NZ Issue

43

CHO

www.nztecho.com

! w people e r c l l a for The Guild

The New Zealand Film and Video Technicians’ Guild

March 2010

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CONTENTS ‘el presidente’ speaks Sally & the Screen World Industry Reunion I Am Not A Number! Bullshit and Deceit? A Fez & A Camel Current Events Notes From A Broad Deaths on Reality TV

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CREATIVE TEAM Publisher / Advertising Fritha Stalker Executive Editor Tony Forster Design / Layout Bright Ideas Ltd Printing Neville Newcomb CONTRIBUTORS Keith Barclay (& Alex Prior) Alun Bollinger Tony Forster Sally Meiklejohn & Lyn Bergquist Fritha Stalker SPECIAL THANKS TO Helen Bollinger Murray Milne PHOTOS - Thanks to Keith Barclay Lyn Bergquist & Sally Meiklejohn Tony Forster Cover Photo: Patrick McGoohan as «No 6», on set for The Prisoner.

DISCLAIMER:

The views expressed in the articles herein are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily represent those of either the NZFVTG or the editors of NZTECHO. (Though, of course, sometimes they do!)

NZFVTG is supported by:

OSCARs & BAFTAs It was originally planned to give this space over to members’ responses to our survey regarding the Guild’s name, as previously promised. But with the delay of production of this issue, owing to illness on a variety of fronts, I find myself writing this just as the Oscar winners are being announced. And goodness me - another Kiwi celebration! Suddenly it seems much more important (and satisfying) to pay tribute to the successful Kiwis, and especially those who are members of our Guild. KIM SINCLAIR has clearly had one heck of a week! A double whammy - both the BAFTA and the OSCAR, for his work on Avatar as Art Director. (Congratulations too to the other team with that double whammy - Avatar’s Visual FX quartet.) But we’re also impressed by Sound Mixer TONY JOHNSON getting his second Oscar nomination, as well as a BAFTA one, this year - and equally impressive is long-time Wellington Guild Chair KEN SAVILLE - for his achievement in being in the BAFTA race up against TJ. Just as prestigious as the above awards, within the sound world at least, are those given out by the Cinema Audio Society. Once again this year, Ken and Tony were up for the same award - though both missed out to the team from The Hurt Locker. Our congratulations and commiserations! For those of you who keep back copies of NZTECHO, you can read more about Kim in Issue 16 / August 2005; and Tony features in a long interview in Issue 25 / March 2007. Kim’s also got a website: www.kimsinclair.com . Other moments of note in the 2010 Oscars that amused: Sandra Bullock scoring another kind of double - an Oscar to go with her Razzie (“Golden Raspberry Award”, for the worst film work in the year). Bullock garnered much credit for turning up to receive her Razzie. This is the woman who, on being told she was the first female star to have her movie make more than $200 million, said: “It’s nice, but it’s odd… I know I’m a second-class citizen. I’ve been aware of that since puberty.” In that vein, much has been made of Kathryn Bigelow’s Best Director Oscar being the first for a woman - as well as the first by an ex-wife of a fellow nominee. Jane Campion, one of only three women to be Oscar-nominated as a director (and the only female winner of Cannes’ Palme d’Or) has a forthright take on this: (from an interview by English journalist Larushka Ivan-Zadeh) “…it’s a reflection of men’s and women’s opportunities in the world. I’m so sick of people going ‘Whoop! There are 2 per cent more female directors!’ So, now there are only 95% male directors? Whatever.” Her answer to the problem: “I think women should be given 50% of the films to make. I’m not kidding! It would change the world overnight. Women see things differently, so it would be better for everyone.” Maybe she’s right! Tony F.

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el presidente’s rave…

Tax reforms - oh dear. I can’t work out why tax systems all over the world don’t target the money, rather than targeting people and their efforts. It’s the money Inland Revenue departments are chasing, so why not just catch some of it as it moves? Is that a ‘capital transaction tax’? (Or a ‘turnover tax’? Ed.) All the computers are there, a whole network already in place for tracking money as it moves; it should be simple enough to extract a proportion for the purposes of governing and providing social services. Surely that would be much simpler to run than the convoluted systems we use currently? Cheaper too, less bureaucracy, and bugger-all paper work involved. GST ! Don’t get me started on GST, grrrr ! ********* Following on from our late Christmas edition, I’d like to comment on the relationship theme that ran through much of the mag. Perhaps that relationship thing is why we like to employ our rellies in this game. It seems to work: if you’re good mates with your workmates, it should help to make for good working relationships. Having said that, I rarely get to work with my boys on set; though I have worked with my daughter-in-law on three feature films to date, two of which she gaffered. ********* A comment on Mark Gillings’ suggestion that crew might compromise on O/T, “asking for prompt payment in return for a cheaper overtime rate”. I realise the comment was made in the spirit of compromise and co-operation, and I don’t knock

the thrust of Marks’ column at all - nor do I knock the notion of goodwill between crew and production, an essential ingredient for any smooth-running shoot. Hey, we are all in this together. But I firmly believe there are some areas in which there should be no compromise; and two of those areas are turnaround time ‘penalty’ payments and overtime ‘penalty’ payments. I use the old-fashioned term ‘penalty payment’ to illustrate the intent not to gain extra money but to curtail and control the amount of extra time people work in their day. Sure our rates are negotiable - but overtime and turnaround time should not be negotiable. Or should I say more correctly, your overtime and broken turnaround payments have already been negotiated, and are outlined in the Blue Book. Some time in the not too distant future, the Blue Book will be renegotiated; and my hope is that our overtime payment arrangements can be laid out more simply and clearly. I also think there should be absolute limits to how many hours anyone can work in any one day, or in any one week. $$$$$$$$$ or zzzzzzzzz - is that the question ? As you may have guessed, you won’t find me working on a ’48 hour competition’ film. Of course I’ve been there, done that, shot on through the night to get it done while you’ve got a crew together on a weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed it - though it can be difficult not to get grumpy when you’re tired off your face. But if you’re on a ‘real’ paying job, we do need to have a few basic rules in place - and some of those basic rules are to do with O/T and turnaround time. … AlBol

