Vancouver: A prime example of IATSE’s culture of home rule – where each of the approximately 25 locals works autonomously and implements its own initiatives – is a new promotional campaign by IATSE Local 667, eastern Canada’s camera unit.

Starting in mid-November, business representative Rick Perotto will fill the mailboxes of producers, directors, broadcasters and networks in Canada and the U.S. with a new promotional DVD. The first of its kind, the DVD set will feature more than 10 hours of demo reel material organized in a menu-driven system from 101 directors of photography. Members get up to eight minutes to showcase their camera talent.

The marketing initiative has been in the works for some time and, after completing the editing of the material, Perotto says the DVD highlights a prodigious amount of talent that should generate some new business for his members.

Membership at the camera local that covers Ontario to Newfoundland has grown on average 12% per year, with an unusual 16% spike from 2000 to 2001. Currently, the membership roster lists 700 members, with another 35 in the one-year apprenticeship program.

Perotto says the overall growth of the U.S. service sector has propelled the increased membership, but in the most recent year the domestic industry has also come alive in 667’s jurisdiction – enough to largely offset the decline of U.S. jobs in the wake of the SAG negotiations.

Business at IATSE Local 891, the technicians unit in B.C., was more severely affected by fears earlier this year of a potential U.S. actors strike. Business agent Elmar Theissen calls July and August ‘the black hole’ when production ground nearly to a halt in Vancouver.

Still, 2001 maintained the same level of volume (about $400 million in budgets) year-over-year, in large part because of the huge glut of work that was pushed through Vancouver prior to the SAG contract expiry date at the end of June.

The 891 membership roster stands at 4,000 people, about 400 more than in 2000. The permittee list of potential members has between 8,000 and 10,000 names.

Theissen says IATSE District 12, which encompasses IA locals from Vancouver Island east to Saskatoon and Regina, is a close-knit group that meets twice yearly to swap ideas, contract language and rates information.

Local 891, meanwhile, is an active participant in initiatives that keep the film and television production industry alive and growing. It contributes to B.C.’s Community Marketing Group, a cross-section of the B.C. industry that meets to deal with an array of issues including government lobbying.

‘We do our best to make politicians aware,’ says Theissen, referring to issues such as the endangered federal tax credits and the realities of the runaway production controversy.

Charlotte Shurko, business agent for Local 894, overseeing technicians in the Maritime provinces, stresses that her jurisdiction is much less affected by the runaway production controversy (and its incumbent tension with U.S.-based IA locals) because domestic production is the mainstay.

Local 894 has 600 full members (an increase of 20% over last year) and another 500 working toward full membership toiling on about 20 individual productions each year such as Made In Canada, Lexx and The Shipping News.

Tax incentives and labor rebates are key to the growth of the Maritime industry, says Shurko, and the union focuses on training to ensure it has the workforce to handle all kinds of productions, from low-budget art-house films to blockbusters with nine-figure budgets.

-www.iatse.lm.com