#The Big Screen Awards

[brian-in-finance]

Video 📹

Disney, Altitude, Mubi win top prizes at The Big Screen Awards 2022

The Walt Disney Company, Altitude, Paramount Pictures and Mubi were among the winners at The Big Screen Awards, which recognises excellence in UK marketing, distribution, publicity and exhibition.

The Big Screen Awards were rebranded from the Screen Awards, last held in 2019, and were unveiled tonight (November 24) at a ceremony in The Brewery, London, with comedian Phil Wang on hosting duties.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK & Ireland won a special distributor of the decade award, recognising 10 years of achievement. The company has released 145 titles in theatres since 2013 totalling £2.21bn at the UK and Ireland box office, making it the decade’s top distributor with a 20.5% share. The award was collected by Lee Jury, senior vice president of studio content marketing and co-head of Walt Disney Studios UK/EMEA.

The distributor of year – independent award went to Altitude, which was praised for its support of cinemas coming out of the pandemic, including the release of Minari into cinemas when venues reopened last year. “[They] gave cinema audiences something to come back for at a time when new product was badly needed,” said one judge.

Paramount Pictures UK picked up the new blockbuster of the year award for Top Gun: Maverick. The award shines a spotlight on the studio campaigns that galvanised audiences to return to cinemas. Top Gun grossed a huge $102m at the UK box office after star Tom Cruise held out for its cinema release during Covid.

Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, released in the UK by Universal, won the best British film award, voted for in an online poll by readers from a shortlist selected by Screen International’s senior editors. Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill appeared by video link to accept the award.

PHD UK & Warner Bros won theatrical campaign of the year (200 sites and over) for The Batman, with judges praising the villain-centric approach taken as ”ballsy”, “striking” and “brave”.

Mubi won theatrical campaign of the year for a title released into 199 sites or under as well as the international feature film campaign of the year awards for The Worst Person In The World. The film passed £1m at the UK and Ireland box office, in part due to a “cheesy but brilliant” Valentine’s Day marketing campaign.

Documentary campaign went to Dartmouth Films for Eric Ravilious: Drawn To War, with event cinema campaign going to Empire Street Productions and National Theatre Live for NT Live: Prima Facie, which starred Jodie Comer and was seen by more than 300,000 people.

For this year’s rebranded awards, several new prizes were introduced, including breakthrough British filmmaker, which went to Boiling Point director Philip Barantini, and breakthrough British actor, awarded to Honor Swinton Byrne, who most recently starred in Joanna Hogg’s The Eternal Daughter and The Souvenir films.

There were three other new categories for 2022. Big screen event of the year went to the 2022 edition of the Glasgow Film Festival, which achieved a record high of 73% audience capacity on its first in-person edition post-Covid.

The green screen award, honouring a company that put sustainable practices first, went to Lewes-based independent cinema Depot. The diversity and inclusion initiative prize, recognising inspirational work towards creating a more inclusive industry, was awarded to the BFI London Film Festival’s critics mentorship programme.

Other returning awards included PR campaign of the year, which was won by Premier’s “smart, funky and funny” campaign for Prano Bailey-Bond’s horror Censor.

The cinema of the year prizes went to Ilkley Cinema (for 24 screens and under) and Cineworld Basildon (for 25 screens and over).

Vue Entertainment won cinema marketing campaign of the year for ’Get Lost in Great Stories — Jurassic World Dominion’.

Cineworld’s Olivia Ter-Berg won the industry rising star category; Picturehouse Entertainment & Intermission Film took home the ever-competitive poster of the year prize for The Reason I Jump; Ali & Ava won trailer of the year for Altitude and Intermission Film; and Into Film & Universal Pictures UK won brand partnership of the year for their No Time To Die schools marketing partnership.

Finally, the Cinema First achievement award went to cinema programmer Roy Gower, who worked at ABC Cinemas (which became Cineworld in 2006) from 1975 to 2014, before joining Everyman Cinemas, where he worked as director of film until his retirement in 2021.

