Blog 12- Health and Safety

During the production of our Florence and the Machine music video, I have understood all about the precautions needed to ensure the cast and crew are safe when filming the video.

Each time before shooting we have been givin a health and safety sheet to fill in which allows us to think about what hazards may occur during production. The first time we went out to film was going to be in a forest therefore there were lots of factors to consider before we went into the outdoor environment and how we would overcome these factors.
We had to consider that if the weather was bad we would have to re organise filming as the camera could become damaged in wet and windy conditions. We were going to have the cast standing and dancing on logs and on trees which could potentially be a hazard for them, therefore we had to check that the surfaces they stood on were not slippery and make sure that they were aware of any hazards around them. Also, the camera would be on a tripod for the duration of this filming time so we had to make sure that the tripod was on a stable surface and would not tip or collapse potentially damaging the camera.
We went out into the forest a few times for filiming production and each time we filled in a new health and safety sheet so we were continuously aware and thinking of the dangers.

The second part of out filming was done in a studio where there were more dangers to consider. We used lighting therefore there were lots of wires around the room which we had to be careful of and make sure that the cast were aware of. It was also in a very confined space so we decided that only four people could be in the room at one time to ensure there was less chance of anyone tripping or damaging equipment. As the shooting was done inside we did not have to consider re organising it as there was no danger of bad weather.

The health and safety section of this course has helped me to realise that filming is not only about the filming itself but that I also need to consider safety issues beforehand to assure there is less chance of anything going wrong before filming.