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Sally & the Screen World We’ve been thinking for a while of doing a series on our Past-Presidents, linking them in with a history of the Guild; and also focussing our crew profiles more on our members from the so-called non-technical areas. SALLY MEIKLEJOHN and LYN BERGQUIST, a couple since the early 1980s, provided us with a brilliant opportunity to start doing both at once! But, of course, two fascinating people means at least twice as much to talk about… So here is Part One, featuring mostly Sally and her screen industry career, including her Presidency of the Techos’ Guild, and also her founding of Filmcrews… NZT: Going back to the beginning of the Techos’ Guild, first there was the NZ Academy of Motion Pictures, which involved everybody in the industry; and then as I recall the producers and directors decided to split off? Sally: And formed the Producers and Directors Guild. Which eventually became the Screen Producers and Directors Association, or SPADA. They now call it Screen Production and Development Association – since the directors split off in turn, to form their own guild. So is it fair to say, crew people responded to SPADA moving off like that by deciding that they needed to form their own ... That’s right, they did. Till then we’d all worked under one umbrella, which I was actually very sorry to see go. I thought it was great to have that umbrella of the so-called Academy, this grandiose title that Geoff Murphy came up with. Roger

Donaldson designed the first letterhead, with a piece of film across the top and the name ‘New Zealand Academy of Motion Pictures’. As the Academy, we published a Guide to Production Practice, the beginnings of the Blue Book, but it was just typewritten on sheets of A4 paper. Roger stapled these to the contract for Sleeping Dogs, and said, “This is the contract …”, which was fantastic. So with people like Sam Pillsbury, Roger and Ian Mune, John Barnett and others involved – we had a really effective umbrella for the whole industry. But it didn’t suit all producers, it seemed; they wanted to talk amongst themselves. We did try to get them to just set up a producers’ division within the Academy, but they felt it was going to be better for them to have their own organisation. So that’s what they did. Then the crew people thought we might as well do the same thing as an answer to that – which I think has left some people in the industry never quite knowing whether they should belong to the Guild or not, because previously a lot of production people belonged to the Academy; there were make-up and wardrobe, even writers and editors…

The idyllic interview location: Sally and Lyn’s rural retreat at Kaipara Flats, an hour north of Auckland

I remember actors used to come along... Yeah, the Academy was open to anybody who worked in motion pictures. There were quite a few people working in Auckland, and after a while they

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got together, decided they’d like to have an organisation – for various reasons, such as professional standards, government support, and so forth. There was strong opposition to having a union, as lots of people had worked in unions overseas and thought they could be counter-productive. It seemed those days that everyone on a crew had a script in their back-pocket that they wanted to make; and so it was decided to go down to Wellington, meet with the film community there and start a national organisation to work towards those aims. A great meeting was held in Wellington: several carloads of us went down from Auckland, met up with old friends, made new ones and a committee was set up. There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing – I remember visiting Geoff Murphy for a meeting at some garage in Wellington – it was their office, equipment storage and car repair outfit, I think. Upstairs I went for the meeting and there were Geoff and Pat (Geoff’s then wife) sitting up in bed like John and Yoko! A pretty amazing meeting…

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However, the committee set up at the first meeting in Wellington decided that we Aucklanders couldn’t be taken seriously until we had Roger Donaldson and Ian Mune in the group. They were very busy people, and although Roger agreed to get involved, Ian was reluctant. He finally relented and they both gave their support for the group and its ideas. I do remember Ian saying that we didn’t need his support, there were enough of us already, and me replying that he was right and in fact we were trying to show Wellington that the Auckland film industry was more than just Roger Donaldson and Ian Mune – he thought that was hilarious! But they did give us their support, and so the Academy was up and running! I must say – in those days I was married to Jim Bartle; we had a house in Three Kings, and when we had a party everyone in the industry could fit into this big back garden! Then when Vidcom held parties, everybody in the industry could fit into their studio – the industry was a lot smaller then!

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Which years would those have been? We came back from Australia at the beginning of ’74. Jim came back for the start-up of Vidcom and I started doing production then, at Vidcom, freelancing; but our son Hamish was a baby, so I did just a little of that. So ’75-’76 at the latest. Vidcom was set up by Tom Cook and Harvey Glick, and Tom had headhunted crew that he had worked with earlier. Both Jim and I had worked with him at Channel Ten (Sydney) so he invited Jim to join VidCom. Other people he brought to New Zealand were Warren Sellars, Ian Richardson, Andy Tyler, Bluey Nowell… Tom was a great believer in people starting at the bottom, and so he would employ people as couriers and then move them up the ladder; and then he encouraged his senior people to go freelance and would hire them till they were set up. He may have worked at the BBC, where they had a similar belief – even if you were employed to work in a senior position you still had to learn how the work was done, so you would not be making production decisions without knowing how they could be implemented. Great training!

We met, and we did all the work ourselves; we split up the jobs of the co-ordinator between us. We did all that for nothing of course, in an effort to build up the Guild again – and it worked. But I remember once bursting into tears at one of these meetings, when suddenly it all became just too much for me. One guy had started to really ride things a bit – and I burst into tears, which is not what you do when you’re chairing a professional organisation! But they all said, Oh-oh, cuppa tea time, what can we do – Oh, we’ll finish the meeting now, that’s it, yes. Hamish, who was taking the minutes said, “9.30 – Meeting finished”, and then: “Well done, Mum, good tactic.” Then I said, I don’t want to be the Chairperson anymore. Graham Morris stepped in with, “Now, we had this agreement that we all stick together – we are all in it together, you’re the Chairperson and we’re all supporting you.” There’s a movie with that idea, isn’t there, One for All and All for One. (The Three Musketeers, from Dumas’ novel – Ed.) That’s why I called it the Unholy bloody Alliance; but we got through, and we did actually

I didn’t get involved in the film industry myself until the summer of 1980-81, and the Academy was still going then; but it was some time soon after that that this split happened. I know it was early 80s, because I went to Australia myself in ‘84… Oh, that’d be right. So when the Guild was formed, who were the first key people involved – who was the first Chair, and so on? I’m a bit hazy on all that! There have always been Sound people involved, and I have a theory about that. I think they’re the only people in the industry that actually listen to anything that’s going on. Nobody else listens. That’s why soundies make wonderful Presidents, because they’re actually very good listeners. But I can’t remember who was the first! When did you become Chair of the Guild? That was when we were using Ken Sparks’ office in Mt Eden Road, and that was through default really, because we’d had a very dodgy office person… This has gotta be off the record. Although it’s the truth… (PASSAGE CENSORED!) …

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So suddenly we realised we had an organisation – but we didn’t know who the members were, we weren’t collecting their subs, we had no money at all, and it was just going to peter out. So we developed what I always refer to as the Unholy Alliance – the Committee. We got together at Jude Crozier’s place; she was there, with me, Lisa Kissin, Steve Buckland, Graham Morris, Chris MacKenzie, plus others who would help. (Forgive me for not mentioning everyone.)

