Do We Know How to Blow the Whistle?

What would happen if you were witness to something that required intervention for safety and you perceived yourself as ‘just a lowly crew’ – it’s not my place to comment? I’m a freelancer and they won’t employ me again? – What if the issue you witnessed was so extreme that you had the compunction to become a ‘whistle blower’?

What would you do?

Who would you call?

Over the years I can count the near misses on one hand – but that’s still five too many. Gung-ho and ripping yarns after work over a beer, stories like lying across the skids of a helicopter on a couple of planks, and driving too fast on the tracking vehicle and then there was the time we hung off a frozen waterfall... and, and well you get it. But surviving the wild west was probably more about good luck rather than good management eh? – We don’t do that shit no more. Yeah nah, we have the bluebook and now we get fed properly and have adequate turnaround and reasonable hours? Really?

We used to slap each other on the back and laugh at the ‘race to the bottom’ joke as if we hadn’t heard it before… hilarious eh. I’ve had a couple of conversations this year with crew that have felt that we have pushed the edges of ‘reasonable behaviour’ in a few areas. Mainly (as it transpires) on our local productions where the budgets are really tight. Damage to property and people being put in jeopardy. Have we regressed as a few have proffered? Have we actually hit the proverbial bottom… did we win the race?

Perhaps $4mil for a local movie and a 29-day shoot is not enough money to do the job properly, to do the job without cutting those corners?

The call sheet arrives for the next day. It’s our daily contract with the work and the producers, it has stuff in it like how many pages of screenplay are expected to be shot, where we are working and what the hazards might be. Special requirements could be things like alerts for water and weather hazards or simply where the crew park their cars.

Perhaps we can be treating this document more like the addition to the deal – perhaps an extension of the contract? After all, we are just hired guns and we work in the film factory… and at the end of the day it’s not really that special or that important. It’s a job eh and you don’t want to get hurt at work or hurt anyone else while you are doing your work.

There is a bit of slapdash tradition about the place, it’s sort of ingrained in the culture – ‘it’s just one quick shot’ – it’s a bit risky but it won’t take that long, just one take should do it? – But maybe all this is just leading to the proverbial ‘accident waiting to happen?’ Already fatigue while driving has its share of victims, ACC pays for the funeral but the production company can’t be sued.

The health and safety stuff is on the back page of the call sheet next to the mud-maps for the parking and it’s not just about those two much photocopied pages of how to approach a helicopter by not walking into the tail-rotor either.

Like most of us we just read the call time and quickly scan the first setup and head to the pub promising ourselves we’ll read the rest later. How do we get more involved in this process?

So when the safety guys say ‘not on my watch’ why are the producers thinking that a renegotiation is an option? And I’m talking stuff that is beyond working kids over their six hours - I’m talking stuff that could do real harm, like kid actors putting their heads under water in a hot pool.

Work conditions are maybe getting seriously challenged in this country. There’s pressure out there to ‘make hay’ in this freelance world while the opportunity is there which are creating more extreme conditions, exacerbated with costs going up and budgets staying the same. The USA has had their Sarah Jones incident (Midnight Rider) when the camera assistant was killed on a shoot because the location manager and safety department had been ignored. A splitter crew, with the director, defied protocol and filmed on the railway bridge anyway. The train they didn’t see coming hit the crew.

Does the bluebook still have the cut through and just because we are not a union does it give the producers permission to renegotiate on the hoof? Purposes of safety are not a negotiation, they are in the bluebook for a good reason.

If I wanted to be blunt, our world is certainly divided into a time before Cave Creek and a time after Pike River and now we live in a time of this Whaakari/White Island adventure tourism debate that is just beginning.

There’s a very good reason that we have swing drivers for our trucks and there are rules around working with child actors. Those meal breaks were a hard fought piece of diplomacy, not to mention negotiating the ‘turn-around time’; there’s also a really good reason why we have the bluebook and why all those many hours of intervention and discussion are not up for grabs.

When the bluebook is treated as the beginning point of a negotiation it is a sign to leave the job – somethings are just not up for negotiation. Some off-shore productions might think because this isn’t steeped in endless legalese that the bluebook has little veracity… this is not the case and the guild should know about this if anyone thinks differently.

Many stories, but there’s only one call sheet and one production diary and master file. If a child dies from meningococcal disease by putting their head underwater for a film shoot what are we going to do? – And - ‘their parents agreed to the risk’ is not the correct answer. When you work with kids the hours are not a negotiation neither is putting their lives at risk and ACC is not something to hide behind.

Chain of command – the 1st AD is working for the producer, they are in control of the production schedule… that schedule has to consider things like hours worked when children are involved – it’s the law of the land.

Road closure for shooting – yes I know it would be cheaper if all we had to do is just slow the traffic and give everyone Hi-Viz-jackets – i.e. not close the road - but we close roads to make it safe… it’s a work space and we want everyone to get through the day (or night) safely and when the sign says don’t put your head under the water meningococcal alert and you arrive into the carpark and the producers are negotiating with the children parents… who you gonna call?

So like the safety rules on the back perhaps we get the crew rep to put on the call sheet a list of things that are not up for renegotiation, a reminder to the management let’s say?

Like a shopping list that we can refer to? Have it laminated and nailed up in every work truck.

And when you break the rules, or pressure the production, the crew tend to talk so we know who those producers are.

Let’s not work in that industry eh?

There is a reason we use swing drivers and when the signs at the beach say unsafe for swimming this is not a negotiation, and why are we still using polystyrene in our set building?

So when I get phone calls from crew who are worried when they see the producers in the carpark renegotiating health and safety issues, I’m going to write about it in this magazine… we are TECHO’s but not a union.

The management will be the first to tell you that but that doesn’t give them the right to renegotiate those things that are not up for negotiation.

You know who you are.