Assistant Directors Guild Of Great Britain

Its been a bit quiet on the western front recently. The main reason is all our AD’s who write and contribute to the site have either been working or looking for work in the harsh economic climate we now find ourselves in. But do not despair, the ADG believes that in the end quality is always rewarded and respected and that a job is just around the next corner!

We finally have a launch date for the forum which will appear in July. The delays are mainly due to software problems and our limited funds. But we have sorted that out so things are proceeding well.

Finally it was May day recently and it reminded us of a 1stAD who was recently offered £300.00 a week for a feature film with a well known production company. He turned it down but it is incredible that people are still offering these paltry sums and expecting people to accept them, never mind breaking the minimum wage law! We would ask AD’s to report to us companies paying contemptuously low wages and advise all AD’s to turn down work of this kind.

It is always a false economy to undercut your fellow AD’s, in the end wages will be driven down and we all lose out. Recently a lot of micro budget features have sprung up offering £650.00 for a 6 day week with 12hr days! Again these types of films are anathema to maintaining a healthly self-respect for the AD craft.

If a company is prepared to pay these kind of wages then they do not expect to have quality personnel in other roles too which will ultimately backfire on you, when you find yourself runnning the floor, poorly supported, poorly staffed and possibly in an unsafe and unfriendly enviroment. Remember invariably low budget means, low safety standards, disorganized production, and inexperienced crew. Fine for a small short, but not on a feature film involving many complex sequences, sfx and stunts.

In the spirit of May Day, we say we have nothing to lose but our GP300’s, they have a 50ft yacht to win, WORKING AD’s OF ALL COUNTRIES UNITE! (Apologies to Marx & Engels….)

We are really happy to say that we have been contacted by several companies looking to support, associate and in some cases offer discounts to ADG members. Check them all out on the ‘PRODUCT OFFERS!’ link.

This can only strengthen our guild and further raise our visibility. We would love to have more companies that specilise in film and TV joining us so please consider this a direct appeal to any film services or facility company that wants to add their name and support to our guild can they please contact us. We can then work out how we can help eachother. Thanks.

Please register your interest in the new ADG t-shirt at the ‘ADG Merchandise’ link if you fancy owning and wearing this piece of high fashion courture! If we have enough interest we can afford to make a few orders of stock.

The ADG would like to ask its members, especially the 1stAD’s amongst you to really make an effort to get your AD teams (2ndAD and 3rdADs) to join the guild. We really do need a stronger showing in these grades. Please try and be proactive in promoting the guild to your colleagues and AD teams as this will not only help them directly, but will eventually help us all. Thanks.

So whats new? Well all things going well the ‘Forum’ should finally be up and running by the end of february which is nice.

We have a new ‘Products’ page which has a growing list of ADG reccomended products. If you ever want to buy ANYTHING from Amazon again then please buy it through our link as this will support our site and means we can continue to offer all our services for free. Great eh?

In the ‘Resources’ section you can now advertise if you have a room available to members for a short let.

‘The Funny Bit’ contains a few new side splitting examples of AD humour…

In other breaking news we are currently in talks with some of our film industry pals and in the next few months we hope to bring you some unique discounts on services and products from several different companies. Watch this space!

As we outlined in our last post the long term goal of the ADG must be to become established and recognised as the definitive body that represents the very best drama Assistant Directors in Great Britain.

We also feel that the term ‘Assistant Director’ has been consistently devalued and far too loosely applied. It takes years of dedicated work to become an Assistant Director, and for good reason.

We believe the whole point of an organisation like the Guild is to be discerning. To re-establish, restore and recognise the value of an Assistant Directors work as a highly skilled specialised craft. This is our overriding ambition that informs all other goals.

By using a thorough application process to really make guild membership mean something we want to create an authentic seal of quality. It is only through upholding these high standards of care in the Assistant Directors craft that we can hope to the become the benchmark for production companies looking for an experienced AD who has actually earned his or her stripes.

The existence of the Guild will hopefully encourage employers to use the database in the knowledge of what a huge difference a first class AD team actually contributes to a drama production.

Finally on an entirely different note, we just wanted to mention that at some stage the ADG does intend to organise an informal social gathering of its members to chat and exchange ideas over a cup of tea. For the time being we will use the online forum (launching soon!) and email feedback from the membership to monitor the direction of the ADG. So far I’m glad to report, all the feedback has been entirely positive, praising the guild for it free membership, its focus on improving the standing of its members and the professional look and feel of the website. Thanks!

As we look into 2009 we want to achieve two main modest goals.

First we want to raise the worth and value of our members to employers by offering them the very best quality available in the Assistant Directors art. We will actively promote the guild, raising it’s visibility as the main resource and benchmark of quality when an employer is putting together an expereinced AD team.

Secondly we want to continue to raise membership numbers drawing on the very best the UK AD community has to offer.

Because we believe in community we will continue to offer MEMBERSHIP FREE with no charges for entry on the crew database (subject to your application being accepted).

We are working to make the site a modern open access community, with online resources and a place for information sharing. The forum for this will be launched in the near future. We will keep you posted.

We also want to take moment to say thank you for all the letters of support and encouragement and also to all those that have joined. It’s really nice to hear and see so much solidarity in the AD community.

Finally due to an overwhelming response from people signing up for membership we may take a little longer to contact all of you. Apologies for any delay.

Good luck for 2009!

The Assistant Directors Guild is a non-profit organistation that represents the Assistant Directors of Great Britain. We represent 1stAD’s, 2ndAD’s and 3rdAD’s.

There is no one organisation in the UK that solely represents Assistant Directors working in Film & TV. Among all occupations in the film and TV industries we are one of the most underrepresented and misunderstood grades.

It is therefore timely that a collective of Assistant Directors have set up the ADG to provide a forum and community for AD’s living and working in the UK.

Have a look around the site, and if you’d like to register as an AD Guild member, please click on the “Join the Guild” section. It’s free to apply!