Navigating Post-covid Challenges

It’s a strange time now. I’m not sure if we are coming out of the shadow of Covid or if we are going to continue to be affected by it for an ongoing time.

It seems that other regions offshore who have gone through the Covid mill earlier are moving on with life, perhaps because we were comparably late to the Covid party and it's now hitting winter we are going to be caught in its effects well after other screen industry regions have moved on. I know one thing for sure we are likely to be wearing masks on set for a good long time to come.

I just hope that the schedule havoc that a constant stream of infections seems to cause a production will fade into the background as we get used to living with what is increasingly becoming another commonplace illness in your lives.

The passing of Paul Grinder recently was a huge shock to many in the New Zealand screen industry. Paul had been a fixture for decades as a First AD, Director, Producer, and all-around troubleshooter for many TV shows, productions, and commercials. Paul had a strong work ethic, a quirky and irreverent sense of humor, and a detailed understanding of filmmaking and how to get the best out of a crew. I have many memories of Paul from early days working with him on Xena in the 1990’s, Then the hazy crazy blood-soaked days on Spartacus second unit where Paul always seemed to be able to deliver the grotesque and sublime sequences the writers were after.

I, like many people, am going to miss him a lot. Paul Grinder was always a bit of a loner for as long as I had known him and in the gig economy, contract-based existence that many of our membership exist in you can feel isolated from time to time and combined with the long hours, people’s mental health and sense of connection can suffer.

The guild is wanting to have more networking events and more speaker courses, and activities where our members can network interact and generally connect with others in their field outside work. If anyone has any ideas for speakers, activities, or events that the guild can put on, reach out to your branch committee members and pass it on.

Brendon Durey.