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get the Guild back on its feet, which was good – but it was hard work! Would that have been in the mid- or late 80s? I set up Filmcrews in 1981 and sold it in ’86, I think – Five years, would that be right. It was after that. When was your reign, as it were, and when did you finish as President? (And when did the name of the position change from “Chair” to “President”? Ed.) Dave Madigan took over from me; and I took over from Steve Buckland. I was there for three years. The dates will be in the minutes. (Research yields 1996 - 99. Ed) Yeah, they should be – if we’ve got them still. Hopefully they haven’t been thrown out. I hope not. There was another executive director we had who was hopeless. She was before the other woman, but I think she threw out a lot of stuff. I went in there one day and I said, What’s happened to all our boxes? She said, Oh, the rain got in and they’ve gotten wet, so I’ve been moving them around. So I said, Well, don’t throw anything out. No, no, I won’t, she said; and I said, I mean it, you know – Don’t throw anything out, because what we don’t want we’ll send to the Film Archive… (We had already sent minutes from the Academy meetings when Mort Schreiber was President.) But I believe we don’t actually have a lot of that stuff any more. That’s a shame. I don’t know what happened, but there is a file of newsletters that got lost. It’s terrible to think that all that’s just gone. Yes. There’s only a very incomplete set of “InFIlm” newsletters – there’s about six left in the office that I’ve found. Now, there’s a job somebody needs to do! If we could start a “Time Line” – once you’ve got a time line, if you know certain things, you can add them to it. For example, who was there when, or I remember when this or that happened… Then we could start threading our history together. We could be saying to people at every meeting, or ask in a newsletter: Call into the Guild and see what you can put on the Time Line. It’d have to be censored, of course! Because – you’ll remember from the Academy days – we had these great dances, parties… We had one at the Tamaki University – somewhere in the early to mid 80s – and Trish Downie, the Chairperson of the Academy at the time, made the punch. She made two identical punches; one was very heavily tequila’ed and one wasn’t, and nobody knew which was which! Well, people were off their faces. No

one could find their cars, we all drove home, no one could see straight. We all blamed Trish – nothing to do with us! A friend of mine fell into the band – the musos were very unamused, with this drunken woman flailing around the percussion. During the time that I was President, Alan Sorrell was the Film Commission representative; I think he was the Chairman, wasn’t he? (Alan Sorrell was a member of the Commission from 1993 and Chair from 1996 till 2002. He’s now Chair of the Board of Creative NZ. Ed.) We had the Guild Code of Practice discussions with Alan chairing them, because we’d got into such an awkward relationship with the Producers and Directors Guild at that point. They had got a couple of hard-headed people in there who decided they weren’t having anything to do with the Code of Practice (the Blue Book), and as far as they were concerned, they were going to destroy it. Alan was fantastic because he was such a great moderator – that’s a very good word for what he did – he was very moderate in his manner and attitude, but he stuck to the task in hand, and so we got it through. We weren’t allowed to have a blue cover that time, though. I remember being involved in some of those discussions, for what became the “Buff Book”! Now, when would that have been roughly? Mid-90s, if I recall correctly… Well, I was still the Chair, so it must have been. I do know that after I came back from Australia at the end of ’87, it was in late ’87 or early ’88 that I remember you pressganged me onto the committee! That was a good move, wasn’t it – look at you! It was a while before we disbanded the Academy. Eventually we called a public meeting, and we voted to put the remaining

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Academy funds into either the Crew Code of Practice or the Safety Code. This was welcomed by the Techos’ Guild, because we had always paid for those two publications. The Academy meetings in the Albion, I remember those well. And then the Techos’ Guild met there too. Yeah, I think that all happened before I went to Australia…? We really do need that Time Line! Tell us now about Filmcrews – you set that up in 1980 or ’81? 1981. At that time I needed to get an income. I knew this wonderful woman in Sydney called Sue Lemon, who’d set up the first crew agency in Sydney. I thought it could be a good thing to do from home, with Hamish at school and such; so I rang Sue and talked to her, and, basically, she told me pretty much everything. I’d already sat down and worked out how I might do it, and I found she did it pretty much the same way. It was all paper-based of course, because I didn’t have a computer. But it was good.

Lyn: That’s interesting; they’re still bringing out the sheets. Well, it’s just so much easier to see it all in a moment. I’m sure the computer’s good for some things – printing out at the end of the day what you’ve done, and putting all your notes on that instead of writing laboriously on people’s job sheets. But it all changes so quickly... We had these huge book-keeping books. Lyn: They still use those. So I set it up, and everybody wanted to know – but nobody wanted to belong to it if nobody else belonged to it! So I became this very experienced fudger. Richard Clark was the first person to come on the books, but he thought he was the 12th. I didn’t tell him for years that he was the only person on the books for the first few weeks. Then I remember going after Alan Locke – he didn’t like the idea; he thought it was all a bit strange. Richard Clark was a video cameraman, but we didn’t have any film cameramen. I think Jim (Bartle) might have come on quite early in the piece, though. Before I had many cameramen on the books I would promote them to production companies and then I’d ring them and say, Look, I’ve set up this agency, and people are ringing me all the time and they want to book you; and you know, I’d really love you to come onto the books. Oh God, nobody knew; at one stage I had 12 people, but I made it sound as if there were about 35! And then Christine Macrill came and joined me, and she and I job-shared, which was great, because she had Pare – her stepson, who was the same age as Hamish. We took turn about in school holidays, and we did that for five years – and it worked. When I left we had 100 people on the books and we charged $30 a month. It was a good little business. We had an old answerphone that Mike Westgate gave me; so when Lyn and I went camping to Pakiri we’d never tell anyone we’d gone camping, because they might think, My professional life’s in your hands and you’ve left! So the answerphone would be on, and at Pakiri I’d have to go to the phone box and ring the answerphone and put in these complicated numbers and get our messages. But it was fun.

Phone: 09 302 4100 Fax: 09 302 4102

After I sold Filmcrews I spent some time at home, because Hamish was starting secondary school and I wanted to spend some time with him. Then I started freelancing again, back in production, since that had been my training. I’d done production at Australia’s Channel 10; before that I’d done sound at the BBC and sound at Auckland’s Radio 1ZB. I did production management – did some big jobs, and quite enjoyed it; but it was really involving work, quite hard with a kid at home.

