Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance alleges there have been fewer Mortal Kombat production jobs than expected so far
SA’s entertainment union is challenging the Mortal Kombat production, claiming it has overstated the number of local jobs it will provide.
South Australia’s entertainment union is taking the fight to Hollywood blockbuster Mortal Kombat over providing work for local film crews.
MEAA state secretary Angelique Ivanika said she knew of senior film professionals who were unable to get jobs on the production, the biggest in the state’s filmmaking history.
“There are always going to be people brought in who have particular skills but we are concerned at the extent of experienced people here who appear to be missing out,” she said.
“We know that we have a very highly skilled workforce here.”
Ms Ivanika said the industry loved the South Australian Film Corporation and its support for screen making in the state but so far there were considerably fewer Mortal Kombat jobs than was expected.
“We are looking at crew at this point and we are hearing one in four or one in three are local,” Ms Ivanika said.
“We know that the amount of local people employed is far lower than was being said.”
The Innovations and Skills Minister, David Pisoni, whose government invested $6 million in bringing Mortal Kombat to the state, disputed the low rate of local hiring saying more jobs would come on stream as production increased in the next three months, many of them local.
In a statement he said that of a current crew of 428, 330 were locals and of 350 vendors, 220 were South Australian.
“We want to see as many locals as possible working on this film, including local tradespeople, and there will be many trades required as the production ramps up,” Mr Pisoni said.
“Along with locals working on Mortal Kombat, we’ll also have film professionals from interstate and overseas spending money in our hotels, hospitality and retails sectors, who will go on to become international ambassadors for South Australia.”
![Alexandra Milne and Matt Hampton pose for a picture at the Mortal Kombat Casting Call in Glenside, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2019. Picture: MATT LOXTON [0411216177]](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/ecca2ba19317f36eff772cf0f4294bfc?width=650)
The MEAA is particularly concerned at a more general watering down in the SAFC’s definition of who can be called a South Australian resident for the purposes of meeting funding requirements. Ms Ivanika said the definition had changed substantially.
“If you look at the (terms of trade) document from earlier this year compared with what is happening now, there are some very big changes in what is an SA resident,” she said.
“The definition of what an SA resident has been deleted and that in itself says a lot.”
She said a production of the scale of Mortal Kombat had the potential to create a lasting legacy but so far its impact was not being sufficiently felt.
“Everything that’s going on sounds really exciting on the surface but we are worried how that is going to translate through to our local industry,” she said.
She said the commitment from Mr Pisoni to provide 580 jobs was in addition to the 1000 or more jobs as extras that attracted a line of about 3000 hopefuls to Adelaide Studios on Saturday.
Filming on Mortal Kombat – based on the massively popular video game series that began in the 1990s – begins shooting in mid-September with post-production to continue until October next year.