Producers and crew members have health and safety responsibilities on film productions. Reasonably practicable steps must be taken to protect workers from risks like ensuring adequate lighting in warehouses or making hazardous equipment safe. One experienced crew member should be aware of health and safety issues for each production. Past productions like The Conqueror, The Twilight Zone, and The Crow highlight how failures to follow safety procedures can lead to accidents that harm crew or cast. Proper risk assessment, safety checks, and avoiding illegal child labor can help prevent such tragedies.

1. Health and Safety
Understanding Video Technology

2.  Producers should ensure, so far as is
reasonably practicable, that persons working
with and for them are not exposed to risks to
their health and safety.
However…
Individual workers/production crew
Individual workers, location managers and production crew also
have key health and safety responsibilities:
AND that is to take reasonable care of themselves and others
who may be affected by what they do or fail to do;

3. An example of what may be considered reasonably practicable
would be if location filming was taking place in a warehouse with
poor lighting. It would be appropriate to ensure that extra lighting is
used and that all sharp or otherwise hazardous equipment is made
safe.
On a professional set you should have at least one experienced
member of the crew who is aware of health and safety issues.
Some genres may pose more risks than others i.e. horror or action
films or scenes involving animals. The production team should
discuss safety issues before filming begins and take steps to avoid
or reduce the risks identified.

4. www.hse.gov.uk-
OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
 High standards of health and safety in production
can only be achieved and maintained by
everyone involved in the industry playing their
part. This means recognising and accepting the
different obligations and responsibilities that
health and safety legislation places upon
individuals or organisations.
 Under health and safety legislation, the ultimate
responsibility for health and safety rests with the
employers involved and the organisations in
control of premises and facilities.

5. www.hse.gov.uk-
OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The underlying need is for the production
company to establish appropriate
organisational structures that support risk
control and place health and safety alongside
editorial and/or dramatic considerations.
 There should also be good planning,
communication, co-operation and co-
ordination by and between all parties
involved throughout a production.

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=SZvp4sdfdaY
 Health and Safety at work video

7.  Step 1 Look for hazards
Don’t get bogged down with trivial hazards; concentrate on those posing a significant risk of injury or harm.
 Step 2 Decide who might be harmed and how
Think about who may be affected and those who are particularly at risk.
 Step 3 Evaluate the risk
Consider the chance and severity of harm that each hazard may cause, taking existing control
measures into account.
Judge whether an actual risk (high, medium or low) is likely from the identified hazard. Determine the
necessary control measures using the following hierarchy of approach:
avoid the risk completely; but if this is not possible
reduce the risk to acceptable levels;
provide training and instruction, and personal protective equipment if the risks cannot be controlled in any
other way;
reduce risk at source by developing safe systems of working, giving collective measures priority.
 Step 4 Record the significant findings
The significant findings of the risk assessment should be recorded and communicated to those
people who may be affected. In practice, this means ensuring that the production team and any
contractors are informed of the significant hazards, the likely risks and the required control
measures. Keep a record for future reference, it will help to demonstrate compliance with legal
duties. The legal requirement to record findings applies if five or more people are employed but
smaller companies are recommended to record details in order to show that they have carried out
risk assessment.
 Step 5 Review and revise your risk assessment
New hazards can be introduced if there is any significant change in the activity, equipment,
substances or procedures. Risk assessments should be revised following any significant change or
when they become out of date. If there have been no changes, the assessment should be
reviewed at least once every three years to ensure that the precautions are still working
effectively.

8. Write down
three potential
health and
safety hazards.
At least one for
each photograph

9. H&S Case Studies
Extreme Cases
The Conqueror
The Twilight Zone
The Crow

10. The Conqueror
 The Conqueror is a 1956
CinemaScope epic film
produced by Howard Hughes
and starring John Wayne as the
Mongol conqueror Genghis
Khan. Other performers
included Susan Hayward,
Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro
Armendáriz.
The picture was directed by actor/director Dick Powell. The
film was principally shot near St. George, Utah.

