Health and Safety

Because of all the equipment we'll be working with and all the locations we'll be working on we can be put in some potentially dangerous situations, so we have to go over all the health and safety aspects of working in film and on film sets. The health and safety rules help us to prepare for the worst and make sure everyone is as safe as they can be, we were introduced with a presentation of risks that you may find on a film set, we were also shown previous mistakes and in some cases deaths on film sets that happened due to lack of health and safety procedures. The main example that stuck with me was the accidental deaths on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie where actor Vic Morrow and two Chinese child actors were killed in a helicopter accident, it shocked me because you automatically assume that on such a big production you were safe and that many people were there to ensure that but even on huge film productions things can still go wrong.

We were shown the risk assessment papers that have to be filled out before any shoot, to show you have recognised all potential risks with your production and that you have done all you can do to make people aware of what hazards the location, props or actors may cause. There is a certain way of ranking these risks and there are charts that help you decided what type of risk they are depending on there likeliness to happen and the seriousness of the risk. We were also visited by a member of Cleveland Police to show us about counter terrorism and received a presentation on what it was and how we can help. Because of the situations we may find ourselves in due to our productions and studies, we may be seen as acting with suspicious behaviour so it's important to let people around us know who we are and what were doing, it's also important to let the police know where we are and what were doing if it's in any public space where we might cause a disturbance or any dangerous place where we might need permission.

Many of the health and safety risks in a film study are quite obvious but many times forgotten, equipment like studio lights and cameras are quite hazardous because there heavy and connected to many wires that run all over the set, it's key to make sure everything is set up to the high standards they need to be to ensure the safety of the cast and crew. It was great that we had these lessons and presentations to remind us of the dangers that we will be working on and with throughout the coming years, they were many risks that I had already known about and some that are common sense but there was also many that I was unaware off and I am now far better off with this new knowledge.

-Mikey Barker