Production Safety for Film, Television and Video

Robin Small

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2000
• eBook ISBN: 9781136044335
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Covering all aspects of production safety, this is an invaluable reference guide for the independent programme maker, freelancer, manager, producer, tutor and student filmmaker. Robin Small identifies all the major risks and gives advice on how to control and/or eliminate them. Each hazard section includes useful references to the relevant legislation, documents and licences, as well as addresses of organisations for essential advice and recommended further reading. An appendix lists samples of vital certificates, with visual references provided on www.focalpress.com.



Important information about hazard identification, risk assessment and safety policy is provided in the chapters covering legislation, health and safety management, personal protective equipment and insurance. Particular hazards are then split into individual sections for ease of reference. These hazards include:

Asbestos
Cranes
Explosives and pyrotechnics
Food and catering
Manual handing and lifting
Visual display screens
Working at heights

The appendices provide comprehensive contact information for UK and European Heath and Safety sources. They also include sample forms to draw up your own safety system.

Robin Small is Senior Lecturer in Television, Media Department at the University of Huddersfield.

Part One

1 Introduction

The state of health and safety practice in the film and television business has been an area of concern for some time. The Health and Safety Executive has been worried about safety standards. Several recent accidents and deaths have resulted in enforcement action, prosecutions and fines brought under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The concern would appear justified as the number of actual accidents and incidents in the industry is believed to be much higher than the official statistics would show.

There is no doubt that good health and safety policies work where there is agreement and co-operation between employers and employees to remedy the situation. A positive culture creates the right atmosphere for good health and safety practice.

The majority of staff and freelances are keen to comply and improve health and safety, but there are few industry specific guidelines to follow unless you are lucky enough to still work for a large company such as the BBC or ITN. The industry union BECTU has been actively campaigning to improve this situation.

Company managers and producers can often be unsure of how to create a safety policy that will comply with legislation and yet deal with the scale and variation of production operations. Small employers are also naturally concerned about the costs of applying new health and safety legislation, much of which has resulted from European directives being implemented into UK health and safety law.

Workers, employees and unions are concerned at the growing number of health and safety hazards which they face daily and are worried about their welfare. Tutors to the growing legion of media and film students are faced with increasing numbers of productions but with no specific health and safety guidance to remedy the potentially dangerous situation.¹ The Committee of University Vice Chancellors has issued guidelines on health and safety which indicate a formal requirement for risk assessments for all student projects. It is particularly relevant to media, film and television work by students in universities, schools and colleges (Health and Safety Responsibilities of Supervisors Towards Postgraduate and Undergraduate Students, issued by the Committee of University Vice Chancellors, October 1999).

The challenge for the industry is to create a safety umbrella underneath which everyone in the film and television business will be protected. Freelances and stringers outside the health and safety umbrella of large companies are especially at risk, along with inexperienced and untrained student programme makers.

Protection of people and prevention of accidents is the ultimate aim of good health and safety practice. Producers and directors make crucial decisions which can affect health and safety for better or worse – for example, in the choice of locations, the equipment to be used, the shooting schedule, the action in the script and who to hire. At this stage it is so important to consider how such choices would affect health and safety, identify the potential hazards, and the level of risk to those involved.

The producer is firmly in the frame when it comes to responsibility for health and safety of production operations. They are in control of the activity. However, the range of locations and activities makes the health and safety of the film and television business a complex proposition since no two productions are the same and there is certainly no such thing as a typical production.

The hazards and risks which some workers face change all the time. A camera operator can have a short-term high risk assignment working in a war zone or sustain longer-term damage to health through lifting and carrying heavy equipment every day. Other groups of workers do the same job every day and can face long-term risks to health as a result – for example editors and journalists with eye strain caused by excessive time spent in front of computer display screens. So safety assessments must look at immediate dangers without losing sight of the longer-term risks. Non-production staff must also be considered to be at risk from long-term health risks, particularly cleaners, drivers, catering staff, electricians, maintenance fitters, mechanics, plumbers and security staff, as many of these may be contract workers.

In other words, policies and preventative measures should not just focus on accidents. They should also focus more on incidents and near misses which are the warning signs of unsafe practice. Analysis of incidents and near misses to identify problem areas, dangerous machinery, unsafe situations and dangerous conditions can be a hugely important and effective management tool in accident prevention. More priority should also be given to long-term health risks.

