Talking Documentary

10 June 2015

Documentary is a hot topic at the moment.

I recently attended the Documentary Edge Festival’s Screen Edge Forum in Auckland, opened with an address by Chris McDonald, the president of the second largest documentary film festival in the world, Hot Docs in Toronto. Chris highlighted the growth of Hot Docs from its inception with an audience of 4,000 to where it is today—a festival that attracts over 200,000, draws 300 buyers from around the world and this last year selected some 140 films from 2700 submissions.

Chris’s presentation was in part an encouragement to Alex Lee and Dan Shanan who celebrated the 10th birthday of their Documentary Edge Festival, which has finished its run in Auckland and is now taking place in Wellington.

Doc Edge is a vital outlet for Kiwi documentary makers to get their films in front of audiences, and a number of DEGNZ members did so, including Briar March, Richard Riddiford, Chris Dudman, Tony Forster, Rowena Baines and Bertie Plaatsman.

The NZ International Film Festival (NZIFF) coming up soon provides another key documentary showcase for local films and amongst the 10 docos announced so far, DEGNZ members Rebecca Tansley, Costa Botes and Shirley Horrocks have docos in it.

The documentary highlight of the year so far has got to be the acclaimed The Ground We Won from DEGNZ member Chris Pryor and his partner in life and film Miriam Smith. This film comes hot on the heels of another resounding documentary success by DEGNZ member Bryn Evans with his equally popular Hip-Hoperation.

So what’s behind all of this feature documentary activity?

Some say the demise of the documentary form on broadcast television. TV documentaries have taken a dive in NZ since their heyday some years ago. And those that still get through are considered to be highly proscriptive. With feature documentary, the filmmaker supposedly gets to say what they want to, not what the broadcaster tells them their viewing audience wants to see.

Some attribute it to the New Zealand Film Commission’s (NZFC) increased funding for documentary feature and the joint documentary initiatives run by NZFC and New Zealand on Air (NZOA). At Screen Edge Wellington, NZFC CEO Dave Gibson told the audience there are 12 documentaries in production with NZFC funding. At the same time he pointed out the NZFC requirement for a strong audience engagement plan as a string to help trigger funding—something equally demanded by NZOA. There are undoubtedly documentary filmmakers with plans at the ready awaiting the outcome of the NZFC’s board meeting of the last two days to see if the joint initiative Doc Connect is going to continue.

Another factor touted in the growth of documentary is the demise of TV journalism and Current Affairs.

International Documentary Association (IDA) Board President Marajan Safina in a recent review of that LA-based organisation’s last six years cited the gap left by journalism as helping to set the documentary form on fire.

A local example of this could well be TV3 journalist David Farrier’s documentary The Tickle King: The Hunt for Truth in Competitive Tickling nearing completion with NZFC funding. What started out as a just another possible loopy news story by Farrier has ended up as a potentially investigative documentary on the shady individual and company behind an allegedly exploitative scheme. Campbell Live might have given this story more airtime if it were still around.

Internationally, the rise of Netflix is considered a contributing factor to the strengthening of the documentary form.

Netflix has brought its ever increasing financial muscle to documentary projects, such as a Leonardo DiCaprio documentary feature and series themed around the environment, and other high profile documentaries it is engaging with at an early stage. This follows some years of documentary acquisition and brand building around the form, which is delivering new audiences for documentary in the streaming service’s constantly expanding connected world.

The news out of the last Sundance is also positive for docos. The Film Collaborative (TFC) reports that of the 41 docos on offer, 23 found deals with two including The Wolf Pack, which will screen at NZIFF, going for six figures, while Hot Girls Wanted, which screened at Doc Edge, did an all-rights deal with… you guessed it… Netflix.

It’s not all coming up roses, though.

In regard to distribution, the trend in the US at least is for documentaries geared towards TV/Netflix as it’s becoming harder to do a theatrical release.

On the funding front there, Emmy Award winning filmmaker Pete Nicks pointed out in an IDA column that while the US is experiencing a creative non-fiction boom and there are now a large number of organisations that US filmmakers can tap into for funding, those organisations expect social impact bangs for their bucks, potentially limiting creative filmmaking freedom. He goes on to add that the one thing that will not change is the difficulty in finding funding for small, quirky, character-driven, art-house documentary films.

In the documentary feature editing workshop that DEGNZ ran in Wellington last weekend, we worked with one such quirky film.

