Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to [email protected],
I think there’s a timeline issue. At first the central issue was the boycott. Clearly the movie could not of been made here with the boycott in place. Once that was resolved then the studios focused on the contractor issue. Given the unions were all of the place it’s not surprising they were concerned about future difficulties.
I agree with that. But there has also been deception.
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Hear hear!
Although I feel I must assert my rights as the original author of the phrase "the lovely Ian Dalziel".
Add a little hair and subtract a little girth, and Ian's the same caring, clever human I worked with 26 years ago at Rip It Up.
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Fair enough, although I do think the people who told me that believed it to be true, and that the prospect of industrial instability was raised in the first instance by the extraordinary manner in which the global boycott was instigated. Jackson didn’t invent the boycott, but I think the evidence is that he was subsequently party to a manipulation of perceptions, as you say.
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Hmmm.
I suspected at the time, and said so, that Warners had manipulated the timing of the announcement of the lifting of the “don’t work” order to the disadvantage of the actors and their unions: and thus played hardball with the union that had sought to play hardball with them.
That would seem to be the case, or worse. It was hard to tell from Brent Edwards’ paraphrasing of the material lat night, but Derek Cheng has the actual quote from Jackson’s email to Gerry Brownlee:
"There is no connection between the blacklist (and it’s eventual retraction) and the choice of production base for The Hobbit,” he wrote.
“What Warners requires for The Hobbit is the certainty of a stable employment environment and the ability to conduct its business in such as way that it feels its $500 million investment is as secure as possible."
It seems clear enough in context that they – Warners and Wingnut – had known for several days that the order was to be lifted and chose not to acknowledge it. It does not mean, as Trevor Mallard claimed, preposterously, on Morning Report today that “there was never a boycott”.
There was. It was there in writing for the world to see, and it halted pre-production and casting. And the MEAA engaged in its own bad faith conduct by setting the “don’t work” order in motion before even requesting talks. The local actors’ declaration that a collective agreement wasn’t being sought when the text of order said that it was (more specifically, it called for a halt until such time as as MEAA agreement was in place), was symbolic of the chaotic nature of the action. As Lew Stoddart observed online last night, they turned up to a knife fight with a spoon.
The government did not, as Edwards implied last night, fail to mention the Bryson case and what Warners saw as uncertainty in the law around contracting. Those issues were the lead in the TV3 report the day after Jackson made his Close Up appearance. And Jackson himself said on Close Up that “Unfortunately, lifting the blacklist doesn’t have anything to do with it."
When NZ Actors Equity members did vote, their resolution never dealt with the actual text of the global “don’t work” order. When they declared “all we wanted was a meeting with Peter”, they hadn’t actually asked for one. The MEAA, by Whipp’s own account, was targeting The Hobbit as part of a wider strategy. You can’t simply magic all that away.
Had MEAA never sought to target The Hobbit in this way, what would have happened? Would, at some point, Warners have still made its case for greater certainty in the law around contracting – or simply pressed on? We can’t know. But no one made Simon Whipp authorise the boycott, least of all Warners. He, MEAA and SAG chose to play hardball in the name of the New Zealand actors.
I think we’re left with a situation where the production did know that week that the boycott was to be lifted – after the union essentially caved on all its demands – and deliberately delayed an announcement so as to exploit the situation.
It was deceitful and cynical – and the techies who marched should be asking questions about what they were told with respect to the boycott.
Oddly, the documents released under OIA actually seem to undermine the common contention (by Mallard and others) that industrial relations were irrelevant to the choice of local and that it was all about the value of the dollar and production incentives. Rightly or wrongly, Warners really were concerned about industrial stability above mere baseline cost.
I remain, as I said in the original post above these comments, queasy about New Zealand’s law being changed in such circumstances. But as someone pointed out to me last week, a great many people in the industry were delighted to have the perfect proof to IRD that they really were contractors, not employees, and should enjoy the tax advantages of the former. It was a fitting irony.
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All our discussion threads are belong to Wikileaks ...
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That's wonderful work by Danyl.
The first cable I dipped into, a Swindells job, reports on Clark's 2005 State of the Nation speech and the forthcoming election campaign.
Even by the bullshitty standard of so many of these cables, Swindells really was an ass.
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Whilst not a Defence official, we know that Mary Ann Thompson was considered invaluable.
Far out.
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Just a thought ...
I'm guessing that the broker for all the Wellington cables is Nicky Hager. He certainly was for the first round with the SST, and I understand he has all 250k of the documents. I think it puts us in a fortunate position for journalists to be dealing with someone of his discipline and experience.
It's interesting how much more substantial the second round of stories have been -- and it doesn't say much for the editorial judgement of the Star Times.
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Christiaan,
So who are these “senior Defence officials” that have been spying for the U.S.?
Well, quite. A lot of the rest of that story is more of the basic bullshitting we've seen in other Wellington cables, but that absolutely warrants further investigations.
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Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Seriatim,
RB, instead of being petty about the kind of sandals they wear
It is hardly being petty to take an interest in relations between Assange and the newspaper that has done more than any other to bring the Wikileaks revelations to the world. Nick Davies walking away from the story because he refuses to work with Assange any more is a pretty big thing.
I genuinely think the cult of personality around Assange will eventually be seen as damaging to the professed goals of Wikileaks.