The safety policy should identify all hazardous areas of activity and which workers are at risk. Risk assessments must also take into account freelances and contractors. The selection of competent and experienced contractors and freelances is essential to ensure safe practice. Safe systems of work should be put in place before production activity starts as health and safety should be proactive rather than just reactive. The aim of good health and safety practice is to put protection in place and to control the level of risks to acceptable levels before production activity begins. Then to monitor regularly while filming. All risks must be reduced to acceptable levels by eliminating the most dangerous completely and reducing the potentially serious to minor risk levels. All involved in the production should feel confident that they will finish the day’s work in the same condition that they arrived in the morning through the establishment of a safe and controlled working environment free from significant risks.

Major areas of production operations where hazards have to be identified include the production office, the studio, the outside location, the constructed set and the premises of other people. Hazards in each of these work areas must be identified systematically, including factors such as catering, driving and stunts.

New hazards have surfaced in the last two years. For example the use of MDF in scenery and more recently mobile phones. (With regard to mobile phones, see Hazard 24, Lasers and Radiation. New reports on health risks of mobile phones have appeared including a recent study by the Polish Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Warsaw. Due to be completed in 2005, this research shows the strongest links yet – see Sunday Mirror, 26 March 2000.) This means that health and safety policies must keep up with changes in technology and new working practices.

Hazards can be inherent. For example moving fork lifts and machinery can be potential hazards to a documentary crew in a factory. While some hazards are adjacent to locations such as low power lines or low flying aircraft, a lot of hazards are introduced by production crews as part of the production process. For example working with chemicals, explosives, electricity, lighting and scaffolding. So hazard identification involves an initial search for things that might create or contain risks.

Having identified the hazards we then decide how risky they are and identify who would be affected. Groups of people affected could include actors, contractors, employees, presenters, the public, subcontractors and visitors. This process is called a risk assessment.

Risk assessment identifies all risks. Then action can be prioritized; beginning with the highest risks first. Risk assessments should be written down and identify any individuals or groups of workers potentially at risk from immediate accidents or long-term risks to their health. The results of risk assessments and the proposed control measures must be communicated to all concerned. Risk is quite simply probability versus severity. In other words, how likely is an accident to happen? What would be the result if it did? More importantly, identify who would be affected and how? Steps can then be taken to eliminate the risk, remove it, or substitute the proposed action for something safer.

In a recent BECTU freelance survey, only 46% of contracts had risk assessments; of these, 37% were not communicated to members. Hence 63% of freelances still do not have the protection of risk assessments (Stage, Screen and Radio, March 2000, p. 16).

It is then crucial to communicate health and safety rules and information to all concerned through production paperwork and briefings. The formal health and safety policy and guidance for visitors, contractors and staff should be written down and given out to everybody. The central question when an accident occurs is who was in control? The producer, director, manager or supervisor?

Film and television work can involve special stunts. A proper expert will do a much faster and more professional job and make it safer than someone inexperienced or incompetent. Always check the safety record and qualifications of any contractors and those experts who you have asked to plan or control any aspect of production work. So deal with the usual first and seek advice from specialized experts for the unusual.

Figure 1.1 Illustration taken from the cover of ‘Camera Operations on Location: Guidance for managers and camera crews,’ HSE, HS(G) 169, ISBN 0-7176-1346-1. Crown Copyright

The press have an appetite for covering the unusual, spectacular and often fatal accidents involving explosions, helicopters and stunts. Huge coverage was given to the Michael Lush accident. This type of coverage disguises the longer-term risks to occupational health and safety that can affect large groups of workers in the film and television industry.

Pre-occupation with the famous has also characterized press reports of accidents in the film and television business. The newspapers covered the deaths of Brendon Lee and Roy Kinnear and the serious injury to Anthea Turner. These cases are indicative of the high levels of risk involved to those in the public eye, but they disguise the health and safety risks that can also happen to those behind the camera.

A very common type of accident concerns individuals who have been working extended shifts and then have to drive a long distance home or on to the next...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Photo credits
• Copyright notice
• Disclaimer
• About the author
• List of acronyms
• Part One
• Part Two: Hazards
• Appendix 1: Licences and forms
• Appendix 2: Addresses of HSE offices
• Appendix 3: UK health and safety organizations
• Appendix 4: Safety books, magazines, posters and videos
• Appendix 5: European safety organizations
• Appendix 6: Production safety forms
• Appendix 7: Training organizations
• Index