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It seems the DCMS caught everyone off-guard with the decision to scrap the UK Film Council. It will take some time to figure out how this will affect our industry and our experience of working in it. A couple of good articles and some interesting early reactions can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jul/26/uk-film-council-axed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jul/26/john-woodward-film-council
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10766130
In other ADA News:
1. The AGM has been set for Sunday 19th September 2010, 4pm at a London venue to be confirmed. Picking a date for the AGM is always tricky but our hope was that by Mid-september most of you will be back from family holidays and will be able to attend. Please put the date in your diaries now.
2. As you will no doubt be aware by now the APA has announced a £20 rate rise to come into effect from 1st September 2010. This applies to all rates on the APA rate card. The effect of the rise on the runner's buyout rate is not yet clear as this rate is set by common consent among production companies and not by the APA. If you have heard any reports from production companies about their plans we would welcome hearing from you.
3. Staying with the APA, we have made a case for the inclusion of a 3rd AD rate on the APA rate card as of 1st September. We are waiting to hear back from them but hope that they will see the logic in setting a rate for this role and doing away with those awkward conversations about money when a 3rd is employed on a commercial.
4. 14 members recently completed the first of our 1st Option run Safe Management in Production (H+S) courses and are now holders of shiny new Health and Safety Passports. The course was well received, interesting and, most importantly, extremely relevant to the work we all do. If you would like to be first on the list for the next course, we are looking into running another weekend of courses (including Bickers and 1st Aid) in early October. Please email us if you would like to take part.
5. NEW COURSE - Wires and wire rigging awareness, with Extreme Locations Rigging - pencilled in for Saturday 11th September. Limited to 10 places - please email if you're interested.
6. We're delighted to announce that Marko Fuchs is now listed as a full 1st, having been an emerging 1st since the formation of the ADA. He's been an active member and has attended all of the training days offered so far, and shown an impressive body of work from the last year or so. We'd like to pass on our very best wishes for his future work.
7. The ADA would like to remind the members to please keep in contact with any grievances regarding pay / offers / conditions. BECTU are keen for us to report dodgy practice, either anonymously or not, and we are happy to act as a mediator. Also, please ensure any non member ADs you come into contact with are urged to join the ADA; our goal is to reach a membership of 400 member in 2 years time and this can only be achieved with the help of an active membership.
Finally, the rebuilding of an old cinema in Jenin (West Bank, Palestine) has been bought to the attention of the ADA. The project is aiming to combine a community cinema with a focal centre for film-making and workshops. Jim Cole is hoping to visit Jenin in the Autumn, and will report back if the ADA can help in any way with a visiting AD/Producing workshop next year. In the meantime please visit http://www.cinemajenin.org/new/index.php and if you feel a small donation to the project is worthwhile, all the details can be found there. Likewise please feel free to forward this link to any industry email addresses that you think may be interested.
THE ADA
The ADA is an organisation created to represent Assistant Directors in the UK, from 1st ADs to Runners. Our membership covers all areas of filming in the UK, from Feature Films through to Virals.
We aim for the ADA to represent the interests of our members and to continually improve standards via training and distribution of information, enhancing any productions with which our members are involved. Training programmes that are currently in development include: Health & Safety, Tracking and Action Vehicles, Wire rigs, Stunt work, and EP Scheduling.
We hope in the longer term to establish an Assistant Directors qualification, and are working closely with Skillset to review industry standards for Assistant Directors. We believe that the attainment of these standards will promote best working practice across not only our department, but the industry as a whole.
If you are a producer or production manager looking for crew please feel free to access our C.V. database and any of our public areas.