Reflections on Guild Leadership

It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to have filled the position of national president for more years than I can now remember. My first ‘Al Presidente’ was published in the NZTECHO magazine in September 2001, so it’s been 13 years – my lucky number. Now that I’m stepping aside I will of course continue as immediate past president, finally relieving Dave Madigan of this role.

During my time as president there has been ongoing progress and changes in the wider screen production industry and within the Guild. We’ve had several changes of executive officer. Change is not necessarily a bad thing, still, let’s hope that our current EO can stay with us for some time to come as Karla has proven to be a real asset to our Guild.

The extraordinary growth of the production base in Miramar, Wellington has occurred during my time as president. That in itself has dramatically changed the nature of our industry and enhanced our credibility as a filmmaking nation. Not that we weren’t credible before, but we’ve certainly gained the attention of the wider world thanks to the Oscar-winning efforts of ‘Wellywood.’

Our industry has grown in many ways and on many fronts. I believe we now have the skills and most of the facilities needed to service any scale of production. Keeping those skills and facilities working so they can continue to pay their way will always be a challenge for a little country like ours at the bottom of the world. We don’t really have the population base to financially support a wholly Kiwi screen production industry, and international productions have shown how easily they can be lured away to other parts of the world regardless of our talents or our scenery. We rely to a large extent on public money, grants, and subsidies to sustain our industry, both domestic and off-shore production. There are ups and downs, times when many of us find ourselves wondering when and where the next job might come from, but we have stickability. And when we do have work, we work hard.

From what I’ve been hearing, things are starting to take off again, particularly in Auckland. But, no doubt as a result of the quiet times we’ve had, there are distinct shortages of skilled people in some areas. This is a problem our industry does not need if we are to maintain our reputation as a top-class production spot, but a problem which may recur if we continue to get extreme fluctuations in the amount of work coming our way.

One distinct area of growth has been in tertiary education courses relating to screen production. This is great from the point of view of interest and enthusiasm for our industry, but it does sometimes feel like a bit of a con. Given the limited opportunities for paying work, it does sometimes feel like the tertiary institutions are serving their own purposes ahead of the needs of their students.

Something that hasn’t really changed in recent years is rates of remuneration. In fact, it might be said that remuneration rates have actually declined over recent years.

My time as president of our Guild has brought pleasures and disappointments. I’m disappointed that so many Kiwis are now finding it hard to have a home to live in in their own country. I’m disappointed that our society is so fervently following the monetarist consumptive path into an unsustainable future. I was disappointed – but not surprised – at the way immigration policies were changed to the detriment of many Kiwi workers. And now basic workers’ rights are being further undermined. We no longer have a Minister of Labour; we have a Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety.

I have trouble seeing how the recent labour law changes will enhance workplace relations or safety. I was disappointed that so many of my colleagues in this industry were willing to join a march in the streets at Labour Weekend, 2010, a march supposedly to lend voice to the cause of keeping the production of The Hobbit movies here in NZ. But in effect, it was to help quell the collective voice of our fellow workers, the actors.

Thanks to The Hobbit hoo-haa, our employment status as contractors is now set in law. Of course, that hasn’t actually changed anything about the way we work. But in many other industries, this push towards more and more workers becoming contractors is a distinct disadvantage to those workers.

There have, of course, been real pleasures during my time as president, particularly some of the films and television that we’ve made here in little old NZ in recent years. It will always be a struggle to make our industry pay its way, but it’s great that we can make some fantastic stuff anyway. And when I’m working, I find the skills and talents of the people I work with in this biz stimulating to be amongst. One real pleasure has been my involvement in the workshops which Karla has organised, Simon Raby’s working with the cinematographer, Charlie McLellan’s VFX, and most recently Will Heatley’s safety workshops.

Now, as immediate past president, I, along with others, have to put some time into getting the revised Safety Code of Practice out into the world. Maybe then I can have a rest, though I would like to be working as a filmmaker from time to time, but there’s not much happening for me of late.

There are, of course, some ongoing issues which I trust the Guild and the industry as a whole will continue to keep a watchful eye on, particularly hours of work. It seems that some Australian-based production companies have been coming over here and taking advantage of people’s desire for employment given the recent paucity of work, by deliberately undermining working hours and rates of remuneration. As always, we need to work together to keep such undermining forces at bay, and the Techos’ Guild is our strongest united voice.

We now have a new national executive committee and a new national president. Welcome to the helm, Richard Bluck.

Albol