Four Veterans Get Paid Jobs on the Set of Murdoch Mysteries
Four Canadian Armed Forces veterans are doing paid, hands-on work on the set of Murdoch Mysteries, the CBC drama. They are the first participants in a new scheme called Veterans Behind The Lens, which launched during Veterans' Week, the annual period of remembrance for Canada's service members.
The four are Madeleine Seed, Hector Perez, Dianne Neuman and Marcos Garcia. Each has been placed in a production department on the show. Deadline reports that Neuman is in lighting, Perez in props, Seed in set design and Garcia in construction.
Their backgrounds vary. Seed spent a decade as a boatswain, a senior sailor who runs a ship's deck crew, in the Royal Canadian Navy. Perez served 14 years across the Reserve Force, the Regular Force and Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. Garcia gave ten years to a tactical helicopter squadron. Neuman worked for ten years as an image technician, shooting stills photography and video for public affairs.
The placements run for 13 shooting days. That is the time it takes to make two hour-long specials, which are one-off episodes that run to the length of a full hour. During that time, the veterans shadow members of the technicians' union NABET 700-M Unifor in lighting, grip, props, set decoration and construction. Grip work covers the rigging and equipment that holds cameras and lights in place.
The initiative came from a collaboration between Shaftesbury, the production company behind Murdoch Mysteries, and Soldiers in the Arts. It is run in association with Vets On Set. That group was founded by documentary maker Jeremy Atherton and his brother Andrew Atherton, a retired Brigadier-General. Christina Jennings is Chairman and President of Shaftesbury.
The reason given for the scheme is employment. Veterans Affairs Canada statistics show that up to 8.9% of Canadian veterans are unemployed. Film and television sets have their own training path, with crews learning on the job, so a placement like this gives the four people a direct look at how a production is put together.
For viewers, the change is not on screen. The people in the programme are unchanged, and the series continues to be made by the same crews. What shifts is who is standing next to them on the day, learning the trade.
