Advocating for Safety in Production
Speak out for safety’s sake
Somebody told me recently of a wonderful device Weta developed for a woman who lost her legs. They made a tail for her, like a mermaid’s tail, so she can swim. When I was told about this I imagined the woman swimming lengths of a pool but she actually goes out into the sea to swim. What a wonderful freedom she has been given through the ingenuity of people in our industry. That is a thing that has always inspired me in my work in this business: the inventiveness of so many who work in the screen production industry.
That’s a good story to come out of recent times. Unfortunately there have been a couple of not-so-good stories recently too. A recent TV commercial shoot went into serious overtime, that is, it went over 24-hours…
Given that this was a well-established production company making an ad for a high-profile client I find it difficult to imagine how such a situation was allowed to happen. I hear that the shoot was scheduled to be a long day from the outset, so it should have been perfectly obvious that there was a problem looming if the shoot fell behind schedule. When it becomes obvious that a shoot will not be achieved within the allotted time then compromises are going to have to be made. Why is it that the compromise chosen in this instance was a compromise to health and safety rather than a compromise to the material being shot, or simply a call for another day of shooting? Of course the call for another day of shooting should have been made before the job even started. Once it became obvious – on the day – that the shoot was running away on them, then a compromise other than to health and safety should have been made. I know we all have a sense of commitment to ‘getting the job done’ but we do need to realise that there are more important things in life, life itself in particular. And the fact that the crew, though probably only some of the crew, will be paid large amounts of money because of the overtime they worked is no real compensation and is certainly no excuse for allowing such a situation to arise. Remember, this was scheduled to be a long day from the outset. I’m guessing it would have been evident from fairly early in the day that there was a problem looming. Some tough calls need to be made in such circumstances and those tough calls should not be made at the expense of people’s wellbeing.
If this had been a one-off situation, as it [hopefully] was with the production company in question, I may not be ranting on about it as I am, (tho I probably would actually, coz I do think it’s seriously out of order). Unfortunately there have been recent reports of other instances of safe working-hours being stretched past danger-point. It is all hearsay, but I don’t like hearing stories of a TV shoot pushing crew into long hours of driving on top of a long shooting day. It should be obvious to production staff and on-set crew alike when people’s safety is in jeopardy and alternative arrangements need to be made. The production may have to cover the cost of motel rooms for a night, or the cost of hiring in swing-drivers, or of stretching the shoot by a day, or dropping a day from the schedule. Why should life and limb be compromised for the sake of some moving pictures and sound?
In cases such as these the Techos’ Guild will be calling on the Department of Labour to get involved. We would much prefer it [of course] if we could rely on the good-sense and professionalism of crew and producers to make sensible and safe calls when unforeseen situations arise. In fact — in a mature and professional industry such as ours — I would expect such situations to be foreseen and thereby avoided. I wonder if in either or both of these recent situations there have been inexperienced production-crew making the calls? If that indeed were the case then I would expect experienced crew to override the unsafe calls by insisting alternative arrangements are made. We all have a shared responsibility to keep our working environments safe.
Remember, we freelancers are officially contractors [as has been recently and unequivocally confirmed] so we must be prepared to have a strong say in the way we are engaged and the way we do our work. Crew are often reluctant to speak out, but we must speak up if-and-when necessary to keep ourselves and others we are working with safe. The Techos’ Guild will have no qualms about exposing bad working practices. Please be prepared to speak up and do let us know of any situation which you think needs our attention.
