NCFE Write up, Week Three

4.1 Why is health and safety important when working on film productions?

Health and safety is important when working on film productions as you need to take note of the possible risks, and work to prevent them to ensure that no-one gets injured. Quite often there are many people working on a film, block buster films in particular, which might mean that there is more of a risk of someone getting hurt due to the mass production scale meaning there is a lot happening at the same time. As a producer it is down to them in ensuring that there cast and crew are safe, by sticking to health and safety guidelines and filling out risk assessments. Health and safety is an important aspect when making a film to consider, because if a member of the cast or crew was to get injured while on set, they could take legal action. Another consequence to a member of the cast and crew becoming injured, is the film falling behind the schedule due to there being missing members that need to be replaced.

4.1 What are some of the key safety issues relating to film production?

There are many safety issues relating to film production, which apply to the cast and the crew. Some issues that would only apply to the actors are stage fighting and stunts which could go wrong if they are not done correctly. The producer should evaluate these two risks and decide whether they think it is safe to go ahead with.

Safety issues that could affect both cast and crew might involve hazards based around the set, such as the set falling over, dangerous props, cast or crew tripping over hazards on set or hanging studio lights falling. Again the producer should evaluate these risks, but the responsibility is also on the set designer, to ensure that their set is safe to use by the cast and crew.