Posts by Neil Morrison
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I'm not aware of anyone saying that actors have to be union members to work in a movie.
That's how the US system works and the model that Simon Whipp is pushing. But even if its not the case its worth appreciating how things work in Hollywood and why that might not transfer very well to a much smaller film economy.
I'm still trying to figure out if the studios did lie and if so what they hoped to gain. I think it revolves again over differences between how things operate there as to how we would do things. But I might be wrong.
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Recently, The International Federation of Actors (FIA) became aware that the production of “The Hobbit” intends to hire performers under non-union contracts.
closed shop is the expression. It's not about what actual conditions have been negotiated it's all about whether or not it was done through the union.
For people not familar with the US situation, there are union movies and non-union movies. In order to get onto a union movie you have to have a union card, to get a union card you have to have worked on a moive. What movies can you work on to get the card - non-union movies.
To require that all movies in NZ be union movies would kill any opportunity for people to learn the craft. Which is exactly what the Australians and Americans want.
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no he's a liar. He never want to talk. A boycott is not talk.
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Whipp is liar. he never wanted to talk, he wanted to hold the Hobbit production to ransom.
Talking, gerenally speaking, does not equate to boycott. Except there never was a boycott or the boycott that never existed was lifted or... what ever biss they come up with.
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The contracts now being offered by the producers of The Hobbit include conditions such as residual payments for performers. This is a great result considering how reluctant the producers were to improve performers’ terms and conditions.
That is just fucking unbelievable. They're claiming credit for something Peter Jackson negotiated on the behalf of actors on his own initiative well before the union bullshit.
I think it's wrong in itself to call black white but I bet it's not a good strategy either.
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Is Mallard fronting this for Labour some sort of signal to Warners that NZ has people like Whipp too so don't mess with us?
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I don't see how Labour continuing to run with the conspiracy theory of it all being a set-up by Warners is going to help.
Given the close ties between Labour and the CTU it might be better just to shut up. Having them both take such a destructive appraoch might not look all the great to the studios.
or maybe it's a cunning plan ot make Key look so reasonble and trustworthy the studios will accept a deal with him.
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...and a foreign producer overestimating the threat of that.
It was the SAG boycott that was the main threat and I don't think the studios were overestimating that threat. It's serious business in LA. Something our unions did not appreciate and still do not appreciate.
Some people seem to think that anyone with $500m to play around with can't be that easily spooked but its $500m placed at risk in a risky business. Sure with PJ the chances of sucess are good but there've have been flops that were supposed to suceed before that lost people a lot of money.
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The AE strategy was written on two sides of a piece of paper.
On one side was "But there is no boycott!" and on the other "But the boycott was lifted!".
But I see Whipp is still maintaining that all they wanted was to "talk" - to talk to Jackson about the Hobbit.
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...it's all just speculation.
perhaps on blog threads but in the conflct itself these haven't been speculations, they've been accusations made against PJ on the basis of zero evidence. It's no way to run industrial relations.