Cinema Canada (Apr 1976)

SER RULE LAL ERT EEA ERO LS LT ea TE I IT TD SLE IS AL oa Ne OSE OEE St SACRED beginning of the article, Mr. French has repeatedly and explicitly told me that such is not the case, and that no cameraman should be afraid to speak up if he has a beef with the Film Services — R.R.) “Fair and just increases in pay have not been made. For many years, when individuals have protested, management inferred that they would not do anything about the situation until pressure was brought to bear. “After many battles with the (film service) department, many of our members just gave up. There is no way we can get redress for the past, but we criticize in the strongest terms a system that allows such a situation to persist over the years... We _ believe that if the CBC Film Services are given the same guide lines as Engineering with respect to quality, some of the ills of the past may disappear.”’ Dissolve These are some excerpts from a rather impassioned document submitted by the C.S.C. There is a list of fees and increases carefully assembled, over the period of 1961 to 1973. These are rather meaningless in 1976, but here are some figures I’ve dug up. Believe me, they are true (see table below). Comparative Rates 1967 freelance cameraman F/L editors rental Arri BL cost of Arri BL cost of 5.9mm lens cost of 12-250mm rental of 5.9mm rental of 12-250mm cost of 12-120mm rental of 12-120mm cost of lightpackage rental of lightpack cost of ArriS rental of ArriS insurance camera O’Connor 50 cost O’Connor 50 rental car mileage/cost/mile average consumer rep. mileage for CBC $ 60 /8h. $ 56 /8h. Such are the hard facts of life that it isn’t feasible for a cameraman to buy a new camerapackage and go into business for himself. Yet there is a glut of cameramen on the market. Every day’s work that can be chiselled from the CBC and other outlets is hotly contended over. As a result, the CBC and others are making deals to get the best possible price. And we let that happen because we haven’t yet learned to stop eating. Answer Print And so we see a steadily deteriorating quality in the film work presented on the CBC and other outlets. Some cameramen operate equipment that is literally held together with glue, spit and baling wire. But, as I remarked earlier, Mr. French promised me that changes are definitely contemplated in the foreseeable future and that changes are under advice. However, it looks to me that there is very little chance that those changes will faithfully reflect the enormous revaluation of the equipment. Consider this. In 1967 the rental prices for camera equipment were based on about one percent a day of their value. Given the wear and tear on the gear on some assignments, like in the Far East, in war zones and the like, it was an adequate compensation. 1973 1976 Su 2 LUD Be ce LO, $ 80 / 8h. $85 $16,000 $1630 $7800 $15 $45 $2930 $15 $1330 $35 $5800 $15 $1125 $1280 $10 $0.31 $0.16 ROUGH CUT Consider also that the soundman usually got about two percent for his gear as the electronic components are more delicate and are apt to suffer more breakdown. The _ lightingman might realize around eight percent per day because he had a heavy burden replacing lightbulbs. For those among us who bought equipment several years ago, prevailing prices are not any more adequate as the cost of replacement gear is out of sight. Guess what an Arri SR or Aaton Beauviala would cost with, let’s say, four magazines. Would you believe twenty-four thousand dollars? A soundman plunking four to five thousand dollars down for a Nagra IV still gets $25 a day, now realizing 12%. His Sennheiser 815 microphone, in bygone days valued at $285 now will set him back around $700. The rental stays the same, at $15 a day. I don’t pretend to know what a lightingman is up against, but you can bet your (non existent) bottom dollar that his replacement bulbs have sky-rocketed out of sight. Release Print What will the CBC do in regard to these increases? I do not know and neither did Mr. French. He had a faraway and harried look on his face when we discussed these matters in the hallways of the fourth floor of the CBC building on 790 Bay street. I guess I felt sorry I had bothered him. You see, he had just discovered that someone swiped a 12-250mm zoom from a CBC filmcrew on location in Florida. It was bought, back in the sixties, for $2,300. He now has the problem of digging up seven thousand eight hundred bucks to replace it. Oo (Equipment News continued from p. 17) “The small format videotapes have not grown the way manufacturers forecast several years ago. Nor have they ‘taken over the world’ as was predicted. They have had a respectable growth but today we feel that most of the large orders for tape units have been filled and the industry must now depend on orders for smaller numbers of units. Rather than replacing film, we think that videotape will continue to go hand-in-hand with film.”’ Already there are reports that Teldec’s attempts to introduce video disc into Europe have not come up to expectations. April 1976/19