Timing the Change
Hi all,
And welcome to the Autumn edition of NZTECHO. As I write this it’s getting on for 30 degrees outside and there are apparently sane people – and this is in Wellington remember – walking around saying that a bit of wind would be nice.
But, by the time you read this next week, there’ll probably be a gale coming in over the harbour and the Auckland lighting guys we’re hosting on a few jobs down here will be understanding exactly why it is that the Wellington trucks carry so damned many sandbags.
As I write this, there’s a mood of change in the air. At the end of this month the referendum on changing the flag will have closed and the result will be announced. I’m voting for the current flag myself. Not because I don’t want a new flag, but because I think the timing is all wrong and the torn-rugby-jersey-stuck-on-a-teatowel alternative we’ve been offered really doesn’t ring my bell at all.
But in a couple of year’s time nature will take its course and there will be a change of monarch. I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s excited about Charles the tomato-whispering, tampon aspirant getting his mug on our money, so that strikes me as the right time to have a proper national conversation about who we are and what symbols represent us.
Timing is everything.
So with that in mind I was very happy to read Richard Bluck’s Letter from the President for this issue. Towards the end of a typically thoughtful piece, Richard brings up the question of our Guild’s name. And that does feel like an issue whose time has come.
Richard makes the point that ‘technician’ doesn’t properly represent much of the work our members actually do. And we all acknowledge that ‘video’ is a pretty redundant term today. So something along the lines of ‘New Zealand Screen Industry Contractors Guild’ (or ‘Association’) seems to me to be a sensible and attractive alternative.
Is the time right for a change? What are your preferred alternatives? Who’s up for raising the issue at your next Guild meeting? And… should Julie Christie have a say?
Love your work,
Graeme Tuckett, editor
editor@nztecho.com
