Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit
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Techies mortages are for decades.
It's not so long ago that a freelance anybody could not possibly support a mortgage. (I'm talking about the entertainment business.) Apart from a dozen or so local (and staying-local) actors who have had the good fortune and talent to get parts in long-running TV dramas or a succession of good roles in films, actors in this business have had to have many strings to their bows in order to live in an even modest way - writing a bit, producing a bit, waiting at tables..... While I appreciate that some techies might have bitten off a little too much in the way of debt (when the going was good) and therefore would panic if the work dried up, it's what a great many actors have always faced. Some exceedingly good ones too. I simply can't get too upset about techs and their fears re Jackson's movies. The movies could have gone at any time, regardless of boycott. That's the business.
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They built an unbelievable industry in Wellington. Some of them had the misfortune to buy a house and have families.There is enough work going out of this project to be a lifeline to many n.z households.
Wellington needs industry so Auckland can become the capital.
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The movies could have gone at any time, regardless of boycott.
But they didn't go at any time, they were going to be made here and PJ played a major role in having them made here.
When the boycott occured other countries put in better deals and naturally Warners took the opportunity to get a better deal out of us.
Up til the boycott Warners were filming the Hobbit in NZ, work had already started on sets etc.
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I guess that particular argument re Warners/Jackson/overseas will go on for a long time. Jury's still out for me on that, and perhaps will never return.
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What Jacqui Dunn said. There are many people in NZ that cannot afford a mortgage and still work very hard in their chosen line of work, so the need to pay your mortgage Jeremy is pretty redundant in this grand scheme of argument. Not wishing to single out you but you said it.
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While I appreciate that some techies might have bitten off a little too much in the way of debt (when the going was good) and therefore would panic if the work dried up, it's what a great many actors have always faced.
perhaps that's why PJ had already negotiated with the studios to get a better deal for NZ actors.
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or pay their rent, or pay their way for the next four years. Dudes, i've met in the industry work crazy hours and miss birthdays,christmases, and usually their partners for long periods.
2010.We have a chronic job shortage , more jobs man.
The labour side of it , i'm big on law changes to protect workers because the minimum wage is just a bollocks to live on, it is so easily consumed. Tax the rich, get more money out to the average consumer. They make markets hum with their spare dollars.
Bring on a new dialogue for Labour Relations and bring on jobs.
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"There's floors in a lot of great art"
Sistine Chapel?
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I don't disagree about that at all, Jeremy, but we were talking about Hobbitses and stuff. So, talking about that business.
I have met three crew people who worked for Jackson (in that I had a conversation with them about that - I've probably met/worked with a great many more and not talked about it). They worked the crazy hours with all the attendant missing-the-rest-of-life occasions which their loved ones outside the industry couldn't understand, and of the three, none would never work for Jackson ever again.
Film-making, unless you're a total fanatic or rich enough to have two/three years off between projects, is a young person's business. It's exciting, but it is all-consuming if it's an everyday thing.
Families happen. (I noticed you said "had the misfortune to have families" in a previous post. Were you being ironic?) Situations change. And sure, we're in a sticky situation globally. It's not the first time, and probably won't be the last.
I guess my disquiet about this whole mess is the horrid effect fear had on everyone. Finger-pointing, accusations, and a seeming willingness to believe the worst of others - it gathered momentum and became a national panic. Sides were taken, volleys sent off. I loathed that. At this point, I wish for calm and sober thoughts on this subject, and I know, on this blog at least (can't say I've managed more than the occasional dip into others) there are some thoughtful and measured responses, so feel pretty optimistic about the future.
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Finger-pointing, accusations, and a seeming willingness to believe the worst of others
Bad faith has a corrosive effect.
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also the economic effects of having Wellington spending is good for Wellingtonians....more food eaten, more clothes bought, more jobs for the folks selling food and clothes.
I was in wellington last week and it is a bloody cool city, it has cool speciality shops that would die in Auckland and has a pop art feel than I can only liken to some quick rambles around portland, oregon .
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Thanks, Sacha. Never saw that film. I'm guessing it wasn't supposed to be funny, but I laughed! (Pleb!??)
Jeremy - yes, Wellington is cool. Well, cold actually:))
Like a great many Aucklanders, I once lived in Wellington. One of the really nice things about it, is that one can walk from one side of it, to the other. I used to do it all the time, when I was an impecunious actor.
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Matt McCarten is trying to spin the saga as more Jackson-hate:
Our man morphed into a slimmed-down, suited-up media mogul with a metal fist that he was unafraid to use to squash those who annoyed him.