The full list of nominations is here.

Sponsors for the evening included: Eikon, MediCinema and Powster. The event was in association with Cinema First and the UK Cinema Association.

The full list of winners: Screen Daily

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SOURCE: SCREEN INTERNATIONAL JUDE HILL, JAMIE DORNAN

Remember… Brian will post Jamie’s and wee Jude’s thank-you video if/when it’s available. 🍿

[mdawgswizzleinthehizzle]

i knew this looked familiar.

[slicedblackolives]

james mcavoy, age 19, accepting the role of duke leto II in children of dune: boy I can’t wait until I’m older and famous enough to do serious movies

james mcavoy, age 44, watching dune 2 be the the biggest movie release of the year with Oscar buzz and a prestige director and actors:

[sincericida]

Andrew Garfield is Bambi. Confirmed.

[feydfuckernation]

since 2022 is almost over i’ve been thinking about all the movies i watched this year and man, nothing really compares to watching elvis in the theaters. the only other movie i had gone to see during covid at the time was no time to die the year before (since it was daniel craig’s last bond film) and prior to that i hadn’t gone to see a film in the theater since knives out came out in 2019. i’ve loved baz lurhman ever since i was old enough to watch moulin rouge, so i kind of figured i’d like elvis but man, i never expected to care so much about a film like elvis the way i do. and not only that, but the experience itself. the sheer fucking spectacle of this film is one that i don’t know will ever be surpassed for me, because i saw this film eight times in the theater and wondered if it would ever fail to meet the expectation set by that initial viewing, and it never did. not once. it was good every. single. time. i sat in just about every row you could think of and it was not only consistently good, it almost surpassed itself with every subsequent viewing. in 23 years i can’t think of a single movie that has ever made me feel that way. what elvis accomplished is nothing short of miraculous in every way imaginable. i’ve talked about how elvis as a film made me care about a man that only ever existed as a fixture of rock n’ roll music, another name for the history books, a name that mattered in the context of music my folks grew up listening to more than i did. a movie carried on the shoulders of a relative unknown compared to every other major musical biopic to come out in the last few years (bohemian rhapsody and rocketman bolstering far more recognizable star power in rami malek and taron egerton respectively), a name that i hope will go on to even greater heights as a result of his performance and his work ethic. a movie that has given me an experience unlike any other before it, one that i try to relive every time i watch it on my own. a movie that will always be one of the greatest experiences i’ve ever had the privilege of seeing on the big screen.

elvis 2022 man. elvis 2022.

[floral-hex]

woke up at 4am feeling the weight of my life crushing me, so I’ve been sitting out in my car for the last couple of hours because I just need. to. be. somewhere else.

[rahullkohli]

thinking about how bella won't get the industry recognition they deserves in the form of awards for her breathtaking performance as ellie because there are no categories for them to be submitted in

[red-carpet-shots]

Stephanie Hsu | CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Awards (2023)

[brian-in-finance]

Twitter

The Big Screen Awards unveil 2022 nominations

SOURCE: KARLOVY VARY / ‘BOILING POINT’

The shortlist for The Big Screen Awards 2022 has been announced, with Philip Barantini’s Boiling Point leading the way with six nominations.

Two of the new categories, Breakthrough British Filmmaker and Actor, include the likes of Reggie Yates, Bella Ramsey, Honor Swinton Byrne and Jim Archer.

Companies nominated for this years awards include The Walt Disney Company, Picturehouse, Vue, Odeon, Altitude, Curzon, Lionsgate UK, Everyman Group, Cineworld, Sony Pictures, MUBI and BFI Distribution.

The Big Screen Awards were rebranded from the Screen Awards, last held in 2019, and aim to recognise the achievements of marketing, distribution, publicity and exhibition teams and companies for their work releasing films into UK cinemas and connecting them with audiences.

