Standing Together

Spring has sprung after what feels like the wettest and darkest winter in years in Auckland. The industry hummed along a lot longer into the depths of winter, and finally took a downturn when several long form dramas came to an end, leaving a lot of Auckland crew without work at the end of July and most of August.

At the time of writing this the elections haven’t happened yet, but after 20 years of booking crew for commercials I know for a fact that it always goes quiet in the lead up to an election, and often stays a little quieter than normal until a few weeks afterwards, while everyone takes stock of how the elected government will affect our wonderful industry. So, on the strength of this, I’m thinking that October will be when TVCs will start going mental again, and there are a couple of decent sized feature films green lit to shoot in Auckland over the summer and autumn, with studios being booked out well in advance.

The Guild has had an unprecedented year of achievements behind the scenes. One of which I am glad to have been involved closely with is the updating of the well-known Blue Book. The majority of work has been allowing for the modernisation of the industry in terms of technology, terminology, and including other fields of technicians/contractors including those in the gaming fields. If we all stand together as a combined group, and adhere as closely as possible to the Blue Book, we have a strong voice when we come across the occasional producing company that decides to push the boundaries in terms of safety and remuneration. I cannot reiterate how beneficial it is to a crew member to join the Guild (even if they don’t think the Guild does anything for them) as this is your main support when and if you are needing to negotiate Blue Book policies or procedures to a production company.

I’m finding more and more we are getting enquiries from crew who seek our help and advice when they feel they have been mistreated in one form or another, but are not members of the Guild! I find that this puts us in a conflicting situation. It is not fair for these crew to expect us to have their back when they are wanting our support for nothing. It’s important that you talk amongst your peers, and encourage those that are not members to join the Guild, so they too can enjoy being able to work with the support of the Blue Book terms and conditions.

Sioux Macdonald, Guild vice president and executive committee member