Consultation on National Occupational Standards

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Dear Camera Department,

Industry training body, ScreenSkills has been developing some National Occupational Standards (NOS) for screen industries.

It has recently come to our attention that an online consultation seeking comment on draft standards went live in mid December. We were unaware of this until now and the deadline is right around the corner: 9am, 27th January 2020.

We ask all camera personnel in all sectors to kindly contribute your expertise to the survey.

You may think that none of this affects you, as there is currently no training standard or recognized qualification, but this is the first step in creating one. A qualification can work to better our industry – but that will take time, and will need to be of a high standard. These standards will potentially cover all production sectors and all roles in the Camera Department and also include Grips & Lighting.

This branch created new Camera Assistant qualifications for a proposed update to the Diploma scheme that was run in the past. Unfortunately, the academy that was expected to accredit this scheme is moving very slowly (and are now possibly waiting to see the NOS standards). Revisions to the Diploma qualifications is complete and we believe them to be of high quality (level 2 & level 3). For reference, the branch suggests reading them prior to commenting on ScreenSkills’ proposals, though the the NOS standards are much wider than just camera assisting.

Branch Guidance:

When you access ScreenSkills’ introduction page it will give you two options –

Camera Standards
Lighting for Film and TV Standards

Choose the one relevant to you but be aware there is some overlap with grip and lighting departments.

You will need to enter –
Your title: Trainee, Loader, Focus, Operator, Camera Technician, Wrangler etc.
Company: We would suggest writing Freelance or Self Employed.
Located in: We would suggest TICKING EVERY BOX as we move around locations a lot.

Your name and email address is optional, but if you want to receive follow up info we suggest including your details here.

You will next be confronted with A LOT of information, so let us try to assist with what you are seeing first.

The pages cover a very wide array of camera knowledge. They cross over into lighting and grip departments and of course not all of us work in the same sector of the wider Film & Television industry. The advice given by Screenskills is as follows –

“We appreciate that there are several Standards for this area, but please just comment on the parts that are of interest to you.”

The branch advises is that you take the time to go through the survey thoroughly and you will find each section has options to click at the top of the page:

This document is not relevant to me
I’m happy with this document
I would like to leave an overall comment

The advice of the branch is to click either “I’m happy with this document” or “I would like to leave an overall comment”. Our reasoning is that the standards are either fine as they are, or should be added to (rather than in any way NOT relevant, which may result in removal from future documents and affect crew in other sectors). More education is better than less!

We believe that the proposed NOS standards are broadly in line with our own proposed standards, but we need you to examine what is there and consider if there is anything missing. Think about how you do your work, the steps and skills involved. Is everything captured in the draft standard? If you think of something, add it in the comments box.

We hope this is clear and we greatly appreciate you taking the time to go through the survey: Help us improve the National Occupational Standards for screen industry roles – ScreenSkills

Regards

The Camera Branch

Camera rates over the years

Back in the 1980s TV Drama rates were heavily dependent on the rates paid by the broadcast companies. These seem low by modern standards but were always boosted by overtime and subsistence payments to such an extent that they easily equaled the fees paid by independent productions. The advent of the commissioning model created by Channel 4 showed the establishment how to casualise the industry. The 1990 Broadcasting Act made the commissioning model the norm. From this point onwards independent productions set the rates. This is where the graph starts. I have used the rate for a focus puller as this is the grade for which we have the most reliable data. For the next twenty years the independent productions used their unprecedented power to hold those rates static. There was the odd wobble. Around 1995 the broadcasters bowed to the inevitable and made all of their technical staff redundant. Those crews did not know the going rates and undercut the established freelance technicians. They soon realized the unlivability of such rates and found the market level. In 1998, the introduction of the Working Time Regulations Act put a break on extraordinarily long hours and thus put better limits on the standard working day. This shortened hours but did nothing for the headline rate. In the early 2000’s productions found that crews were becoming increasingly unhappy with the static rates, and started to buy off crews with ‘box money’. However, in 2005 there was a coordinated action to stop this practice by producers and the static rate resumed.

