Rebuilding the Screen Sector

As I sit down to write my latest article and read back on the last one that I wrote when we were entering lockdown, wow, such a lot has happened and what interesting times we are now living in.

The good news is, is that productions are starting to ramp up again, but with border controls still tightly in place, what does the rest of the year hold for us in our screen sector?

First of all, I would like to acknowledge all the hard work the COVID 19 workgroups have done while we have been in lockdown.

This work had enabled the sector to be up and running even when we were still in Level 2 and 3. Over this period, the Pan Sector COVID 19 Action Group was formed and chaired by Felicity Letcher. This group consisted of the industry guilds, organisations, producers, and business owners who quickly built cross-sector communication lines. These channels talked to government departments, funders, and councils to enable the screen sector to collaborate and identify the areas that needed to be focused upon to get the industry up and running again.

I want to thank everyone who has been involved in this valuable process for their time and effort.

Out of this group, as you would have seen, the WorkSafe endorsed ScreenSafe Standard and Protocols were developed and distributed to the industry. I can not thank the team enough for their commitment to producing these documents, which have enabled our industry to start working again safely in the current environment.

A small team - Health and Safety Officers - Robert (Gibbo) Gibson and Paul Andreassend, Bex Kelly (Producer), and myself worked tirelessly over the lockdown period to create new Standards and Protocols all based around the health and safety of those at work.

There was additional support with the departmental roles information from Kristian Eek and research done by Mabelle Teh.

There were several critical contributions from HODs across the sector, which were invaluable to the documentation.

I want to thank the New Zealand Film Commission for their funding during this crisis, WorkSafe for their ongoing support, and to everyone else who provided essential feedback in this process.

This has been an incredible team effort with our success being seen around the world.

So what now?

With productions starting and a number of others in the pipeline, it looks more and more promising over the coming months. There seems to be an air of positivity for the latter part of the year already.

Here at the guild, we are working on several workshop programs.

The guild proudly supports the Share the Knowledge training, including the previous Line Producers Course, the Techno Dolly Course held over the past weeks, and the upcoming Production Accountancy course.

There will also be two additional courses that will be announced in the coming months.

As you will read in our President’s article, we are working on an Empowering the Crew Rep workshop that will be run across the country. The Crew Rep is such an essential role onset and offset to help the crew and production company relationship. This training and documentation will support anyone who wants to step into this role and give them tools to utilise in the future. We are also restarting the Professional Respect Training workshops in July, where we will be hosting in Wellington and Auckland. We will be traveling to Christchurch and Queenstown in August/September, so please lookout for the forthcoming information on registering for this valuable workshop.

I would also like to take time and mention that the VISTA Foundation Home & Family Counselling Initiative for Film Workers is on offer at the moment. You can receive up to 5 hours worth of free Counselling. If you or a family member wants to utilise this counselling support, please contact Home & Family on this website address here: homeandfamily.org.nz/filmindustry. Please do take advantage of any support currently being provided.

Plus, there is the Wage Subsidy extension on offer https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/covid-19/wage-subsidy-extension/index.html to see if you qualify.

Just another reminder the guild is here to support you, so please don’t hesitate to contact me on info@screenguild.co.nz.

Hopefully, as we move into a new phase and season, we will be able to look towards a brighter future and work towards having a sustainable industry once more. For now, keep safe and warm.