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Lyn had started working for Matinee Films with Andy Roelants and Grant Marshall. (I think Andy was the first freelancer in Auckland wasn’t he?) Lyn then set up The Art Department Limited, and I started running the production side of it, organising that. It was an awful lot of work, because we subcontracted the whole art department; we would put all the bills we got through our company and then we’d just give one invoice to the production house. There were all these different jobs happening, there was so much work in those days. So that’s what I did for ages. We did a lot of work then, mostly commercials. Lyn did some features, but then it got hard living with and being married to someone who’s away on features all the time. Lyn: I think one year I was only home for about three weeks. I thought, Well, this isn’t working for me. If I’m going to be on my own, I might as well be completely on my own, instead of… So then Lyn just took commercials after that; he’d also had an experience with one feature which disillusioned him with features somewhat.

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with Liz Croft; so he was cutting the slices and bringing them in. The client would say, Oh, no, no, it’s a little bit rough around the edges, it’s not exactly looking precision-cut... (where the machine has put the fruit in a straight line, and then there’s a straight line of the cream and then a straight line of the base). I tried to say to him, Well, it looks a bit homemade otherwise, it looks better if it looks homemade. But he wanted the machine look, and he said, No, I don’t like it, bring another one! So these slices were coming out… Eventually I thought, we haven’t got that many cheesecakes, have we? I went out the back and said, Where are you getting all these cheesecakes from? And Lyn said, Nowhere, I’m just recycling them. I said, Okay, and I went up to the director and said, We’ve got a problem – we’ve been looking at the same bits over and over. We’ve actually run out – we need an Executive Decision. Okay, he said. So the next one came out and he said, No, no, that’s not good enough – another one! The next one came in and he said, Perfect, that’s the one, don’t you like that? Yes, that’s it, we’re doing that one; and the client said, Oh, yes, yes, that’s good. You used to smoke too, Lyn. I remember doing an ad with Lynton

NZT: So only commercials from that point on. Absolutely. Commercials are actually really good, though. I’ve always thought they were good; they are a fantastic training ground. When I was at Filmcrews some people would say, Oh, I don’t want to work on commercials, I only want to work on a film – but I knew, and had known for a long time, that in a year’s worth of commercials in those days, the 80s, you’d confront every filming situation that you’re ever going to find. It’s such a shame that those commercials aren’t there anymore to give art department people work. There are so many commercials now that don’t have an art department, I believe; they’re either very big and they do have a big art department, or they don’t have any at all. Well, that’s what happened for us, Lyn, didn’t it. NZT: But when that sort of work was drying up, you were also feeling it was time to move on and do something else? I think the work left us more than we left the work. I mean, if the work had continued… It was incredibly varied, and we actually had so much fun on the shoots. We were surrounded by really good crews as well, on every major job. Yeah, very professional, but they were comedians! And you knew it was all going to happen as intended – basically, it was all very smooth. Lyn and I met on a cheesecake ad – that was funny. We were shooting in Haddon Hall; it had tiered seating, and the director and rest of the crew were sitting around gossiping whilst we were doing the pack shot of these appalling cheesecakes that were machine made – just awful! Lyn was the art department, along

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Butler, and Lyn had to paint the grime into the bottom of a shower. Lyn used to always have a fag hanging out of his mouth; and you know how some people keep the ash on all the time? Lyn used to do that. Gradually the crew got quieter and quieter and Lynton didn’t want to say anything, but he was motioning towards this ash, which was going to drop off any minute on all this wet paint, but it never did!

Film Commission – I think Fritha’s stunning. It’s really miles ahead of what it was when I was President. I think we did a good job, but I wouldn’t have taken it where Dave took it, and I think he’s been very, very good for us.

Do you have any thoughts on what’s happened with the Guild since you stopped being President? Because things have evolved, it’s changed… Oh, I just think it’s stunning, fabulous. I think Dave Madigan did a great job. When he took over I said to him, Look, I’m there if you want to ask any questions, but he never ever did; and I thought, Oh – doesn’t he want to use this wonderful knowledge I have? But he went in and he just sorted it all out for himself and became aware of everything. Amazing!

And then we’re absolutely blessed to have AlBol there now, because he is such a gorgeous figure, and he’s such an authority. You have so much confidence in everything he says, because his integrity is so legendary.

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I think the Guild’s in very good heart. But I do think it somehow has to involve everyone, from all departments.

I did a shoot with AlBol once. He came up north with his equally legendary bare feet! Geoff Murphy was also in the habit of appearing with bare feet. Once financier David Richwhite came to a meeting because he was going to invest in a film; then Geoff (our expert advisor) arrived, barefoot of course, sat down and proceeded to put on his socks and shoes for the meeting. The socks didn’t match, of course, and David Richwhite could not seem to take his eyes off this spectacle! Like you, Lyn, Geoff always had a fag hanging out of his mouth too… ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ In the next issue we’ll focus on Lyn, both his art department career and his other life as a regularly exhibiting artist in paint.

NZ film industry reunion - May 2010 Meet up with old friends and the ones you always planned to catch up with. A planning group is arranging a reunion of those who were working in or associated with the film industry in its formative years up to the early ’80s. The reunion will be held in Auckland over the weekend of Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 May 2010. There will be plenty of time to chat, check out the memorabilia displays, pour over old photos, reminisce on the good times with a glass of wine and food, and listen to a couple of guest speakers. Interested? Then go to our website now to register your interest and become a ‘Friend of the Reunion 2010’. This will be a great help in arranging this event. The reunion planning group comprises: Malcolm Ferguson (ph: 09 445 8535), Chris McKenzie, Sally Meiklejohn, Graham Morris, Wendy Bailey (Hollyer), and Wayne Sellwood. For more info go to our website – www.nzfilmreunion.co.cc – or contact us via email at [email protected].

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Why Become a TECHOS’ GUILD Member?

Why become a TECHOS’ GUILD Member? Charge extra when shoots go into overtime? Get meal breaks? What about per diems when out of town? Every day all screen workers in NZ benefit from the work the Guild ( = the membership) has done in the past. The Guild is about collective action and power – alone we may not achieve much, but together we can do amazing things. It’s not rocket science, but it’s true! By joining the Guild you become a part of a community and have a say about issues which are most important to you.

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Lobbying Government on behalf of screen workers and the Screen Production Industry – Your “Voice” Liaising with other industry organisations to maintain industry standards and expand the industry. Immigration consultation on applications by overseas crew to work in NZ – representing the interests of New Zealand screen workers to maximise job opportunities for Kiwis.