The log-jam was finally broken in 2011 when BECTU came to a deal with the BBC which accepted the existing rate and then added the staff pay uplift for that year. This had an immediate effect on the entire independent sphere of the TV Drama industry, causing a much needed pay rise. For the first time in twenty years pay started to resume its normal link with inflation. Around 2008, the Grips initiated their campaign for £300/day as a minimum. All other grades that had assumed parity with the grips followed suit. A well known producer exclaimed that she felt that she had been ‘mugged’ by this move. Our response was that they had been slowly mugging us for the last twenty years. The extension of the tax break to television dramas with budgets in excess of £1m/screen hour has revolutionized the drama sector and brought huge inward investment. Since its introduction it has also effectively doubled the budgets of the bulk of independent drama productions. Crews have tried to use this new found wealth to increase their rates. To think they might double their rates is cloud cuckoo land but a rise of between 10% and 20% has come about.

While this might seem like good news, it is sobering to look back to 1990 to see how far we have come: or rather not come. Today’s rates are still 35% below what they would be if they had kept pace with inflation. This means that crews are in real terms cheaper than they have ever been. It is time that crews shared in the bonanza that is sweeping the country, and this will be the aim of all those fighting for crews in the future.

Tim Potter,
Chair, CDB
An amended extract from my article in British Cinematographer, issue 95
Click here to contribute to the rate survey.

WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA

The Camera Branch is delighted to support Women Behind The Camera, a showcase for the many women working behind the camera in the UK film and TV industry. Please have read & check out the website:

We want to let you know about an exciting new website that we’ve created, called ‘WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA’

https://womenbehindthecamera.co.uk

This has been put together with the intention of highlighting the vast number of women working at every level of the camera department in the UK Film & TV Industry. At one time a very male domain, camera departments can now be truly diverse in terms of gender – some studios are now demanding this equality in crews. We are hoping that as a database, this website will help Directors of Photography, Producers & Directors to put together camera crews that are genuinely 50 / 50 male/female…..not just the token woman as trainee or central loader!

‘WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA’ has been created by three women who are camera operators – still an area where women are very under represented. Lucy Bristow, Ilana Garrard and Agnieszka Szeliga are hoping that by making this female talent more visible, it will encourage and inspire more 1st and 2nd A/Cs to choose camera operating as a career.

In time we hope that this website will become a networking site, a way to pass on work and to publicise events, a research resource ……and more! ‘WBTC’ is not intended as a diary service or agency – if you’re thinking of hiring crew from the website, please contact the individual directly to obtain a recent CV, or look at the IMDB link to assess their level of experience in the film industry.

The list of crew isn’t complete – we are still gathering names each month. We would be really grateful for any help that you can give us to spread the word about ‘WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA’.

MANY THANKS.

VW VAN DISCOUNT EXPIRES

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An urgent note for any Branch members who were thinking of using BECTU’s discount on a new VW van – due to a production freeze at VW the offer comes to an end very soon.

For Transporters, it’s the 13th March, for Caddies & Crafters, 20th March.

(The offer is now expired)

THE CAMERA BRANCH GUIDE TO THE TV DRAMA AGREEMENT

The Pact/BECTU TV Drama Agreement has been broadly welcomed by crew, and while it’s not perfect, it has led to significant improvements over the ‘take it or leave it’ conditions of the past.

However it’s a wordy document – not exactly a gripping read – and as a result some crew still aren’t aware of exactly where they stand on certain issues. The Branch gets lots of inquiries relating to differing interpretations of the Agreement, so we’ve produced this ‘plain English’ guide to help members with the most important terms. It’s designed as a smartphone-sized pdf file to ~~cut out & keep~~ download to your phone for easy reference on set – you can find it here: TVDA GUIDE – PHONE.

We recommend saving it to your phone (for iPhone users, ‘Books’ is the best option) so you can refer to it on location even when there’s no signal. If you’re viewing it on a laptop browser it’ll appear to have huge print, so there’s also an A4 ‘leaflet’ version here: TVDA GUIDE A4.

If there’s anything you think is missing, or if you still have queries about the agreement – please let us know: info@camerabranch.org.uk. The agreement is also due for review, so we want to hear from anyone who’s had problems arising from it, or who has changes they want to suggest. It’s your chance to directly influence negotiations with Pact.