Matt Percy
Well hardly. There won’t be many people who have worked on a TVC in Auckland who haven’t run across Matt Percy (or at least a couple of his road cones) in the last few years. Matt has been in the industry for nearly twenty years, hiring out gear and arranging traffic management as well as running a mean unit table. After a conversation over the lunch table on One Thousand Ropes he’s seen the sense in joining the Guild. And we’re very happy to have him.
How long have you been in screen production and how did you get started?
I started in 1996 as a runner on a Jane Gilbert insurance TVC in Dannevirke. I had completed the Christchurch FTTS (film and television training school) the previous year.
Why did you choose Film and TV as a career?
Hah! I was attracted to the industry as I believed it was an exciting and compelling career choice with lots of possibilities.
What have you learnt on the job that no one ever told you?
To be successful in this line of work you need to be very reliable and have a highly developed work ethic and lots of stamina. A big part of the job is how you deal with frustration and pressure, the hours are long and the work can be tiring.
Are you able to make a living out of working in film, or do you still take employment out of film?
It’s possible to make a good living and I see the work as more of a business than a job. We also have a traffic management business so film work makes up a smaller part of the turnover but is still important as we have a large amount invested in gear.
What have you learnt about your department? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Unit Department has stayed the same for the most part for the twenty years I’ve been involved in it. It is still heavily focused on coffee, tea, and snacks with an equally important infrastructure component. There is cross over with the location department, especially with TVC’s. A strength of this department is the ability to still be important regardless of the technology changes all around us. Weaknesses are the difficulty in attracting new young people to the department. Maybe because it's not seen as being sexy like camera or art.
What are the NZ industries greatest strengths? Where do you think it could improve? How could we become a more sustainable industry?
Industry strengths are the diversity of locations within a small area. Some days it really is hard to believe the range of locations and backdrops this country can provide. I also reckon NZ crews must be some of the best in the world. We hear that all the time from international productions. Also, I seriously reckon we can make a better coffee in the back of a truck in NZ than most countries could produce in a flash cafe!
Cheers Matt, we agree with every word!