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Provide NZ screen workers (pre-production, shooting & support, plus post) with a professional association representing their interests in the Screen Production Industry. Promote the interests, opportunities for employment, welfare and safety of NZ Techos’ Guild members Promote and maintain professional standards among all screen workers. Represent interests of members in dealing with Production Companies/Employers/Operators. Study, report on, and assist with complaints and problems within the Screen Production Industry.

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“I am Not a Number!” The actor, director and writer Patrick McGoohan passed away this time last year. Our editor wanted to write about him throughout 2009, but never found space... Patrick first came to worldwide attention as the star of a British TV series called Danger Man, which was an attempt by the Brits to make a TV version of James Bond. However, Patrick had certain values that he insisted on being adhered to by the programme makers, in particular in relation to the depiction of romance (and especially sex) on screen. He was not willing to do anything that he would not be happy for his children to watch, he told me years later. I remember Danger Man being in black and white and thoroughly enjoying it as a kid. This was followed by a series that really blew the world’s socks off! Called The Prisoner, Patrick conceived it himself, wrote most of it, directed quite a few episodes, produced, and played the lead throughout. “I am not a number - I am a free man!” resonated round the globe. This was in the days when adventurous, avant-garde programming was played by free-to-air networks in prime time - a phenomenon that is an utter impossibility now, it seems. It was a worldwide hit, and still has a huge cult following - go to the website and read about the annual conventions at Portmeirion in Wales where the series was filmed. After the series finished there were stories floating around that Patrick had had a nervous breakdown; that the strain of such an intense and all-consuming project, not to mention the subject matter (a gigantic mind-game, one could say), had proved too much for him. True or not, he disappeared from the scene for a rather long time. Jump forward to early 1983. I’ve applied for a job on a movie, only my second, and been given the task of chauffeuring the imported lead. The film was initially to be called Finding Katie, and was the attempt by producer Tom Finlayson to develop a feature in reaction to the canning of the television series Mortimer’s Patch by the network at its peak of popularity. It seems it’s a common phenomenon that when the Head of Drama in a network is replaced, for whatever reason, the new person brings in not only new personnel but also ditches all the projects belonging to their predecessor, no matter how successful. Certainly that used to happen in the BBC and it happens in New Zealand - or did happen in New Zealand when we had a drama department within TVNZ.

Co-stars McGoohan and Emma Piper So Maurice Gee was commissioned to write a script featuring the Mortimer’s Patch characters, and Patrick was contracted to play the lead character, a father whose wife has died in childbirth and who has brought up his only daughter to be a replacement “caregiver” (shall we say…). She’s been kept a prisoner in the house throughout her childhood and teens; she’s now 20 and breaking out. I had wondered what had become of Patrick through all those years between The Prisoner and this role in NZ. There was the occasional feature film, but certainly not much… Then I heard somewhere that Patrick had got heavily involved with alcohol, that he was in fact seriously alcoholic. So I went into the Associate Producer’s office one day and asked, What’s this about McGoohan and booze? Do you know if he’s dry now, or what? The producer could have knocked me over with a feather when he said: “Actually, we were hoping you might be our touchstone on this particular one.” Oh my God, I don’t need this, I thought - but I did need the money, and I did need the job - I was new in the industry and still trying to establish a presence. I waited in trepidation for Patrick to arrive in New Zealand. The producer met him at the airport; but I was asked to bring him that night to a meeting with the director. When I picked him up

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from his hotel, to my surprise he was dressed in eccentric makeup and costume, which he clearly thought befitted the character he was to play. Producer and director were equally taken aback, as I recall. My next memory of being with Patrick was when I had to escort him to the crew and cast get-together, the day before principal photography. In the mid-afternoon I picked him up, and drove him to this upstairs bar in Ponsonby Road. I remember Patrick leading me up the stairs and me following, thinking, What on earth’s going to happen here, alcohol, alcohol! We got to the top of the stairs. Patrick immediately headed straight for the bar; I had to follow him. He leant casually on the bar with one elbow, looked at me, and said: “What are you having?” I was torn - should I ask for something alcoholic or not? I don’t actually remember what I chose in the end, a scotch and dry most likely. Patrick turned to the barman and said, “(That) for him and an orange juice for me, please.” Oh, the relief! Sure enough, throughout the whole time that he was here, I never saw him touch a drop, nor show any inkling of such. The first day of the shoot – I’m not at all sure whether I should talk about this or not, but I’ll talk about it now and maybe edit it out later! On one of the first days of the shoot we were shooting a crowd scene out in a field with other main characters and a lot of extras. I remember we did quite a few shots: the scene was an argument between Patrick’s character and the guru of a community that his daughter has fled to and he’s trying to drag her away from; and the residents of the commune are gathering around trying to protect her. A heavy number to start a day with! At one point the director indicated we’d finished the scene. I remember Patrick turning round and saying, “Aren’t you going to do (a particular shot) and the director saying that No, we didn’t need it - and I saw Patrick’s face fall. He clearly disagreed. Unlike Bruce Willis – see the article on Tom Burstyn in issue 41! – this was definitely not about making more screen time for himself; quite the opposite; but looking at Patrick’s face, I could see that in that short moment he’d lost confidence in the director. Unfortunately it would never return. But to both Patrick’s and the director’s credit, their professionalism prevailed; and Patrick did his absolute best right through the shoot to make his character as convincing as possible, to be utterly truthful to the script and loyal to the project.

Patrick was one of these actors who gets obsessively inside each role. When I would pick him up in the morning he would already be in character. He would sit in the back of the car, and he would hardly say a word. He might be going over his lines either vocally or just silently, but there would be no communication, no conversation. I would deliver him to the location; he’d go straight to make-up/wardrobe, and then straight on to the set. It was almost like travelling with an alien in a way, but I got used to it quite quickly. If I was also driving Emma Piper (the young English actress playing his character’s daughter) the same applied to any communication between them. He spoke to Emma as if she was his actual daughter, as if they actually were the characters in the film. He was not interested in engaging in polite conversation - unlike Emma, who would have happily chatted away about anything. But come the end of the day, all changed. Patrick would step out of the make-up/wardrobe area, back in his own clothes, and immediately climb into the car. Then the character was thrown away; all of a sudden he was just Patrick, and we would talk non-stop on the way back to the hotel or wherever. He would tell me very funny stories of various episodes in his life; and jokes. He would always sit in the front of the car, on these journeys home, unlike in the mornings. One time he was laughing so hard over the events he was relating, he was bouncing in his seat and literally hitting his head on the roof of the car!