In addition to the breakthrough UK filmmaker and actor awards, there are three other new categories for 2022: Big Screen Event; the Green Screen Award; and the Diversity and Inclusion Initiative.

The shortlist will now be debated by an independent jury of industry experts, who select the final winners. This year’s Big Screen Awards judges are listed here.

The Best British Film category will be decided by a public vote.

The Big Screen Awards ceremony will be held on November 24 at the Brewery, London.

For more information on this year’s nominees, click here.

The Big Screen Awards 2022

Best British Film of the Year

After Love (UK distributor: BFI Film Distribution; producer: Matthieu de Braconier)

Ali & Ava (UK distributor: Altitude Film Distribution; producer: Tracy O’Riordan)

Belfast (UK distributor: Universal; producers: Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik, Tamar Thomas)

Boiling Point (UK distributor: Vertigo Releasing; producers: Hester Ruoff, Bart Ruspoli)

The Father (UK distributor: Lionsgate UK; producers: Philippe Carcassonne, Simon Friend, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt, Christopher Spadone)

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande (UK distributor: Lionsgate UK; producers: Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski)

The Lost Daughter (UK distributor: Netflix; producers: Charles Dorfman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman-Keren, Talia Kleinhendler)

The Power Of The Dog (UK distributor: Netflix; producers: Jane Campion, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman)

The Reason I Jump (UK distributor: Picturehouse Entertainment; producers: Jeremy Dear, Stevie Lee, Al Morrow)

The Souvenir: Part II (UK distributor: Picturehouse Entertainment; producers: Ed Guiney, Joanna Hogg, Andrew Lowe, Emma Norton, Luke Schiller)

Big Screen Event of the Year

Baby Lame presents Showgirls Live!, Rio Cinema

Gentleminions Screenings, Vue Entertainment

Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow Film

Irish premiere of Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, Belfast Film Festival

Kino Dreams – A Wim Wenders Retrospective, Curzon Film

Nightmare Alley at Screen on the Green, Pearl & Dean, IM Marketing, Searchlight Pictures & Jaguar

UK Royal Premiere of Top Gun: Maverick, Odeon Luxe Leicester Square

Other nominees listed at ScreenDaily

The Big Screen Awards

Northern Ireland Premiere • Belfast Film Festival • 4 November 2021

Remember… there is something about this place that inbuilt in its character is a very strong sense of identity. Sort of an invitation to claim it, own it, your home, like through a stick of rock, so when you leave that or lose that I think you can have a troubled time. — Sir Kenneth Branagh

[bcofl0ve]

the AACTA is on the 5th and I don't know from the pca's tweets it looks like he's going to be there on the 6th. I think that if the bikeriders wrapped before he can go to Australia (if he doesn't go to the PCA tho)

i was looking at the warner bros screening schedule and baz (not austin) is slotted for one in london the 7th which really made me double take bc i’d be shocked by baz not going to the aactas- given that he is australian, elvis is likely to sweep it and they’re using him in their promo stuff. and i thought maybe he’ll be Zoom-ing into the london screening q&a LOL but that to say if he really isn’t going i think austin prob will. because like no hate to olivia that’s my girl but having just her attend with both baz and austin skipping would be…an odd choice. from a promotional standpoint i think idk

[sincericida]

Andrew Garfield and your big brown doe eyes 🤎

Just look at him… ahhhhh

[sibillascribbles08]

I blame susi for my obsession with narratives about big name stars having fame chew them up and spit them back out. Now all that stuff is rotating in my head in regards to Lou Jitsu and it's like listen

[fandom]

TV Shows

Another big year for that show that hasn't aired since 2020.

