Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/551510
36 CINEMONTAGE / SUMMER 2015 the perfect person to rethink and remake her project. So, a year or so later, when she had a TV feature for CBS, she insisted that I be the editor. It was an IATSE production, so it required my joining the union. I was elated. I happily paid the initiation fees — and I think scale then was only around $675 a week — because it meant I was now free to be considered for union work." Needless to say, the scale is considerably higher these days, and the health benefits are a major factor in the three editors working union. "Having good health coverage when starting a family and raising children has been a huge benefit," Peretz maintains. "Of course, having a contract that insures certain protections like overtime and holiday pay has been a boon as well. Only once, early on, was I in a situation where I needed the Guild to intervene in a dispute about pay. After several months, they were able to collect for the crew — something we would not likely have been able to accomplish on our own." Before Tedeschi joined the union, "There was this sense that you had to work insane hours all the time in order to get the job done," he explains. "And for the most part, it didn't pay overtime. Now I still work insane hours, but the producers are more cognizant of it because they have to pay for it." That said, finding any work editing documentaries is difficult, but finding work on a union doc is daunting. "You have to hold strong," Tedeschi says. "You have to hold the job as union if they want to work with you. Not everyone is in that position, and it's not the easiest thing to do. But that's the ideal." "I wish there was more union work," Peretz adds. "I've been incredibly fortunate to have worked for producers committed to signing with the union, and I'm very appreciative. I realize that it's not always so easy for them. One producer I worked with — Sasha Reuther — was a first- time filmmaker with a small budget. His film, Brothers on the Line, was about his grandfather and uncles, their roles in the growth of the United Automobile Workers and their involvement with the social justice movement. Given the subject matter, Sasha knew from the start that he wanted to work with a union crew and was willing to assume the additional cost. But that is unfortunately unusual. I think a lot of people just assume that it will be too costly or that the paperwork will be too onerous. "If there was more union work, then more editors and assistants would be willing to join," she continues. "And if more people were union members, then producers would feel a greater need to work with union crews. Outreach, as Sasha has suggested, is also important so that producers are aware that the Guild is willing to work with them." Schopper expounds on that point: "Although the Guild really works hard to customize its deals and tries to work with both producer and editor to structure something that will work, you can't get around the fact that a union contract still adds extra dollars to the budget, and films aren't cheap to begin with. But we editors should try to push for a union job every time. That's almost impossible to do if you are starting out or are a new editor with a slim résumé, but if the producer wants you, you should try to make it happen. "I've met several really good editors who don't join the Guild because they are afraid they will be passed over in favor of a non-union editor," Schopper continues. "And when I point out that the union has nothing against working a non-union job, Deborah Peretz.