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I would go back to the set later and tell people how Patrick was such an engaging character, and so entertaining. But nobody would believe me! They never saw it. To them, as indeed to Emma, who complained that Patrick appeared to see women as only saints or whores (as his character did), Patrick was this dour, serious character who just came, did his job and went. As Number 6 would say in his enigmatic way: Be seeing you! “How should I address you?” “Pat, or Patrick - whatever you prefer.” But in my still youthful awe of The Prisoner, I guess, I never could quite manage ‘Pat’. ______________________ In December 2009 the remake of The Prisoner, featuring Jim Caviezel as No 6 and Sir Ian Mckellen as No 2, appeared on TV overseas…

The run-down chapel set, built on a promentory at Te Henga ( Bethell’s Beach)

The 5 disc DVD set of the original series is a bargain at NZ $50! www.sixofone.co.uk www.ThePrisonerAppreciationSociety.com www.portmeiricon.com - the site for the annual conventions held by the P.A.S.

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www.moonlightproductions.co.nz Emma Piper relaxes at Te Henga

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Figures…

Deceit? Surely Not!

“…Avatar is turning out to be the biggest film in the history of cinema, and the concept visual effects by Weta Digital will be even more renowned throughout the film-making world as a result.” (SPADA media release, 26 Jan 2010.)

Recently we heard from a member that on more than one recent drama production, the crew contracts stated that sixth day penalties would only be paid if the sixth day fell within the stated working week; meaning if they gave crew 2 days off then worked 10 days straight followed by 2 days off, there would be no penalties paid, as 5 days were in one week and 5 were in the following. Meaning that the number of consecutive working days is a non-issue - this was in the contracts.

In purely numerical dollar terms, yes, Avatar is the highestgrossing film of all time, as producers, distributors and other industry lobbyists keep telling us. But it undermines the credibility of all involved when it is revealed that if inflation over 71 years is taken into account, Avatar turns out to be merely 54th on the all-time money list! Not only that, but attendance numbers of 200 million for the top film, Gone With The Wind, still greatly exceed those who’ve seen Avatar - so far, anyway. Then, to play with figures a little more, along with monetary inflation there’s the three-fold increase in world population (and therefore potential audience) between 1939 and 2010 to take into account! By all means trumpet one’s success - but please don’t insult people with ignorant use of, or deliberate manipulation of, statistics!

From a contributor to the Guardian UK: “During the intermission of a cinema screening in New Delhi, a slide lit up the huge screen with a useful message: ‘If you find any unidentified object under your seat, please do not attempt to smoke it.’”

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While that is certainly contrary to the spirit of the Blue Book, it appears not to be prevented. But more disturbing is this: The member who first told us of this practice attempted on one job to modify the clause in the contract to bring it into line with what s/he believed to be both the Blue Book spirit and safe practice. S/he was told that no other crew person had objected to this clause and the modification was flatly rejected. HOWEVER: At least two other crew people also tried to get the same modification, they tell us, and were also given the same line No other crew objected to the clause, so No. Maybe with the first person, this statement was true. But… Now, one does expect (some) producers to play hardball in contract negotiations - but one also expects good faith, even integrity not what looks suspiciously like blatant and deliberate lying!

Sir Anthony Hopkins: “It’s nice to get a knighthood, but in the end it’s just the same old face in the mirror.”

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A Fez & A Camel “I first met Keith 20 years ago. He was wearing a red fez and manhandling a camel with a waterfall inside it…” Alex Prior, managing Director, Screen Hub (Australia)

Keith Barclay, Editor of Screen Hub New Zealand, has spent most of his working life in the art department for film, television and theatre, after training as a designer at Leeds University. He started in the UK, designing and building theatre sets and props for touring companies, with occasional work on TVCs. Discovering he could also write drama and organise other artists, he co-created twelve children’s shows in seven years for Interplay Theatre Company in Leeds, England – a company funded by the UK Arts Council to provide work for audiences normally ignored by the theatre. In total, he wound up with “more than twenty” children's shows to his credit. The shows were highly driven by innovative props, and very interactive – and very, very safe. The safety factor was frequently tested. The company's musical director at the time, Kim Baston, fondly recalls the sight of Keith wearing a large electronic tortoise shell “sort of splayed” under the weight of a

16-stone, intellectually disabled girl who'd decided to express her love of his character by sitting on it. The shell survived intact. Keith first came south to Australia in 1992, with “Ships of the Desert”, a touring show with four camels containing waterfalls! Only one classroom was flooded during the tour. He also first met a (much younger) Alex Prior, who was working for the Queensland Performing Arts Trust at the time. The pair stayed in contact as Alex moved to England and married the musical director; while Keith moved to New Zealand in 1994, having been tempted out of Leeds by the memory of places where the sun actually shone and the water temperature was above freezing. As a surfer, that suited him fine; but with far less work in theatre here than in the UK, he shifted to film and television. It took him “a good few months to get a good understanding of who the players were in the industry”. Soon, he was helping Upstage with the rebuild of the TVNZ newsroom. Since then, he has worked in the Art Department on a diverse range of productions in TVCs, film and drama, including Shortland Street. He worked for WETA on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, initially as a standby, and subsequently running the dressing system for the vast collection of actors, extras, stunt players and horse people. Keith describes his time on Lord of the Rings as “a wonderful opportunity to work on a large scale production with a lot of Kiwi and international crew and a cheap way to tour the country.” Since then, he’s been working as a designer for an Auckland based company The Wow Factory, involved in a broad range of work, including lots of TVCs. While Keith was designing and wrangling monkeys for NZ television on one side of the Tasman, Alex Prior (originally trained as a journalist) found himself increasingly working with producers on the other running conferences and large events for the industry. This experience eventually led to the creation of a small news site called Screen Hub, which set out with the idea of using the web to create a daily newspaper for the screen industry in Australia.