Director Jess Feast and producer Vicky Pope allowed the eight experienced editors in attendance to utilize the footage from Jess’s film Gardening With Soul. This gentle tale following a year in the garden with Sister Loyola is exactly the kind of film that is proving difficult to get up in the U.S. With just $15k in investment funding and $25k in a film finishing grant from NZFC, Gardening with Soul went on to earn around $500k at the NZ box office via self distribution. This success was done off the back of a focused marketing effort around Catholics and gardeners, and shows that the spades in this garden were definitely in. For the audience-engaged NZFC, Gardening with Soul is undoubtedly an unqualified success. Hopefully, the filmmakers will find a way to get this endearing film into the hearts of international audiences. And we wish all the documentary makers in the guild the same or better success.

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 12 March 2018

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That Old Chestnut Copyright

29 May 2015

As Dotcom seemingly inches closer to extradition, copyright has raised its head here at the guild enough times recently for me to decide to write about it.

And before your eyes glaze over at the thought of reading boring copy about copyright, I can assure you that there are a number of things in it for you as a guild member, one of which could well be money.

We have a staunch advocate for copyright on the guild board in Costa Botes. Costa is a documentary maker who often exerts copyright over his films and then has to defend himself against online trolls who attack him for seeking to monetize his creative output so that he can earn a living as a filmmaker. Costa is wont to remind me and the board on a semi-regular basis about the importance of copyright and the need to protect it.

What got me typing on the subject, however, were three different prompts. The first was a discussion I had with the Executive Director of the Australian Directors Guild (ADG) Kingston Anderson.

Kingston brought up the Australian Screen Directors Authorship Collection Society (ASDACS), which is a non-profit company that represents directors, both Australian and New Zealand – film, television and all audiovisual media directors of works in public release – in collecting the rights that arise from the success of their work around the world.

ASDACS, which is now administered by ADG, has relationships with collection societies and guilds in a number of countries that research and monitor the display of audio visual works.

If you are a member of ASDACS and you have works that are registered with it, ASDACS through its sister organisations collects the royalties and will disburse them to you. This income comes primarily from countries in Europe where the authorship of audio-visual works is vested in the director—not the case in Australia or New Zealand at this point. More shortly on this. As a member of DEGNZ, you are entitled to receive all the income due without incurring the across the board 10% fee on any income ASDACS charges non-members.

A number of New Zealand directors are already members of ASDACS. We encourage you to join and register your works. For more information, go to the ASDACS website here.

As you will have noted, authorship vested in the director is the trigger for the revenue generation. This brings me to the second prompt.

While filing papers at the office I came across an internal discussion document written in 2005 by former board member Grant Campbell advocating for a focused guild effort to effect two changes in New Zealand copyright legislation: The first in regard to Moral Rights, the second Authorship. DEGNZ has sought for years without success to have the legislation changed to better represent the rights of directors in regard to these two key issues—the legislation is potentially a can of worms that the government is very reluctant to open up.

It needs to be pointed out that our efforts are not intended to allow directors to keep copyright, as copyright and moral rights often need to be assigned to allow projects to be funded and distributed.

We continue to strive for these changes at the guild, and this brings me to my third prompt.

In recent times the Copyright Council has rebranded and become We Create.

DEGNZ is a member of We Create and I had the opportunity to attend the AGM for the first time and have a follow up meeting with two key members of the working group there.

The former Copyright Council fought from a defensive position around the protection of copyright for its members, which includes bodies that represent musicians, photographers, publishers, writers and those in film and TV including the NZ Writers Guild (NZWG) and the Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA).

We Create is operating under a new paradigm of promoting New Zealand’s creative sector and the economic impact that the sector delivers, and by so doing highlighting the importance of Intellectual Property.

As a conglomeration of entities that have a vested interest in copyright, We Create provides a more powerful channel for DEGNZ to work with to lobby central government on your behalf.

You can learn more about We Create here, about copyright, moral rights, and here an information sheet that highlights the current situation where authorship in audiovisual works in New Zealand is vested in producers, not directors. And if you are particularly interested you can review the NZ Copyright Act here, paying particular attention to Clause 5 on Authorship and Part 4 on Moral Rights.

I leave you with the words of one of New Zealand’s leading producers to ponder: At an industry gathering he said [paraphrasing] that as a producer you are creating a library of product to support you in retirement. At DEGNZ we look forward to the time when New Zealand directors have similar rights to grow old with.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 29 July 2020

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Are You Ready?

15 May 2015

An old boss of mine used to say that with great change came great opportunity.

It would seem that the opportunity in New Zealand is finally arriving from the shakeup in the screen industry predominantly driven by new digital models for distribution, the shift of creative endeavour from film to TV, and the increase in content for online consumption.