Good Omens +20

The Owl House

Stranger Things -2

The Last of Us

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles +15

Our Flag Means Death -3

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir -1

Succession +2

Adventure Time +72

Supernatural -2

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake

Ted Lasso +48

Shadow and Bone +35

The Mandalorian +15

Doctor Who

The Eurovision Song Contest +16

Interview with the Vampire +11

Danny Phantom +12

House of the Dragon -14

Heartstopper -7

The Witcher -12

Wednesday

What We Do in the Shadows -16

Warrior Nun

9-1-1 -7

Hannibal -1

Yellowjackets

Merlin +18

The Sandman -17

Ahsoka

Young Royals +33

Avatar: The Last Airbender -1

Sonic Prime

One Piece

Loki -2

South Park +11

Teen Wolf +20

Lego Monkie Kid +31

The Dragon Prince

Percy Jackson and the Olympians -16

Steven Universe +3

Andor +28

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

The Bad Batch

Bridgerton -18

Abbott Elementary +50

Ninjago +8

Arcane -44

Obi-Wan Kenobi -33

Breaking Bad -7

My Adventures with Superman

Riverdale +4

The Legend of Vox Machina -2

9-1-1: Lone Star +8

Star Wars: The Clone Wars -14

KinnPorsche -39

Gravity Falls -31

The Untamed -19

The Winchesters

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine +4

The Rookie

House MD

Castlevania

Golden Globes

Game of Thrones -21

Criminal Minds +5

The Academy Awards -14

The Muppets

Outer Banks

Ghosts +18

Daisy Jones & The Six

Star Wars Rebels

The Simpsons +13

Amphibia -61

The Bear

Lockwood & Co.

Willow

Star Trek: The Original Series +1

Love in the Air +11

Inside Job

Community +3

Velma

Better Call Saul -34

Only Friends

Columbo +12

The Grammy Awards

Buffy the Vampire Slayer -17

Gotham -16

The Screen Actors Guild Awards

Phineas and Ferb

My School President

Clone High

Supergirl -56

Moon Knight -84

The Walking Dead

The Sanremo Music Festival

Moonlight Chicken

Black Sails -22

Invader Zim -14

The number in italics indicates how many spots a title moved up or down from the previous year. Bolded titles weren’t on the list last year.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Oooh! A great Gavin Finney (Good Omens Director of Photography) interview with Helen Parkinson for the British Cinematographer! :)

HEAVEN SENT

Gifted a vast creative landscape from two of fantasy’s foremost authors to play with, Gavin Finney BSC reveals how he crafted the otherworldly visuals for Good Omens 2.  

It started with a letter from beyond the grave. Following fantasy maestro Sir Terry Pratchett’s untimely death in 2015, Neil Gaiman decided he wouldn’t adapt their co-authored 1990 novel, Good Omens, without his collaborator. That was, until he was presented with a posthumous missive from Pratchett asking him to do just that.  

For Gaiman, it was a request that proved impossible to decline: he brought Good Omens season one to the screen in 2019, a careful homage to its source material. His writing, complemented by some inspired casting – David Tennant plays the irrepressible demon Crowley, alongside Michael Sheen as angel-slash-bookseller Aziraphale – and award-nominated visuals from Gavin Finney BSC, proved a potent combination for Prime Video viewers.  

Aziraphale’s bookshop was a set design triumph.

Season two departs from the faithful literary adaptation of its predecessor, instead imagining what comes next for Crowley and Aziraphale. Its storyline is built off a conversation that Pratchett and Gaiman shared during a jetlagged stay in Seattle for the 1989 World Fantasy Convention. Gaiman remembers: “The idea was always that we would tell the story that Terry and I came up with in 1989 in Seattle, but that we would do that in our own time and in our own way. So, once Good Omens (S1) was done, all I knew was that I really, really wanted to tell the rest of the story.” 

Telling that story visually may sound daunting, but cinematographer Finney is no stranger to the wonderfully idiosyncratic world of Pratchett and co. As well as lensing Good Omens’ first outing, he’s also shot three other Pratchett stories – TV mini series  Hogfather  (2006), and TV mini-series The Colour of Magic (2008) and Going Postal (2010). 