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The idea was that there were about 50,000 people working in Australian film and television – about the number that were in a good-sized regional city. And if a good-sized regional city could have a daily newspaper – then why couldn't the industry have one? The answer – as it turned out – was that it could; and by 2008 Screen Hub had established itself as the main publication for the Australian industry, with several hundred New Zealand subscribers as well. Being shy and retiring types, the New Zealand subscribers started complaining that there wasn't enough local coverage – and Alex remembered the man who could wrangle camels, armour dwarves and write a sentence. He hired Keith to cover the Documentary NZ Summit in 2007, and as a regular contributor, Keith began combining writing with freelance design work. Funnily enough, not only did the Kiwi subscribers like the local coverage – so did the Australians; so six months later Alex took the decision to start a dedicated New Zealand version of Screen Hub. “Increasing amounts of work are being done on both sides of the Tasman,” he said, “so there was a satisfaction element, but also the knowledge that people are working in both countries – not just in one.” “In other industries, having the news fast is a luxury, something you might be interested in knowing. But in film and television, having the news fast is about finding work – it's about knowing what's coming, and who's already on the production whom you might have worked with in the past. Fast daily news isn't a luxury, it's a necessity.” In August 2009, Keith became the Editor of Screen Hub New Zealand. When asked why, he laughed and said that after so much short-term work, “the idea of a regular wage intrigued me.” Besides, he no longer wanted to spend 14 hour days on set or in workshops. But he did grudgingly admit that he is excited by the opportunity. Which is a longer version of the reason Alex Prior gives for abandoning production in favour of a journalist's desk. “My knees hurt,” he said. Fortunately, industry knowledge doesn't wear out as fast as old blokes' bodies. Note the 3 month free trial! See the ad this page. Keith can be contacted at [email protected] Website: www.screenhub.co.nz

ScreenHub.co.nz

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Just email your name and Techo’s Guild membership number to [email protected] and we’ll see you right. The small print ... Offer expires 1 April 2010. One free membership per person.

Aro Video, of Wellington: “Because film should not only taste good, it should be good for you.”

Overheard during the post-speech schmoozing at the Documentary Edge Festival’s Mayoral Reception in Auckland, spoken by one of the international guests: “I’ve been here for days, and nobody’s offered me a joint yet.”

Melissa Etheridge, on winning an Oscar: “This is the only naked man that will ever be in my bedroom.”

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Office Report – Current Events A few issues on the table spring to mind – an interesting immigration puzzle that turned out really well for local crew, and then progress in the legal aftermath of that infamous failed production… But first: new year momentum. Happy New Year, everyone. It seems an age since 2010 began, and perhaps a ‘Gung Hey Fat Choy’ (Congratulations and be prosperous) for the Year of the Tiger1 is in order. As I write, it’s the ninth day of the Lunar New Year festival – a day when traditionally everyone is back at work after the festivities (seems appropriate) but the new year period has not yet ended. I am wary of jinxing myself, but I do feel a sort of courageous mood to Guild business so far this year. 1

The author admits, yes, she was born in a Tiger year...

Courage is a trait ascribed to the Year of Tiger 1, and one that (tempered with a little circumspection) can be of benefit when seeking positive change and momentum, something I am hoping for and working towards for the Guild. Watch this space. ******* A recent immigration case turned up a great result for local techos but just before the good news, a bit about the immigration process in general... Crew understanding and transparency of immigration issues are important, as widespread understanding contributes to better outcomes all round. So what makes an effective immigration assessment?

s

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The result of any assessment is based on consideration of all the facts regarding a production; so it follows that the decision is only as good as the details of the production made available to the EO. Getting these details requires open disclosure on the part of production companies, who, let’s face it, want to keep as much as possible under wraps in the early stages of production, citing “commercial sensitivity”. However crew might view such sensitivity, having the confidence of the production company is essential to the process, one that aims to put ‘Kiwis First’. The EO, guided by Guild process and immigration policy, is the caretaker of the process on behalf of crew. The EO must, in this interest, foster a good relationship with the production company. This means carrying out due diligence while keeping specifics confidential, even where more complex assessments mean talking over the situation with crew. Now and then crew, or others, guess at the players involved. The EO’s reply to such guesses, with the best interests of crew at heart, has to be ‘No comment’. At the time it may seem a little peculiar to those to whom the conclusion seems plainly obvious, usually simply because in a small industry word gets around. But it’s essential that in these matters we uphold confidence and thereby do our part to maintain good relationships. Ultimately this is an inherently collaborative industry, so sectors shouldn’t be pitched against another anyway, but that truth is perhaps not selfevident to everyone.

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sincerely hoping for a Happy Ever After on a local story made by a talented team of local crew. That’s what we’re all about! ********* Mark of the Lion legal prospects are looking good - as good, in fact, as you might hope for in any case where a production (and associated entity2) has failed, leaving unpaid creditors including crew. I realise it’s difficult for some to still be thinking about this so long ‘after the fact’; but, to some extent, delay is the nature of such affairs and the pursuit of justice takes time. If it were me, personally, I would at least enter into discussions with the legal experts involved, and seriously assess the prospect of recovery for myself. There is no inherent risk in engaging in talks about legal action, unless you are dealing with legal representation charging by the minute. No one is going to force members to pay out for legal action against their will. To some extent a goodwill payment the Guild has agreed to make to the lawyer advising us, and to a greater extent that particular lawyer’s good will toward the Guild, provide members with some room for negotiation before the meter starts ticking on this one. In addition, some major creditors are going to take action regardless; so it’s a matter of numbers pursuing the matter, not whether action will or won’t be taken (action in the general sense, that is, though some form of formal action is likely).

******* So, on to the good news... A recent case gives cause for rejoicing as the final outcome is to the benefit of local crew: Local job, local shoot – but a mooted international HoD. Due credit to the production, they lodged an immigration application for the HoD and provided some relevant details. When an application is lodged, usually time is not on anyone’s side. This case was more urgent than most; the HoD was required urgently for pre-production, and the start date was imminent. Needless to say, more than a few questions were being asked, the situation being far from straightforward; and no Letter of Non-Objection (L.O.N.O.) was on the horizon. Days passed. The assessment was still sitting on the desk when the international HoD unexpectedly pulled out! Well, that solved that particular dilemma. Next step: cross fingers, and hope... Then, Lo! Word reached the office that one of our finest local crew (and Guild member) had landed the job. There was no one there to see it, but I was smiling from ear to ear. This person’s skills are exemplary and they will do a fantastic job. It’ll always be arguable whether the Guild had a hand in this particular outcome… However, regardless - this EO experienced a rare moment of pure professional elation at this good news, and is

The next time something like this happens, it may seem less sensible to have walked away without a fight, thus ensuring that the unscrupulous dealers involved experience no challenge to their behaviour, and therefore have no deterrent to doing it again. Personally, I would want to mark the territory and set my stall for the future: No cowboy companies in my industry, thanks. Fritha Stalker, Executive Officer

Entity or Vehicle - company set up for a specific purpose, such as to produce a film. 2