(I can't say I saw Jackson in a suit at any stage but I might have missed it)
His spin is moving at high velocity:
But here's some good news. NZ screen producers have agreed to meet Equity to negotiate standard terms and conditions for actors.
In the meantime, they will use the internationally union-approved Pink Book as the minimum basis for performers' contracts.
This is a huge victory for Equity.
As long as the union movement is in this sort of denial, there is no victory.
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Mm, I was a bit surprised at the invective. Disappointed, actually - I think he missed the mark. Both he and Deborah (spelling? sorry Jeremy, I'm another old-fashioned person who thinks spelling and grammar are important) Coddington sounded off, each one adding (sigh) nothing but heat....
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Some of his other ones that follow a bunch of youth in a space ship seeking revenge seem too... non-standard to make a popular movie.
Ooh, nerdgasm time. The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars , respectively. Actually, I think that they could be pitched to a studio successfully, considering some projects that have gone ahead and made money. It would need a good director with a good rep... Not sure if it's X'fer Nolan's thing...
Ian D, thanks... I'd heard of that... and that it was awful.. or at least that Moorcock hated it... but then, he's like Alan Moore regarding film adaptations... come to think of it, has anyone seen the two of them in the same room together?
I think Craig may have mentioned The Silmarillion ... Alas, IIRC the Tolkein family own the rights and have been very hostile towards film adaptations in general. Probably not a goer.
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Our man morphed into a slimmed-down, suited-up media mogul with a metal fist that he was unafraid to use to squash those who annoyed him.
It's, um, "interesting" how we (a very loose "we") need clearly designated heroes and villains and operatic hyperbole. I'm surprised that I haven't seen any caricatures of PJ in a top hat and monocle. He's a clear and present target, but hardly the all-knowing, all-controlling Dark Lord. He's beholden to the studio when it comes to funding, and they're beholden to their shareholders and backers. He knows that, they know that, but the People's Front of Judea doesn't. The paleoleft - and I'd not normally put Matt McCarten in that category - simply can't seem to get out of the epistemological rut of a simplistic bosses/workers dichotomy.
I don't think that any substantial progress is going to be made until progressives grasp the realities of globalisation - and "the working class has no borders" does not express an understanding of globalisation (not that I have any answers...).
Maybe I'm a scratched record here, but the rhetoric has been disturbing not only because of it's vitriol, but because of the naivete of its implied narrative. I've been reminded, peeking through my fingers at the PFJ blog (sorry, T' Standard) of George W. Bush's black and white view of the world, saying "You're with us or against us", handing out roles for people to play and then interpreting everything that happens afterwards on the terms of that initial allocation.
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Hmm. Looked up Baker St/Gerry Rafferty because I've always liked it (Danielle too? From new thread) and found this, Sacha. From Reservoir Dogs.
Will link work? Crossie fingers!
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but the rhetoric has been disturbing not only because of it's vitriol, but because of the naivete of its implied narrative.
Quite.
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Matt McCarten is trying to spin the saga
More bloody unions-always-right tunnel vision. From someone who I've always thought provided a successful example of how to run a modern union, and craft spin-resistant communications.
All too easy to imagine the government and media describing this inflamed writing as stereotypical 'envy': "Sir Richard Taylor marched a mob of Orcs to pitchfork union attendees trying to attend a meeting. All good humour and gloating at the Jackson mansion that night I'm sure."
As long as the union movement is in this sort of denial, there is no victory
Sadly true.
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Snap, Kracklite
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Remembered where I saw the Tarantino reference now - Patrick Gower's blog.
Once industrial relations get to the point of a threatened boycott, you can't just sit down and have a chat. Every word, every action matters.
In Jackson's words, the unions had a gun to his head.
And in a scene more reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino than Peter Jackson, Warner Bros turned up with an even bigger gun and put it to New Zealand's head.
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And in a scene more reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino than Peter Jackson, Warner Bros turned up with an even bigger gun and put it to New Zealand's head.
Seems more Crocodile Dundee to me. You call that a gun? This is a gun.
__"There's floors in a lot of great art"__
Sistine Chapel?
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Rather a good discussion on Mediawatch (mp3).
BTW, I've been critical of the paleoleft rather than rightist representation of the situation simply because that's what I've been reading. I do not listen to talkback radio or watch broadcast TV - I live in a damp gully in Aro Valley and get terrible reception for most channels... much to my relief when I hear about what does get broadcast - and God/Cthulhu/Omega Point forbid that I read Kiwibog)
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@ Gio
Very funny!
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@ Gio
Ah, The Far Side...
It's said that the surest guide to the morale of any office is whether the cubical-dwellers post Far Side ( =good) or Dilbert ( =bad) cartoons. Now that Gary Larson's retired, would it be XKCD?
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