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Much has been said over the past year or so about the loss of the camera operator's mandatory staffing provision in our Basic Agreement. I was not your National President at the time, but I witnessed it all from my seat on the National Executive Board. Fingers have been pointed and blame has been assessed. Since I became President seven months ago, I have tried to keep those arguments out of this publication. I don't believe this is the appropriate forum for those discussions.
The discussion that is appropriate for this forum is; what do we do about it?
The best, first response that a democratic organization such as ours can make is to listen to the members. So we had our first ever National Craft Meeting for camera operators on November 12, 2006. I chaired that meeting and I asked the members for their suggestions on how we should address the threat to the operator position.
As I expected they would be, the responses were creative, insightful and uniformly positive. No one downplayed the risk that we all face now, but neither did the participants give in to anger, blame or fear.
We heard a great deal of new information about the negative way camera operating is portrayed in film schools, and we came up with some creative solutions to bolster the image of the operator in that venue. We will be addressing the University Film & Video Association at their conference this summer. We are obtaining copies of film school textbooks that denigrate the role of the operator and assuring that we present a more balanced viewpoint to those who use those texts. We are sending panels of distinguished cinematographers to film schools to talk to future filmmakers about the importance of the operator.
We have held panels at several industry trade shows in which directors of photography and operators who work together have addressed the unique creative relationship between cinematographer and operator.
I personally met to discuss this matter with the President of the Directors Guild of America, Michael Apted. President Apted was extremely concerned at the threat to the operator and expressed a willingness to hold several joint DGA/ICG functions to encourage the full staffing for the operator.
This is a cause that we will be fighting into the foreseeable future. Local 600 will have to maintain a consistent, persistent pressure on the industry to protect the future employment of the camera operator.
On a different note, our Local 600 election is this spring with ballots going out on April 10th. Please don't forget to vote.
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In Solidarity,
Steven Poster, ASC
Local 600 President |
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