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Notes from A broad… My partner & I were having a yarn the other day, & after I rambled on about film crews, he said, “Why don’t you write this down for the Techos’ mag?” Naturally I said, “Nah.” But I did anyway; so use it, if you think it’s suitable. Ed read it & thought, I do. So he did. Here it is. It’s a complete miracle that any film is ever made, given the random improbability factors that rule the world. Apart from a good script and adequate funding of course, a significant factor contributing to the birth of a film is the quality of its crew. From my observation, professional film workers are often artists in their own right, lateral thinkers with technical know-how and tiptop tools. They’re not afraid of hard work; they roll up their sleeves and get stuck in. They pay attention to detail and look after one another. An efficient film crew is like a casual self-sufficient army, where no one salutes but actors get shot. It’s a well-oiled machine, with a distinct chain of command as strong as its weakest link. I’ve often thought how handy film crews could be in a civil crisis – they’ve got the generators and lights, the catering truck, the A.D.s and R.T.s, the first aid training, the stand-by wardrobe warmies. Stand-by props produce tools from their truck as magicians unveil tricks from a hat. This theory goes to pot of course when the emergency begins in the props truck. This very thing occurred on Bread and Roses, when ammunition left over from a previous shoot “spontaneously combusted.” There was an explosion and fire, shock and shrapnel. Some crew were mildly lacerated, but the worst tragedy was the incineration of our continuity knitting. Film-making seems essentially a co-operative occupation where, ideally, everybody is polishing the same jewel and barking up the same tree. Paradoxically, it takes a lot of practical work to create a fantasy. Let me tell you a story to illustrate. In the summer of 2001, wardrobe stand-by Chris Pickard and I pulled up outside the abandoned Westland Ilmenite Mine on the Coast Road, a few kilometres south of Punakaiki. (“What’s ilmenite?” I hear you say. According to Wikipedia, ilmenite is a weakly magnetic titanium iron-oxide mineral used in the production of paint, paper and plastics. However, Coast Road hippies will tell you it’s used in the manufacture of toothpaste and nuclear war-heads.)

A colony of Westland Black Petrels nestled up the valley behind the mine buildings among dense rata and nikau. These petrels are unique in the world, and so was our find; a warehousesized building available to be transformed into our Costume/ Props Department. A perfect location to make the costumes for Perfect Strangers but our glee was premature. The gate was padlocked. We couldn’t get in.

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Chris and I contemplated the giant rusted padlock, and then the curve of the Paparoa Range morphing into the Southern Alps way down the coastline. We listened to the Tasman Sea booming on the long empty beach, the weka screaming with boredom. This moment was like the Soundman’s wild track at the end of the shooting day – when everyone is still, silent and listening, like a group meditation. Our involuntary meditation paid off: Chris flourished a bolt cutter out of the exquisitely packed boot of his immaculately groomed car and we were in. I guess this story is evolving into a tribute to Chris Pickard and his many skills. To me, Chris typifies the attributes desirable in a film worker: skill in his craft, industriousness, good communication skills, unfailing good humour under duress and a state of the art tool kit. And while I’m at it, the legendary A.K. Goss needs a mention here. He helped Chris and me scrub out the ilmenite mine and set up cutting tables and machines. A.K. had come south to visit his mates Louise Baker and Susan Ord, who were working in production. By the end of the shoot he’d become an essential part of the crew, because of his engineering skills and endearing personality. Sadly, A.K. Goss died of cancer in October 2009. Ah, well. I conclude with a thought about life, and that a film job is rather like giving birth. The impetus of the labour induces intense pain for a short time. In the middle of it all, you think, “Remind me never to do this again!” Then you look at the result, and the memory of pain is eclipsed by the prospect of the next one. Anon (by request.) P.S. Incidentally, I’ve often wondered if Harry Slowey and Ian Turtill are fast friends ?

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Dodgy DoP ??? Hard on the heels of the story on page 22 came news of concerns amongst many crew about a certain DoP from overseas who apparently has a complete disregard for the safety of his team. One report described The Person in Question as a tyrant with no regard to the safety or instructions of the local crew. Strong stuff! Since we’re advised not to name names at this point for obvious legal reasons, we advise you all to keep your ears open for further news of this DoP; and perhaps you might consider avoiding working with him in future? If no-one here will work with him, he might never return. Mind you, we do feel sorry for crew in his country of origin.

A. K. Goss

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Deaths on Reality TV Not that long ago, a contestant on a Pakistani reality TV show drowned while performing a challenge for the programme in the Thai capital of Bangkok, where the show was being filmed by a crew from Mumbai. This challenge involved swimming across a lake while wearing a seven-kilogram backpack. Apparently the guy called out for help, and then disappeared under the water; and although horrified co-contestants and crew rushed to try to save him, they could not find him in the dirty waters of the lake. Obviously the safety issue here is huge. Rumours that the production company as well as the originating sponsors were not tasked with signing the required safety documents abound; bloggers have also asked that if the stunt was so dangerous why were the life jackets made optional - especially with those seven-kilogram weights in backpacks, which themselves would have got heavier in the water. There’s also stuff on the net about leading blogs being blocked by various ISPs in Pakistan, and media in other countries being stifled from reporting the event. Now, it’s unsubstantiated at this point, but I found one article on the web claiming that there have been 11 deaths involving reality TV shows filming around the world to date. And of course there is relevance to New Zealand, in that film companies from other countries come here regularly to shoot reality (and other) stuff, in the same way that this Indian company was filming in Thailand for a Pakistani TV show. It’s not just on our own shows that safety is something for us locals to worry about - we also really need to keep an eye on people coming into our country. The various guilds in New Zealand are aware of this, but we hope that all industry people will do their bit to make sure that companies coming into the country do in fact observe our safety protocols. (Thanks to Murray Milne for bringing this story to our attention. Ed.) ********

And locally... Of course, it’s not just in South-East Asia that accidents happen on film sets. It was disturbing to find out that in the Heraldon-Sunday tabloid in February there was an article about a journalist, Alice Neville, having a go at being an extra on a German TVC shoot in Auckland - and where a camera that was supposed to swoop down and stop just above the heads of some

performers missed its mark and banged the lead actor on the head. To quote: “There are gasps and cries of ‘She’s bleeding!’ And that she is, profusely… Blood is pouring down her face. Someone calls ‘That’s lunch!’ and we’re ushered away urgently.” The sub-heading at the beginning of the article reads: ‘’…the heroine was gashed in the head by a wildly swinging camera’’ !!! Such sensationalistic reporting doesn’t make a great look for our industry, does it. Accidents always have happened, and always will happen - but as we all know, many need not. So, in the words of that wonderful American TV cop show: ‘’Hey - Let’s be careful out there!’’

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