Apparently the Hobbit is going to be shot at 48 frames per second, which is twice the normal frame rate, which will make the film more “lifelike”.
I’m glad the Hobbit is being made in New Zealand. But given the events of last year, I doubt I will ever be able to bring myself to see the film, because the consequences of the selling out of workers in the film and video production industry are not “lifelike” – they’re real.
Today, CTU President Helen Kelly, who was pilloried for her involvement in the saga has released her story of how events unfolded.
As she says :
Fundamentally, this was simply a situation where a group of workers sought to have a say on the setting of their terms and conditions. This was not just in relation to the Hobbit – but to all screen productions made in New Zealand. This desire is independent of all the legal questions about employment status, status of the union and all other considerations – that is simply what it was, regardless of all the barriers that were subsequently put in their way.
There was no need to remove worker rights in the way the government did. The dispute had already been settled. The boycott had been lifted. Everyone knew, including the government, SPADA and Warner Bros.
As Helen says :
It is clear that had it been known to the public that Warners and the Government already knew the industrial dispute had been settled and the “boycott” lifted, Warners’ trip to New Zealand would have been hard to justify and the subsequent promise of additional tax payer money and urgent law change would have been untenable.
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that New Zealanders were done like a dinner on the Hobbit drama. And the government’s strategy for attracting investment of Kiwi workers working harder for cheaper wages adds to the picture.
Read it.
I agree with you Darien entirely. Red Alert’s servers should be prepared however if Gosman reads this …
With Tolkien like ability he will attempt to rewrite history into a fantasy.
Wow, those first three sentences are the clumsiest segue ever.
@SHG – read Helen Kelly’s comments. Please
Helen has unjustly taken a lot of heat over this. Good to see her ensuring the truth is being told. Thanks for the link Darien this was a fascinating read.
@Tigger : I hope others read it as well, but the signs aren’t great. I, for one, won’t forget this.
I wouldn’t read this any more than you would read Roger Kerr’s account of what happened.
Gooner – Helen Kelly was directly involved, how was Roger Kerr involved? If he wasn’t involved, why would his account be worthy of consideration by anyone?
This how to deal with a union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8MVFoiw-dw&feature=player_embedded
@ Armchair Critic – someone called O’Connor has recently said something about self-serving unionists.
Reading and believing Kelly as an objective analysis is like asking the Mad Butcher to critique the Warriors.
Did AE ask the producers of The Hobbit to consent to an illegal wage agreement? Yep. Retards.
Did AE demand to be negotiated with while not even being a legally registered entity? Yep. Retards.
Did AE ask Peter Jackson to make commitments that would bind every other NZ producer, a demand there was no way he would ever accept? Yep. Retards.
Did AE call a global boycott of the film before even establishing their terms? Yep. Retards.
I have never seen such a PR disaster in the area of industrial relations. AE and the CTU handed this to Warner Bros on a plate.
Best summary at the time of the cockup:
ANATOMY OF A SHAMBLES
http://publicaddress.net/anatomy-of-a-shambles/
Gooner, I read all over a topic that interests me or that I have commented on. I follow links posted and try to get an understanidng of the issue.
It beggars belief how many here who freely cast opinion after opinion on this issue refuse to read one side of the story from the horses mouth.
It makes very interesting reading and is quite revealling.
For those who are not far one way or another of centre, it’s worth reading for a number of reasons including get a handle ont eh MO of this Government and its lobbyists, which remains the same since it was first revealled through the Brethren complicity and cover up..
I’m with Darien, the Hobbit DVD will never pollute my media shelf. Unionists and anyone else that offered support to the actors were quite entitled to make suggestions on suitable tactics, as the NZCTU did.
Those on the other hand who watched from the sidelines or worse, particpated in anti union ‘Hobbit’ rallies on Labour day can a) butt out or b) hang their heads in shame. Well done Helen Kelly.
Actually SHG the best summary of the debacle to date is Helen Kelly’s.
Darien, the BSA is reported as saying that in his TVNZ Q&A interview Holmes was ‘openly biased’ and ‘unnecessarily aggressive’ and ‘displayed active contempt’ against Kelly and the union position. However, this behaviour was okay, according to the BSA, because Holmes was ‘expressing his personal opinion’ and exercising his ‘freedom of expression’. What? I thought it was an “interview” on public television? However, this is an interesting insight into the modus operandi of TVNZ News and Current Affairs, and goes some way to explain why Helen Kelly was lynched by the media, and then in turn by the public.
Sad that you are going to probably not watch it. Petty.
Despite the situation around workers rights, by not going you are not supporting those who are trying to make a go of it in life by working on the film.
Dont let politics get in the way of going to watch a film that has many great and upcoming actors from NZ involved in it.
principle not politics fureongo.
Another household here who won’t be watching it.
We have no connection with unions or the film industry, but we are still seething at a government who would sell out our workers to foreign interests, then lie about it to voters.
fureongo, any idea if Paul Holmes got that part he was after? In the movie, I mean. Not the media training part. We know about that already.
@True Wheel – “Unionists and anyone else that offered support to the actors were quite entitled to make suggestions on suitable tactics”. Quite right, as is the right of the business or entity taking the financial risk. They have the right to leave, conduct business and film somewhere else, don’t they? ‘Rights’ go both ways do they not, or are a person rights proportional to their personal circumstances, or indeed how they vote?
@Dave – Hi
Fisher & Paykel exercised their right to leave so that they could pay peanuts to peasants!
@ Spud: Exactly, no fun for the NZ F&P workers out of a job, plus F&P have had quite a recall problem in the US it seems with product from the new peasant staffed factory.
@ Dave: Don’t play semantics with me laddie. There is a clear power imbalance between the parties involved in the film industry.
The one thing Helen’s definitive account of events does is show up Peter Jackson for being the spoilt brat/prat he is…the most over-rated director in the industry and a Warner Bros toady.
May fat hobbit (Gerry Brownlee fits the bill) fall on his head.
Dave, so your position is now that it was ok for the government ot change laws and offer rebates because business used its power in the way it knows how, as opposed to a few months ago when you thought it was ok, because the unions were being unreasonable and causing a boycott which jeopardised the film being here (which they didnt)