Screen Industry Progress Amid Challenges

Heading into October, with an election around the corner, production underway but still in the reality of COVID on our doorsteps, 2020 has definitely shaped itself for the history books.

Looking at the positives: crew are busy, the COVID health and safety plans are in place, and the alert levels have enabled Auckland to get back to production, and the rest of the country is enjoying more freedom at alert level 1.

We had our AGM last week, and a big thank you to everyone who attended in Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown and also to those who managed to jump onto zoom calls for the Auckland session.

We warmly welcome the new members on our branch committees and to the executive.

I want to thank everyone who has agreed to stand again and take the time to support the guild for another year. We welcome back and say thank you again to Brendon Durey, who is doing a fantastic job as President. To the wonderful Sioux MacDonald, who is back as Vice President. Their support and hard work behind the scenes for the guild and the industry have been fantastic. Brendon has been creating sub-committees for tackle rate card reviews, continuous hours guidelines, and doing a crew rep workshop, including looking at bullying in our sector. Sioux has been on the Screen Industry 2030 Strategy Group contributing to the Screen Workers Bill and the Pan Sector COVID 19 Recovery Group. Thank you to Tyrone Payne for agreeing to take on the Treasurer role again this year and support our fantastic Jane Scott, who continues to do a sterling job on our accounts. I would also like to say a massive thank you to Ken Saville, who has given hours of support to the Wellington branch and has stood down this year. To Nick Treacy, who is still on the executive committee but has stood down from Auckland's chairperson and with Christian Gower stepping in. Another thank you to Mareena King, the Auckland secretary, has moved to beautiful Nelson.

Over the past couple of weeks, ScreenSafe and WorkSafe have hosted two workshops to look at the next steps for ScreenSafe and what it can become and evolve into over the coming years. We will keep you updated as we work through this plan and look to the future of supporting all of the screen sector, including health and safety – physically and holistically. If you have any ideas you would like to share with us, please email them to info@screenguild.co.nz.

The Professional Respect Training workshops have been up and running again, and the feedback has been excellent. As a sector, we are looking at making a culture shift to a healthy, respectful work environment. We hosted one in Christchurch last week and are back in Auckland on November 7th and Queenstown on Friday, December 11th – if you would like to attend, email workshops@screenguild.co.nz. We are looking at other dates and will send out further information when they are confirmed.

We have great news about our membership has increased by 20% over the past year. It is lovely to have more crew on board, so please drop me a line. I would love to hear from you.

For now, we are racing to the end of the year and looking at the tail end of 2020. With the global situation still at high risk and New Zealand's COVID alert levels stabilizing, we will hopefully be looking at another busy year for 2021. For now, take care; if you need any support, we are here for you.