British directors have warned U.K. TV toppers to stop marginalizing them and their work or risk undermining program quality and even lower ratings.
The broadside came at Thursday’s launch of Directors U.K., a lobbying group inspired by the Directors Guild of America.
“This is a time of revolutionary change in our industry, and it is crucial that directors are strongly represented,” said Directors U.K. chairman Charles Sturridge.
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He added: “Over the past few years we have seen a decline in both the creative and economic rights of the director, and we believe that this threatens the quality and efficiency of program making.”
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Flanked by some of the cream of British directing talent, including Directors U.K. prexy Paul Greengrass, Peter Kosminksy and David Yates, Sturridge said it is crucial that helmers’ voices are heard as the effects of the digital age begin to accelerate.
Directors U.K. aims to forge close working relationships with international directors’ orgs and improve directors’ status, rights, working and creative conditions, and, crucially, boost fees.
The org combines the roles previously played by the collection body, the Directors and Producers Rights Society, and the Directors Guild of Great Britain.
The guild, which deregistered as a union last year, passed responsibility for industrial matters concerning theater members to Equity and for film and TV members to the DPRS, which rebranded itself as Directors U.K.
Those attending the launch heard how directors’ pay in British TV has frozen for the last decade. While the power of network executives and commissioners has grown, helmers are being hired further into the production process and shown the door sooner.
“A lot of work needs to be done to ensure that our creative rights are not eroded in the TV industry,” said Yates, the “Harry Potter” director who also made BBC political thriller “State of Play.”
The new org has a membership of nearly 4,000 U.K. directors working across film, TV and new media. One of its first initiatives, U.K. Finders, will showcase tyro directors’ work at industry screenings in London, New York and Los Angeles.
