What needs to be considered in terms of health and safety when working on a film production?
What can be put in place to ensure health and safety risks are minimized?
The Health and Safety
at any workplace is always very important as everyone needs to comply with the Health
and Safety at Work Act 1974. On a film production there are many aspects of the
job which involve equipment and tasks which could be dangerous as well as there
being a huge number of staff who could come into contact with hazards over a
period of months so making sure everyone is aware and correctly trained is a
big undertaking. The production company and the management are responsible
overall, but everyone is responsible for their own safety and should act
accordingly; if you are unsure or are untrained you should not be doing your
task as accidents can cost both you and the film production time and money as
well as being potentially life changing.
·
Risk Assessments- These should
be done regularly to identify potential accidents and injuries, again
flexibility is the key as staff and situations and equipment types change
throughout the production
·
Accident Reporting- everyone
should be aware of how to report and accident
·
Only authorised persons should
be in these roles and only trained staff should be supervising them-Lighting
(heat and electrics) , rigging and de-rigging, trip hazards of wires etc, stunts,
lifting heavy equipment
·
Fatigue and long hours- these
can cause many accidents so strict timetabling and the correct monitoring of
overtime is needed by the managers of the production. Correct breaks need to be
observed by all staff and managers as well as providing adequate food and drink
·
First Aid Kits must be on site
at all times and be filled with the correct items for the area that they are
involved with and the size of staff to be catered for. There should also be
trained First Aiders on site at all times and if something is booked which
could be potentially life-threatening more precautions need to be taken as well
as informing the Emergency services about what you are doing and asking for
advice and / or help.
·
The correct insurance for staff
and equipment should also be obtained before production starts and it is often
a good idea to get legal advice if the production has complicated stunts in or
heavy equipment is being used.
·
All
equipment should be checked on a regular basis and these checks need to be
logged
·
Fire
safety needs to be observed with everyone knowing where the evacuation points and
assembly points are , where the fire equipment is, who are the fire wards for
each shift/ area and how to report a fire or emergency; phones may need to be
provided for this if the signal is poor on location
An example of a risk
assessment is below, as well as two useful links on how to write them:
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