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A Labour History of Irish Film and Television Drama Production 1958-2016

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A Labour History of Irish Film and Television Drama Production 1958-2016 A Labour History of Irish Film and Television Drama Production 1958-2016 Denis Murphy, B.A. (Hons), M.A. (Hons) This thesis is submitted for the award of PhD January 2017 School of Communications Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Dublin City University Supervisor: Dr. Roddy Flynn I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD, is entirely my own work, and that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: ___________________________________ (Candidate) ID No.: 81407637 Date: _______________ 2 Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 12 The research problem ................................................................................................................................. 14 Local history, local Hollywood? ............................................................................................................... 16 Methodology and data sources ................................................................................................................ 18 Outline of chapters ........................................................................................................................................ 20 Chapter One – Towards a political economy of film labour in Ireland .......................... 23 1.1 The political economy of labour: illuminating the “blind spot” ......................................... 23 1.2. Ireland and the new international division of cultural labour .......................................... 28 1.3 Economic planning in Ireland since independence ................................................................. 33 1.4 Trade unions and the Irish economy ............................................................................................. 40 Summary and conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter Two – Work and human flourishing: capital, labour, and resistance ............ 50 2.1 Marx: capitalism, alienation, exploitation ................................................................................... 52 2.2 Creative labour: policy, definitions, tensions ............................................................................. 58 2.3 The purpose of trade unions ............................................................................................................. 65 Summary and conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 69 Chapter Three – Ardmore Studios in the 1950s and 1960s .............................................. 70 3.1 Irish Unions and Irish film: beginnings ........................................................................................ 72 3.2 Electrical storm: ETU vs. ETUI 1961-1962 ................................................................................. 77 3.3 Coming to a head: Of Human Bondage, Ardmore and the ETUI ......................................... 83 Summary and conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 89 Chapter Four – The 1970s: securing an industry .................................................................. 93 4.1 The Irish Film Workers Association and the ITGWU Dublin No. 7 Branch ................... 96 4.2 The Film Producers Association ................................................................................................... 101 4.3 The IAE-IAPI Agreement (1974) and its aftermath ............................................................. 106 3 4.4. The IFWA/IFTG and the quest for a Film Bill ........................................................................ 113 4.5 AnCO, the training question, and the US grip system .......................................................... 119 Summary and conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 121 Chapter Five – The 1980s: consolidation, growth, and State support ......................... 124 5.1 The ITGWU Film Section and the film industry in the 1980s .......................................... 125 5.2 The Film Acts (1980) ......................................................................................................................... 131 5.3 The importance of TV drama production ................................................................................. 139 5.4 The Commercial Agreement (1986) and “Blue Book” regulations (1988) ................ 144 5.5 The Section 35 tax incentive .......................................................................................................... 150 Summary and conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 153 Chapter Six – Peak union: film work in the 1990s. ............................................................. 156 6.1 Prepping for growth: the film industry in the 1990s. ......................................................... 158 6.2 Labour agreements in the 1990s ................................................................................................. 165 6.3 A two-tier industry? Concorde Anois, low-budget films and Section 35 .................... 174 6.4 Under fire: Irish Actors Equity in the 1990s ........................................................................... 180 Summary and conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 184 Chapter Seven – 2000-2015: the post-union era? ............................................................... 186 7.1 Boom to bust: film funding and the Tiger economy ............................................................. 189 7.2 SPI, Equity, and residual payments ............................................................................................. 191 7.3 Irish Equity, IAPI and the Competition Act .............................................................................. 201 7.4 Re-closing the shop: the ‘Shooting Crew’ Agreement (2010) .......................................... 204 7.5 The Irish Film Workers Association revived ........................................................................... 207 Summary and conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 213 Chapter Eight – Conclusion: a political economy of Irish screen labour ..................... 216 8.1 Film capital, film labour, and the State: the global and the local .................................... 218 8.2 A political economy of film labour in Ireland ......................................................................... 221 4 8.3 Conclusion: Where are we now? .................................................................................................. 227 Appendices ....................................................................................................................................... 232 Appendix A – Trade Union statistics (OECD data) ....................................................................... 233 Appendix B – Ardmore Studio Group of Unions (Studio Group) c.1962 ............................ 235 Appendix C – Ardmore Studios ownership 1958-2015 ............................................................. 236 Appendix D – Film labour agreements .............................................................................................. 238 Appendix E – Actor pay rates and use fees ...................................................................................... 240 Appendix F – Film industry employment by sector 1990-2010 ............................................ 244 Appendix G – Financial and employment data .............................................................................. 245 Appendix H – Unemployment as % of labour force. .................................................................... 247 Appendix I – Historical exchange rates 1958-2015 .................................................................... 248 Appendix J – Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation in Ireland 1953-2015 ....................... 256 Appendix K – List of interviewees ....................................................................................................... 259 Appendix L – Average industrial wage 1972-2015 ..................................................................... 261 Appendix M – Film worker and producer associations 1972-2015 ..................................... 263 References ........................................................................................................................................ 264 5 List of tables and figures Table 1 – Irish audiovisual sector employment in 2007 ..................................................................... 12 Table 2 – Influences on trade union growth and decline .................................................................... 41 Table 3 -
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