11. Nuclear testing
The picture was a critical and commercial failure (often
ranked as one of the worst films of the 1950s). The
exterior scenes were shot on location near St. George,
Utah, 137 miles (220 km) downwind of the United States
government's Nevada Test Site.
In 1953, extensive above-ground nuclear weapons testing
occurred at the test site, as part of Operation Upshot-
Knothole. The cast and crew spent many difficult weeks on
location, and in addition Hughes later shipped 60 tons of
dirt back to Hollywood in order to lend verisimilitude to
studio re-shoots.
The film-makers knew about the nuclear tests but the
federal government reassured residents that the tests
caused no hazard to public health

12. Cancer
Dick Powell died of cancer in January 1963,
only a few years after the picture's
completion. Pedro Armendáriz was diagnosed
with kidney cancer in 1960 and committed
suicide in 1963 after he learned it was
terminal.
Hayward, Wayne, and Moorehead all died of
cancer in the mid to late 1970s.
In total 91 of the 221 people involved in the
production died of cancer related illnesses.

13. The Twilight Zone
Twilight Zone: The Movie
is a 1983 film produced by
Steven Spielberg and John
Landis as a theatrical
version of The Twilight Zone,
a 1959 and '60s TV series
created by Rod Serling.

14. Accident
 On July 23, 1982, actor Vic Morrow and child
actors Myca Dinh Le (age 7) and Renee Shin-Yi
Chen (age 6) died in an accident involving a
helicopter being used on the set.
 The two children, it was later discovered, had
been hired illegally. Their parents were paid
$500 in cash.
 During the scene, where Morrow has to carry the
two children whilst wading across a river, Landis,
using a loud haler, ordered the helicopter to get
‘lower and lower’ as it buzzed above the actors.

15. Against all safety procedures, a court later found
that the helicopter flew to low to the ground and
lost control.
The copters right skid slammed into one child,
killing her immediately. At the same time the
main rotor blade ripped off Morrow’s head and
also the head and shoulder of the other child.
John Landis was eventually acquitted after a long
trial but was censored by The Directors Guild of
America for ‘unprofessional conduct’.

16. Legal Action
 The accident led to legal action against the
film-makers which lasted nearly a decade,
and changed the regulations involving
children working on movie sets at night and
during special effects-heavy scenes.
 Hollywood also avoided helicopter-related
stunts for many years, until the CGI
revolution of the 1990s made it possible to
use digital versions.

17. Accident
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djVBzr
ucNLY
This is the actual camera footage of the
accident. You do not have to watch this if
you don’t want to.

18. The Crow
While filming during the last
weeks of production,
Brandon Lee was mortally
wounded when a dummy
bullet, which had become
lodged in one of the prop
guns, was shot into his
abdomen by a squib.
He was taken to an local
hospital where he later died.
There were eight days left
before shooting of the film
was to be completed.

19. Blank Cartridges
 When the time came to film the scene where
Michael Massee shoots Lee's character, the same
gun was loaded with blank cartridges.
 Unknown to the crew, the bullet from one of the
dummy rounds had become lodged in the barrel
of the gun.
 It is believed that someone on set was playing
with the gun, pulled the trigger, and
inadvertently caused the live primer to fire; this
would have resulted in the bullet moving a
couple of inches into the barrel of the gun.

20. Safety Checks
 When the gun was operated, the propellant in
the blank rounds — which is used to give the
visible effect of a gunshot — dislodged the bullet,
which penetrated Lee's abdomen and lodged in
his spine. The injury caused massive blood loss.
 As the production company had sent the firearms
specialist home early, responsibility for the guns
was given to a prop assistant who was not aware
of the rule for checking all firearms before and
after any handling. Therefore, the barrel was not
checked for obstructions when it came time to
load it with the blank rounds.

21. Your Responsibilites
Health and Safety is everybody's
responsibility!
Make sure that you complete
detailed and through Health and
Safety Risk Assessments for all
productions.