Due primarily to the revised incentives that saw the introduction of the Screen Production Grant and the five percent uplift, we now have the MTV drama series Shannara in production in New Zealand.

The drama pilot for Amblin TV’s Lumen has come and gone, and may well return for an episodic run.

Sir Richard Taylor’s Pukeko Pictures is plunging headlong into TV drama, having recently announced a co-pro with Australia’s Goalpost Pictures for Aboriginal drama series Cleverman, which already has international sales. We can expect to see more from Pukeko, and closer to home in future.

The New Zealand Film Commission’s (NZFC) Business Development Scheme (BDS) is also opening TV drama doors.

Local outfit Libertine Pictures and Downtown Abbey producers Carnival have announced the Neil Cross written series Bay of Plenty, planned to shoot next year. It’s highly likely that some of the other BDS recipients are pursuing TV drama as well as feature film.

The swing at NZFC to encompass TV is particularly noticeable. Aside from the BDS scheme, the He Ara Maori/Pacifica initiative, the dedicated China funding initiatives and the new BOOST devolved funding initiative all make room for TV drama. These come on top of the efforts NZFC has made alone and together with New Zealand on Air (NZOA) in the feature documentary space, and what seems a clear intent from NZFC to increase the number of features in production annually.

Over at NZ’s biggest drama producer South Pacific Pictures (SPP), co-pro 800 Words is underway with Aussie’s Seven Productions. This in addition to the other drama SPP has on its slate including the Outrageous Fortune sequel Westside Story, Step Dave, Brokenwood Mysteries and others in development.

Rachael Lang and Gavin Strauhan’s new outfit has Filthy Rich underway, while Great Southern’s Hillary must be close to completion.

Mediaworks has supposedly come close to settling on a new soap series, although the likelihood of it getting off the ground remains a challenge for the company.

For online content New Zealand on Air (NZOA)’s digital initiatives are reasonably well established with web series Reservoir Hill, The High Road, The Factory, and Flat 3 having already proven their worth. Another web series RFP has just been issued by NZOA, exhibiting a continued commitment to kickstarting online content.

As I have written about recently, even Maori TV is getting into drama production, seeking to make half-hour broadcast TV drama with five-minute web series budgets.

At the guild we have just completed the selections for the Ash vs Evil Dead (AVED) attachments, which puts DEGNZ members alongside the Starz production. In going through the process, it became abundantly clear to me how much more of a step up Rob Tapert’s latest endeavour is for directors from the local TV drama that is typically made here.

Tapert has been a mainstay of the New Zealand drama scene for over 20 years now. Through his internationally focused productions he has trained many of the people who went on to work on Lord of the Rings and elsewhere. We owe him a lot. Thankfully, he is now no longer alone.

We have to ask with so much activity going on whether or not we have the drama directing and editing skill base to take up the opportunities created and in the pipeline. If not, we will likely see an increase in the number of non-New Zealanders brought in to do the work. For example, should Mediaworks’ soap get up, there’s going to be a dearth of experienced soap directors, which could see Aussies come over to fill the gaps.

The step up from 48 Hours, Tropfest, Fresh Shorts and web series to TV drama is as big as that from short to feature film. Then there is the significant difference between film and TV, where in film the director is auteur, while in TV the director does what the producer and or showrunner pretty much tells them to, all the while running to get the fast turnaround product through the sausage factory and out the door.

At DEGNZ we have a strong professional development programme geared towards increasing the skill base in drama and documentary—a focus driven by the funding we receive from NZFC. Its purpose is to help increase the competency and capability of Kiwi directors and editors.

Take stock of where you currently sit on the talent tree for future opportunities. Make the most of our and other professional development initiatives.

And get ready for the opportunity.

As long as the incentives continue to work and more of our local production companies focus on producing drama content for international consumption, we could well be in for an exciting ride.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 12 March 2018

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Pay Rates

1 May 2015

Pay rates continue to be a hot topic here at DEGNZ.

It’s understandable as the impact of digital technology continues to drive down pricing in many instances.

Just this week I was speaking with a voiceover agency owner who is seeking to maintain the rates she charges for her artists in the face of low-cost competition online.

It doesn’t change the fact, however, that even in the digital world quality remains the key differentiator. There’s no better example of this than TV drama like House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Viking, True Detectives, and potentially Cleverman, tossed into the mix in a co-pro by our very own Pukeko Pictures and Aussie neighbour Goalpost Pictures. The businesses behind these shows understand the cost of quality.

So what to do when a producer asks you to work on their next project for little or no money?