He relishes how the authors provide a vast creative landscape for him to riff off. “The great thing about Pratchett and Gaiman is that there’s no limit to what you can do creatively – everything is up for grabs,” he muses. “When we did the first Pratchett films and the first Good Omens, you couldn’t start by saying, ‘Okay, what should this look like?’, because nothing looks like Pratchett’s world. So, you’re starting from scratch, with no references, and that starting point can be anything you want it to be.”  

Season two saw the introduction of inside-outside sets for key locations including Aziraphale’s bookshop. 

From start to finish 

The sole DP on the six-episode season, Finney was pleased to team up again with returning director Douglas Mackinnon for the “immensely complicated” shoot, and the pair began eight weeks of prep in summer 2021. A big change was the production shifting the main soho set from Bovington airfield, near London, up to Edinburgh’s Pyramids Studio. Much of the action in Good Omens takes place on the Soho street that’s home to Aziraphale’s bookshop, which was built as an exterior set on the former airfield for season one. Season two, however, saw the introduction of inside-outside sets for key locations including the bookshop, record store and pub, to minimise reliance on green screen.  

Finney brought over many elements of his season one lensing, especially Mackinnon’s emphasis on keeping the camera moving, which involved lots of prep and testing. “We had a full-time Scorpio 45’ for the whole shoot (run by key grip Tim Critchell and his team), two Steadicam operators (A camera – Ed Clark and B camera Martin Newstead) all the way through, and in any one day we’d often go from Steadicam, to crane, to dolly and back again,” he says. “The camera is moving all the time, but it’s always driven by the story.” 

One key difference for season two, however, was the move to large-format visuals. Finney tested three large-format cameras and the winner was the Alexa LF (assisted by the Mini LF where conditions required), thanks to its look and flexibility.  

The minisodes were shot on Cooke anamorphics, giving Finney the ideal balance of anamorphic-style glares and characteristics without too much veiling flare.

A more complex decision was finding the right lenses for the job. “You hear about all these whizzy new lenses that are re-barrelled ancient Russian glass, but I needed at least two full sets for the main unit, then another set for the second unit, then maybe another set again for the VFX unit,” Finney explains. “If you only have one set of this exotic glass, it’s no good for the show.” 

He tested a vast array of lenses before settling on Zeiss Supremes, supplied by rental house Media Dog. These ticked all the boxes for the project: “They had a really nice look – they’re a modern design but not over sharp, which can look a bit electronic and a bit much, especially with faces. When you’re dealing with a lot of wigs and prosthetics, we didn’t want to go that sharp. The Supremes had a very nice colour palette and nice roll-off. They’re also much smaller than a lot of large-format glass, so that made it easy for Steadicam and remote cranes. They also provided additional metadata, which was very useful for the VFX department (VFX services were provided by Milk VFX).” 

The Supremes were paired with a selection of filters to characterise the show’s varied locations and characters. For example, Tiffen Bronze Glimmerglass were paired with bookshop scenes; Black Pro-Mist was used for Hell; and Black Diffusion FX for Crowley’s present-day storyline.  

Finney worked closely with the show’s DIT, Donald MacSween, and colourist, Gareth Spensley, to develop the look for the minisode.

Maximising minisodes 

Episodes two, three and four of season two each contain a ‘minisode’ – an extended flashback set in Biblical times, 1820s Edinburgh and wartime London respectively. “Douglas wanted the minisodes to have very strong identities and look as different from the present day as possible, so we’d instantly know we were in a minisode and not the present day,” Finney explains.  

One way to shape their distinctive look was through using Cooke anamorphic lenses. As Finney notes: “The Cookes had the right balance of controllable, anamorphic-style flares and characteristics without having so much veiling flare that they would be hard to use on green screens. They just struck the right balance of aesthetics, VFX requirements and availability.” The show adopted the anamorphic aspect ratio (2:39.1), an unusual move for a comedy, but one which offered them more interesting framing opportunities. 

