afford to work for them during the summer TVC season.
How does your department work as part of the ‘whole’ that other crew probably don’t realise?
As well as standing for ‘assistant director’, AD can also stand for ‘all departments’. What I mean by that is that we are ‘the big picture’ department and need to have an understanding of the requirements of all departments. Particularly when this comes down to putting things in front of the camera, and being ready to rehearse or shoot. We need to gather the most accurate information possible from all departments to create the best plans regarding scheduling in prep, and then on the shoot day, adapt as fast as possible as things invariably change from that schedule. So when an AD asks you “how long will that take” please understand that for us it is like that circus trick where the performer has half a dozen plates spinning on top of sticks. We are just trying to keep all the plates spinning in the same direction and ideally, at the same speed, and to stop any one of them from falling. While departments have mainly just their own requirements to consider, ADs have to balance every department’s requirements. Ultimately we are just trying to get you all home safely and on time…
What sort of changes have you noticed? Have you noticed any trends?
On the positive side, I see newbies coming through who have great computer and IT-related skills. Because of the increasing accessibility and decreasing cost of digital equipment, many of them have made their own films before ever stepping on to a professional set. Also with the increasing number of ‘hands-on’ film schools, more newbies are coming through who are interested in pursuing careers in production, camera, art, editing, and post etc. There was a time 10 years or so ago, when every newbie wanted to be a director…
The downside is that every year there are literally hundreds of graduates trying to enter an industry where, in recent times, even my peers with 20 years plus experience are struggling to get enough work. Another negative trend and a personal hate of ADs is the increased use of mobile phones on set. Fine if they are being used as tools but that is it. I am old school on this point I know, but I check my phone before crew call, switch it off and put it away. Check it again at lunch, and then turn it on again at wrap. It is not that hard – it is just a discipline. When we have so much more competition in the international marketplace, and even for our own jobs locally, it is really important now, more than ever, that we crew present professionally on set. Checking your phone for Facebook updates and sharing weekend BBQ photos every five minutes looks very unprofessional and shows that you are not really paying attention! Plus it makes it so much more likely that you will get ‘slabbed’!
What strengths do you think the New Zealand industry has / what could contribute to a more sustainable industry?
The NZ screen industry has many strengths, including economic value, NZ’s brand enhancement overseas and sustainability (we are comparatively non-polluting compared with say dairy and forestry). To put my Techos’ Guild hat back on for a moment – the screen industry has contributed massively to the country’s economy. The Screen Council Survey year ended March 2012 showed that the screen industry earned $3.3 billion dollars for NZ. This was the third-biggest earner for the country after dairy and tourism that year. This does not even count the multiplier effect. The UK Screen Council recently engaged the Oxford University economics department to do an analysis of the multiplier (trickle down) effect i.e. for every pound spent on the British Screen Industry what was the pound benefit back to the economy? Their answer 12 to 1. That is, for every 1 pound spent in the screen industry there is a 12 pound gain to the economy. Granted, NZ is a smaller economy with fewer tiers to trickle down, but even only a quarter of this would turn the overall benefit of the international film industry to NZ, from $3.3 billion to $10 billion. That is a lot of jobs, mostly high value – higher than the median wage, and a lot of income tax and GST for the Government. This is why I found it so infuriating and hard to comprehend why the present Government took so long in readjusting the LBSPG incentive… And that is just the undeniable economic value, there is also the development, exposure, and promotion of ‘brand’ NZ internationally. This has major beneficial spin-offs for tourism and other NZ companies trading overseas. Over this summer I have had a number of friends visit from overseas (UK, Germany, Australia, and the US). All of them had seen The Hobbit and know who Peter Jackson is, only one out of eight knew or cared about last year’s America’s Cup. Also, we are sustainable and (where ever possible) clean, green, and non-polluting. I think possibly this last aspect “clean, green, and non-polluting” is an area that we have improved on but could probably do better… Reducing paper usage and increasing paper recycling is an issue that I face in my department for example. I do feel that there is an increasing culture and awareness on productions about minimizing our “green” footprint. The “Greening the Screen” initiative that was released a few years ago is a really good starting point. Also on set, in my experience, individuals do seem to be making more of an effort, even if it just a simple thing like taking your own water bottle or refilling your water from the unit table instead of just grabbing a new bottle each time… It is a small thing but it definitely all adds up.
So to finish up I will answer why I am still in this game. I get to travel and work in some beautiful and otherwise inaccessible places – I have some amazing lunches and craft services, (thank you caterers and unit teams). As an AD, my work is challenging; every job is different, and every day brings new problems to be solved, and I get to learn at least ‘three new things’ (my minimum requirement). But above all else, it is because of the wonderful, talented, interesting, and diverse group of people I am privileged to work with. Thank you all, and see you on the next one …
