The International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 667, has taken steps to allow cash-strapped productions to use its camera technicians and make films with the visual proficiency needed to hope to ever find an audience.

Four years ago, the Toronto-based guild devised its Letter of Understanding, which enables productions usually in the $1.2-million to $2.7-million budget range to crew up with its people, which include directors of photography and the rest of the camera department. The agreement sees Local 667 technicians paid a flat rate slightly below scale, disregarding common penalties such as the occasional impingement on mealtimes, although overtime compensation does still apply.

While Local 667 reports it has had 16 of the agreements signed in 2002 to date – the most ever – at least one production falling within the budget parameters this year did not sign the Letter of Understanding, and some feel the union pushes it too hard.

Rick Perotto, business representative for Local 667, saw the introduction of the Letter as fulfilling an important need for both the union and low-budget producers.

‘The producers couldn’t afford our full agreement, so they would try to use our people behind our backs,’ he explains. ‘Our members didn’t like it; the producers didn’t like it. It’s not our style to force [producers] to work on [an agreement] they can’t afford. [Instead we decided to] get into a partnership and make it work out, and it’s been a terrific partnership, lining up an agreement to something they can afford.’

Of course, some productions would still be unable to pay union employees the lesser rates spelled out in the Letter of Understanding.

‘If we’re unable to get a contract on a production that’s got $500,000, then fine, you can use our people [at producers’ own rates],’ Perotto says.

But considering the time, money and energy the guild spends in training its members in such specialized areas as high-definition production and underwater shooting, he thinks producers who do come on board get strong value in return.

‘[We get] our people up to the standards we believe they should be at, so if a producer is hiring a 667 person, the producer should be satisfied with the quality of the [person] they’re getting.’

According to Perotto, those producers might not get the city’s top focus puller, but they could get a top second assistant camera who wants to pull focus or a ‘B’ camera focus puller who will work on ‘A’ camera. He adds that guild trainees are tested after one year and must score at least 90% before officially becoming loaders and second ACs.

Local 667’s jurisdiction includes Eastern Canada, while Local 669 looks after the West, the Manitoba/Ontario border being the divide. Agreements in Quebec, however, are arranged by the Syndicat des techniciennes et techniciens du cinema et de la video du Quebec.

And what if a film’s budget fell slightly above the $2.7-million mark?

‘We would put them on full agreement, but we’re a little more flexible,’ Perotto says. ‘We want to make it easy for them because we want the movie to be made and we want to be part of that.’

Rappaport Entertainment’s Derek Rappaport, producer of a series of Toronto-shooting MOWs for the U.S. SCI FI Channel including Devil’s Pass, reports that his US$2-million ($3.14 million) projects did not qualify for rate breaks from 667. [He did, however, get discounted hourly rates from the Directors Guild of Canada, IATSE Local 873 (studio technicians) and NABET 700 CEP (various technicians).]

‘I basically negotiated with camera to say ‘Can you give us some kind of leeway anywhere?’ and they gave us a break on their fringe benefits, but that’s all they could do,’ Rappaport recalls.

No such Luck

Local 667 was unable to get a Letter of Understanding signed by the producers of the drama Luck that shot in Toronto this summer. Directed by Peter Wellington and produced by Simone Urdl and Jennifer Weiss, the film was budgeted around $2 million as a non-union shoot, and the producers say they only heard from the guild after the budget was locked.

Urdl explains that going with a unionized crew would have nonetheless been difficult to accommodate within the budget of Luck, a gambling tale set over the course of hockey’s 1972 Summit Series.

‘Because we’re a period piece and we have a huge cast, the art department, wardrobe and vehicles are costing a lot more than they normally would,’ Urdl said during production. ‘We specifically went out to hire non-union people. To be asked a week before we’re going to principal to sign a deal with IA, we just couldn’t afford it.’

Perotto acknowledges the Luck producers’ difficulty in maneuvering within a locked budget, yet nonetheless took the step – which he calls unprecedented – of issuing a letter to his membership, obtained by Playback, requesting they not work on the film.

‘As the Letter of Understanding is very unobtrusive, and provides our membership with some protection without placing extreme financial hardship on a production, it has always been my opinion that if a producer has the ability to sign an agreement then one should be forthcoming,’ the letter reads.

For the guild to insist its members not work on a project can be very problematic from a producer’s point of view, considering most camera people within the guild’s jurisdiction – 98% according to Perotto – are 667 members.

But Luck was lucky in that it was able to snag a CSC Award-winning DOP in Luc Montpellier (Khaled, Foreign Objects). Montpellier was the only 667 member given special dispensation to work on the project, a move Perotto says is about ensuring Canadian DOPs get to work on prestigious low-budget Canuck projects such as Luck.

‘I understand [Perotto’s] position,’ says Urdl. ‘I’m pleased that he let us use Luc. Frankly, I think we have an amazing camera team who fortunately are not yet union. They probably will be by the next time we want to use them.’

She adds: ‘You can’t [go non-union] forever, because you do run out of people.’

Some are accusing the guild of strong-arm tactics.

‘It’s difficult enough to make a low-budget independent film,’ says a producer who does not want to be identified. ‘Indie companies should have the right to make a decision that is good for their production and not for the camera union. If they decide not to go with the union, then they should not be blacklisted.’

Meanwhile, the guild does have the support of producers such as Bill Niven of Halifax’s Idlewild Films, which coproduced the drama Marion Bridge with Sienna Films. As with Rappaport’s MOWs, the production fell outside the Letter of Understanding’s budget range but did negotiate with 667 over fringe benefits.

‘Trade unions and associations in general serve a purpose, and we all have to recognize what they’re trying to do and live within those limitations,’ Niven says. ‘We all want to support the guys that make the films, so in that sense you want to work with them.’

Insofar as the Letter of Understanding, Urdl believes greater industry awareness is needed.

‘The problem is a lack of understanding [on the part of] producers doing low-budget films of how flexible the unions can be and if they can be flexible,’ she says.

Both Perotto and Urdl say they are eager to sit down to discuss collaborating on future projects.

‘We’re all here to make the Canadian industry better, and if I have the resources to make strong cinematographers, camera assistants and so on and the will to share that with Canadian producers who don’t have [big] budgets, we have to be able to do something here,’ Perotto says.

-www.iatse667.com