Safety concerns

[Will Vincent]

I'm wondering how many of us actually hold safety meetings during our productions?​

I have not previously, however I will be this time around. Speaking of, I thought I would throw up a post with some safety info that I'm covering in my meetings, and probably relevant to others as well (especially regarding the use of dry ice, as I know that topic comes up frequently...)​

FOG created with dry ice​

Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. Dry ice has a surface temperature of -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit (-78.5 Celsius). Due to its extremely cold temperature, and sublimation of heavier than air gases, there are a few issues to keep in mind if you are asked to transport or work with dry ice. ​

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• If handling dry ice, you MUST wear heavy gloves. The super-cold surface temperature can easily damage your skin if you touch it directly. (For the same reason, you never want to taste or swallow dry ice either.)​
• Another important concern is ventilation. Being heavier than air, the carbon dioxide gas sublimated from a block of dry ice can concentrate in low areas or enclosed spaces. Normal air is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, and only 0.035% Carbon Dioxide. If the air rises above 5% Carbon Dioxide it can become toxic.
  For this reason, if asked to transport dry ice, make sure at least one window remains opened in your vehicle, and ensure film sets are well ventilated before, during, and after usage. ​

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Personal Safety Considerations​

These are just good every day things to keep in mind, but if you're shooting on location in a big city, especially at night, very important...​

Gang related safety information​

• Remember that gang members can be as young as twelve to thirteen years old. ​
• While on location, avoid wearing red, blue, or black clothing, such as caps, bandannas, jackets, or anything similar to gang attire. ​
• While on location, be aware of others wearing red, blue, or black clothing, such as caps, bandannas, jackets or team clothing or colors. ​
• Be aware of two or more individuals wearing similar clothing of any kind. Many gang members will follow a particular dress code, including having similar haircuts. ​
• Be aware of a vehicle with three or more occupants that is parked or moving slowly down a street or alley. ​
• If nearby gunfire breaks out at any time, immediately drop to the ground, face first. Stay down until gunfire ceases, then, go to a safe place. ​

Additional Safety Suggestions​

• Whenever possible, be with other people from your group or company. There is safety in numbers. ​
• Whenever possible, stay in sight of other group members. ​
• Know how you appear to others at all times. Do you stand out in a particular area because of your race, sex, or dress? ​
• Never wear expensive or showy jewelry or clothing (i.e., watch, rings, bracelets, necklace, leather jacket). ​
• Carry small amounts of cash at any time. ​
• Whenever possible, use a buddy system while on location ("I’ll keep an eye on you, and you keep an eye on me."). ​

Taking Action

• Always walk down the middle of a street, especially at night; walking on sidewalks close to buildings, alleys, bushes and hidden areas can be dangerous. ​
• If you notice a group of men staring at you, glancing at you one at a time, or pointing toward you, run or walk away quickly. If you must walk near them, show no fear. Show confidence in your walk and do not stop. You may choose to look directly at one of them, straight in the eye, acknowledging confidently that you see them. Remember, this should be a non-threatening gesture. ​
• When dealing with street or neighborhood people, be aware of everything around you (i.e., people, physical environment). ​

Conflict Resolution ​

• Treat other person with respect.
• Listen until you understand the other person’s point of view. ​
• Express your own views, needs, feelings. ​
• Use body language to communicate with the other person (face him or her directly, maintain "open" posture, make eye contact). ​
• Avoid sarcasm. ​
• Negotiate. ​

If you get into a precarious situation, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I outnumbered? ​
• Is he or she outnumbered? ​
• Am I concerned? ​
• Can I get to safety if needed? ​
• Are tempers increasing? ​
• Is he or she or are they under the influence of alcohol or drugs? ​
• Can I see both his or her hands (or are they hidden?) ​
• Can I see a weapon? ​
• How much distance is between this person and myself? ​
• Are my actions threatening or challenging him or her or them? ​
• Do I feel physically threatened? ​
• What or how am I feeling right now? ​
• Am I prepared to fight? ​

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Safe filmmaking everyone! ​

 

[CootDog]

Will, I have to say that I've been very impressed with the quality of your posts.. You are giving me a lot of information that I can use on my next production.

Thank you very much, and keep up the good work!

 

[Will Vincent]

I'm here for you man..

