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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Filming returns ‘Home’

The movie “Home of the Brave,” starring Samuel L. Jackson and 50 Cent, is back in Spokane after producers signed a union deal on Wednesday.

The production trucks, which had been sent to Vancouver, B.C., on Monday following a strike, made a U-turn and returned to Spokane on Wednesday.

“We’re very happy,” said Rich Cowan, of the local production company North by Northwest, which is filming the movie for Home of the Brave Productions, Inc. “We’re pleased to see the jobs and dollars return to Spokane.”

David Robinson, of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 488, said the producers encountered the same problems in Vancouver.

“I think they left town fully intending to shoot in Vancouver, but once there, they realized they couldn’t get a union crew there,” Robinson said. “The unions in Vancouver said, ‘We’re not going to work on this show.’ “

Home of the Brave Productions, Inc., which is financing the movie, negotiated through most of the day Tuesday with IATSE.

North by Northwest was not directly involved in the negotiations, and Cowan said he was not privy to all of the details, but he said that the financiers agreed to pay union scale.

Robinson was pleased with the outcome.

“Our goal is never to shut down a production,” Robinson said. “We like to see people working.”

Movie crew wages vary widely depending on the different jobs on a movie set. Cowan estimated that pay averaged between $200 and $350 a day before the deal, and these rates were in some cases not far different than union rates.

“In some cases, the (union) wages will be actually slightly lower than what we were paying,” Cowan said. “In some cases, they’ll be higher.”

Robinson said that “for most of the local crew, meaning the ones from Spokane and environs, the pay increases will be significant.” He said that even nonunion members will now get union scale and benefits.

The strike and subsequent confusion set back the production schedule by about a week, Cowan said. Filming locations will have to be prepared again.

At some locations, crews have had to paint a room three times: First, to paint it the color for filming; second, to restore it to its original color when filming was called off; and third, to “do it all over again,” Cowan said.