We all know there will be people who will say yes and will continue to do so for a variety of reasons. Amongst them:

  • Downtime between high-paying gigs
  • A credit
  • Help out a mate
  • The experience
  • Networking
  • They desperately need some work

The next time you are asked—and you will be—it may well be worth considering who is really going to benefit from your sacrifice: you, the producer, the production company, the broadcaster, the funder?

Here are eight good reasons why you might want to say no:

  1. You will be paid below current industry standard for your work.
  2. It undervalues your creative endeavour.
  3. The expectations for you to create quality programming will not lower to match the budget level—audiences don’t care how much a programme or film costs to make.
  4. The only way for you to deliver a quality outcome from your work will be at your own self-sacrifice.
  5. Low-cost technology does not deliver quality, high value human resource does.
  6. Agreeing to work for low rates will mean an expectation that future similar projects can be done for the same, without taking into account the sacrifices made to achieve it.
  7. The proposition that you will be paid more on the next one will likely be hollow.
  8. You will contribute to undermining fair and equitable pay rates.

For most of you, your work is your business because you depend on it to survive. If you must work at cut prices, make sure your sacrifice includes benefit for your business and not just someone else’s unless that’s what you want.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 12 March 2018

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What Are You Worth?

17 April 2015

On Tuesday evening the DEGNZ board debated the effect that low-budget filmmaking has had on the pay rates of members.

When the Escalator low-budget feature film scheme was introduced by the NZFC, it formalised for features the methodology used by producers to get short films made—beg, borrow and steal (metaphorically), and get as many people as possible to work for nothing or next to. NZFC sought to counter this by contractually obligating producers to pay a minimum wage and come up with a points system as a further reward for cast and crew. Generally, that minimum wage was a flat rate for everyone of around $200 per day.

Short films were often seen by those with major experience who assisted directors and producers to get them made as a means to get real, paying work when those above-the-line creatives moved on to reasonably financed features. For crew with little or no experience, they add the credit to their resumes to help secure real paying work when the opportunity comes along. And for most writers, directors and producers on a low-budget feature, it’s the credit that’s paramount as well as of course the creative satisfaction.

Escalator was felt by many techos as undermining the opportunities to get well paid work on features—Low-budget features were being institutionalised. Although the Escalator scheme at $250k per feature was wound down, the new $500k initiative at NZFC is up and running. Further, with first time feature directors likely limited to budgets under $1.5 million, an ambitious feature film can only get made with pay rates at the lower end of the scale. Films planned well to work on such budgets have a little more latitude to pay appropriately. Thanks God for the Screen Production Grant and the five percent uplift, many techos undoubtedly cry.

But where does that leave directors and editors? Is TV the answer?

Telefeatures have regularly been made for $2 – 3 million; a budget figure that debut feature film directors can now only dream about. The documentaries that still get to air, the series and the drama that NZ on Air funds have reasonable budgets that generate fair rates of pay. But a look at Māori Television’s (MTS) latest programme initiative doesn’t paint a rosy a picture.

It’s no secret that MTS budgets and production company margins with Te Māngai Pāho (TMP) funding are generally lower than those that production companies usually achieve through NZ on Air. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the production staff work for lower rates as a consequence.

Although MTS has sought to do drama on and off for quite a while, one of the key factors that has kept them from pursuing it has been the cost. Take a look at recent drama funding to see why: Brokenwood Mysteries at just over $500k per broadcast hour, Filthy Rich at just over $400k per broadcast hour, Harry at just under $600k per broadcast hour.

But things have changed. And without Te Māngai Pāho, it would seem.

Yesterday, I attended the Maori Television content strategy briefing by Mike Rehu, the new Head of Content. Mike comes to MTS after 20 years in Singapore, many of those with Fox Television brands. He well knows the real cost of content. As part of Mike’s presentation he laid down a challenge to those producers present – MTS wants two x 10 half hour scripted drama series to be made at a maximum of $45k per episode—that’s $45k per half hour, or $90k per hour—approximately 18 percent of the per hour cost of NZ on Air funded TV drama. My immediate thought was that the challenge was how to get as many aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and colleagues to work for very low or no rates of pay, while trying to craft some semblance of a quality show—a strategy that MTS has employed relatively successfully with the independent production community making other programming for them for the last ten years. Of course MTS is open to producers going out to get additional revenue for the drama production from somewhere else. That’s certainly a challenge, too.

DEGNZ is concerned about pay rates for directors and editors across the entire screen industry. We plan to undertake a survey of directors and editors in the near future to gain a clear picture of what the statistics are before we seek to address the issues. When the survey arrives in your Inbox, we would greatly appreciate it if you would take the time to respond.

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 12 March 2018

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