 

[SPaulovich]

Thanks, Will. That really is some great information.

It's definitely worth planning a pre-production meeting to go over these issues where applicable.

 

[clive]

In the UK we're required to complete written risk assessments for any piece of work. Those written risk assessments are kept in the production file. The reason that that's important, is because when there is an accident if you can demonstrate that you have taken all reasonable precautions to avoid harm then you are less likely to be held liable if you are taken to court. These days that's a real risk.

The risk assessment looks at evey activity that is part of the production, looks at the potential hazzards and outlines the proceedures to minimise the risks.

Risks are broken down into:

Location risks (ie. near a busy road or fifty feet up a rock face)
Chemical Risk (your dry ice comes into this category)
Electrical Risks (pretty obvious stuff - use of lights/cameras/generators)
Trip hazzards (cables etc)
Vehicles (car chases, crew vehicles, the catering truck)
Prop hazzards (masks that restrict vision, running with pointy sticks, furniture made of broken glass)
Pyros and Armoury (done separately because you need licensed personnel to use thema nd they do their own written assessments)
and finally personel risks (things that crew or cast will be asked to do that present a hazzard to them or others, stunt work of any kind goes in here)

Once you've identified the potential risks, you also set a level that you think the risk represents.

1 = minor injury (cuts, scratches, minor bruising)
2 = non permanent injuries (stuff that lays you up but from which you'll easily recover - sprains, major bruising, torn muscles)
3 = serious injury (broken bones, anything that would cause an A&E visit but unlikely to cause permanent disability)
4 = disabling (non fatal, permanently disabling injury)
5 = fatality

You also rate the risk from low chance of occurence, up to very high chance of occurance.

So, if you have a risk that is either a four or a five you have to demonstrate that you have put systems in place that make the chance of an accident happening to almost zero. With lower levels of risk you have to put in place less rigerous precautions.

However, getting back to your question, safety briefings with the cast and crew are part of this process.
Basically, one of the ways of decreasing the risks and also covering yourself legally is to brief people on potential hazzards. If you've told people that they aren't to go anywhere near the old lift shaft, taped the area off and padlocked the gate and someone still manages to find a way to fall down the shaft you are pretty much covered, in that you can show it was their negligence and not yours.

The other thing to keep on set is an sccident book, where every incident is logged and witnessed at the time it happens. You wouldn't believe how useful these things are in keeping you out of court, and this applies regardless of the size of the production. The second you have people working for you on a production, even if they are unpaid, as the producer you take responsibilty for them.

On most of the productions I've done the 1st AD tends to do the risk assesments. Simply because they have control of the moment to moment running of the production. The 1st AD also take responsibilty for seeing that the safety protocols as set out in the risk assessments are undertaken properly.

On larger production the risk assesments are the responsibilty of the various department heads and are discussed as part of production meetings. Again the first AD would make sure that there were holes in the assesment, where one department was planning to do something that onely became a risk because of the actions of another department.

Lots more I could write about this stuff, but time is against me.

 

[Shaw]

Always.

I like to shoot outdoors a lot so my list often deals with the terrain in question, potential problems such as property lines (etc), even bear deterent.

There's not a whole lot of Gang culture here in Montana =D. You can pretty much do whatever you want at night so long as you don't spook (some - depends on location) of the locals. You might be looking down the barrel of a shotgun if that happens.

 

[Will Vincent]

A spooked Montana Mountain Man with shotgun in tow would probably scare me more than a gang banger..

Clive: Thanks for the excellent post. This is the kind of thread I was hoping to start.

 

[clive]

I'll try to write some more later, but I'm short of both time and internet access at the moment. Hence the even higher level of typos in my posts this week.

What I will say is that in the environment of indie film making risk assesments are even more important. Inexperienced actors and crew are more likely to take risk in order to get the job done. I don't know how many times actors have said stuff to me like "Don't worry about that, I'll just jump out of the window. " or even "Hey dude, I can throw myself down the stairs, really, I want to do it, look let me show you" or my personal favorite "don't worry about the fake blood, just get the other actor to punch me in the face, I get nose bleeds real easy."

I think getting the crew to take safety seriously is a major part of the job on an indie shoot, that jsut isn't the case with more commercial work where people know the ropes, and how not to trip over them.