Good Omens 2 was shot on the Alexa LF, paired with Zeiss Supremes for the present-day scenes.

The minisodes were also given various levels of film grain to set them apart from the present-day scenes. Finney first experimented with this with the show’s DIT Donald MacSween using the DaVinci Resolve plugin FilmConvert. Taking that as a starting point, the show’s colourist, Company 3’s Gareth Spensley, then crafted his own film emulation inspired by two-strip Technicolor. “There was a lot of testing in the grade to find the look for these minisodes, with different amounts of grain and different types of either Technicolor three-strip or two-strip,” Finney recalls. “Then we’d add grain and film weave on that, then on top we added film flares. In the Biblical scenes we added more dust and motes in the air.”  

Establishing the show’s lighting was a key part of Finney’s testing process, working closely with gaffer Scott Napier and drawing upon PKE Lighting’s inventory. Good Omens’ new Scottish location posed an initial challenge: as the studio was in an old warehouse rather than being purpose-built for filming, its ceilings weren’t as high as one would normally expect. This meant Finney and Napier had to work out a low-profile way of putting in a lot of fixtures. 

Inside Crowley’s treasured Bentley.

Their first task was to test various textiles, LED wash lights and different weight loadings, to establish what they were working with for the street exteriors. “We worked out that what was needed were 12 SkyPanels per 20’x20’ silk, so each one was a block of 20’x20’, then we scaled that up,” Finney recalls. “I wanted a very seamless sky, so I used full grid cloth which made it very, very smooth. That was important because we’ve got lots of cars constantly driving around the set and the sloped windscreens reflect the ceiling. So we had to have seamless textiles – PKE had to source around 12,000 feet of textiles so that we could put them together, so the reflections in the windscreens of the cars just showed white gridcloth rather than lots of stage lights. We then drove the car around the set to test it from different angles.”  

On the floor, they mostly worked with LEDs, providing huge energy and cost savings for the production. Astera’s Titan Tubes came in handy for a fun flashback scene with John Hamm’s character Gabriel. The DP remembers: “[Gabriel] was travelling down a 30-foot feather tunnel. We built a feather tunnel on the stage and wrapped it in a ring of Astera tubes, which were then programmed by dimmer op Jon Towler to animate, pulse and change different colours. Each part of Gabriel’s journey through his consciousness has a different colour to it.” 

Among the rigs built was a 20-strong Creamsource Vortex setup for the graveyard scene in the “Body Snatchers” minisode, shot in Stirling. “We took all the yokes off each light then put them on a custom-made aluminium rig so we could have them very close. We put them up on a big telehandler on a hill that gave me a soft mood light, which was very adjustable, windproof and rainproof.” 

Shooting on the VP stage for the birth of the universe scenes in episode one.

Sky’s the limit 

A lot of weather effects were done in camera – including lightning effects pulsed in that allowed both direct fork lightning and sheet lightning to spread down the streets. In the grade, colourist Spensley was also able to work his creative magic on the show’s skies. “Gareth is a very artistic colourist – he’s a genius at changing skies,” Finney says. “Often in the UK you get these very boring, flat skies, but he’s got a library of dramatic skies that you can drop in. That would usually be done by VFX, but he’s got the ability to do it in Baselight, so a flat sky suddenly becomes a glorious sunset.” 

Finney emphasises that the grade is a very involved process for a series like Good Omens, especially with its VFX-heavy nature. “This means VFX sequences often need extra work when it comes back into the timeline,” says the DP. “So, we often add camera movement or camera shake to crank the image up a bit. Having a colourist like Gareth is central to a big show like Good Omens, to bring all the different visual elements together and to make it seamless. It’s quite a long grade process but it’s worth its weight in gold.” 

Shooting in the VR cube for the blitz scenes .

Finney took advantage of virtual production (VP) technology for the driving scenes in Crowley’s classic Bentley. The volume was built on their Scottish set: a 4x7m cube with a roof that could go up and down on motorised winches as needed. “We pulled the cars in and out on skates – they went up on little jacks, which you could then rotate and move the car around within the volume,” he explains. “We had two floating screens that we could move around to fill in and use as additional source lighting. Then we had generated plates – either CGI or real location plates –projected 360º around the car. Sometimes we used the volume in-camera but if we needed to do more work downstream; we’d use a green screen frustum.” Universal Pixels collaborated with Finney to supply in-camera VFX expertise, crew and technical equipment for the in-vehicle driving sequences and rear projection for the crucial car shots. 

John Hamm was suspended in the middle of this lighting rig and superimposed into the feather tunnel.

Interestingly, while shooting at a VP stage in Leith, the team also used the volume as a huge, animated light source in its own right – a new technique for Finney. “We had the camera pointing away from [the volume] so the screen provided this massive, IMAX-sized light effect for the actors. We had a simple animation of the expanding universe projected onto the screen so the actors could actually see it, and it gave me the animated light back on the actors.”  

Bringing such esteemed authors’ imaginations to the screen is no small task, but Finney was proud to helped bring Crowley and Aziraphale’s adventures to life once again. He adds: “What’s nice about Good Omens, especially when there’s so much bad news in the world, is that it’s a good news show. It’s a very funny show. It’s also about good and evil, love and doing the right thing, people getting together irrespective of backgrounds. It’s a hopeful message, and I think that that’s what we all need.” 

Finney is no stranger to the idiosyncratic world of Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

[eph-em-era]

well all i can say about HBO's anti-union message in that bts video is that AS A KIWI ACTOR/STAGE/SCREEN INDUSTRY WORKER who isn't being strongarmed by a corporation into saying shit that they agree with

the hobbit laws suck. peter jackson is universally despised. what that man did with warner brothers and the national government to make our laws worse for workers so he could film his bad films here in the late 00s is akin to several crimes.

we WANT union protection! we WANT to be able to strike! i'm a member on the Equity NZ (union akin to SAG-AFTRA) committee for Wellington and the amount of work that's going on behind the scenes at the moment to claw back worker protections from our fucked up local laws is immense.

most of us aren't allowed to strike. most people working at wētā (the big screen production house), as well as on most screen/stage jobs are employed as contractors, so they're taxed exorbitantly, have no sick leave, have no holidays, have minimal protection from harassment or being taken advantage of.

long hours? being burned out? that's the kiwi way of living in the screen/stage industry and it SHOULD NOT be celebrated.

The Screen Industry Workers Act of 2022 has fixed some of that but there's still so much to go. yknow how SAG-AFTRA is fighting over residuals? here, we don't even know her.

i know all this personally and intimately.

i was taxed 39% on my contractor income last year.

only now that i'm a salaried worker can i afford to get my teeth fixed.

i had to get a legal action from a lawyer from ANOTHER UNION to get paid for one of my contracts in 2021 because the production team didn't like how i spoke up about their lax health and safety rules (this was a contract I was nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in the country for my work on, fyi)

sexual harassment is rife. what support is there? basically none. we hope it comes out in the media, or it doesn't change and there's nothing we can do cause we'll get sued into oblivion.

ive worked multiple 12+ hour days with only a tiny break in the middle or none at all. friends of mine have done 10-16 hour night shoots.

i've burned myself out multiple times in five years of professional practise cause that's the expected thing. that's what you do. if you're not working at 150% the entire time then you're a bad arts industry employee.

in conclusion, fuck off with your anti-union message, fuck you for utilising our weak-ass laws and HBO i'm in your walls

if you're in the US, support the Entertainment Community Fund! if you're a screen/stage worker in NZ, join Equity!