P4 c) Following Safe Working Practises

Risks and how they were addressed:

Before shooting I carried out a risk assessment during my recce of each shoot location to find and evaluate the risks involved in shooting in those locations. My film does involve both indoor and outdoor scenes meaning a wide range of risks had to be assessed. The reason for doing this was so I could reduce the chance of breaking equipment and injuring crew or cast.

When shooting indoors we were in a confined space filled with lots of equipment, in order to avoid an accident I ensured that actors knew where to stand and were aware of the risks of tripping, I also moved unused equipment to the side of the room out of harms way. This meant nobody injured themselves or broke equipment during the shoot. I was also ensuring that electrical sockets were not being misused, ensuring that a safe number of sockets were in use to reduce fire hazard.

Props getting damaged could cause issues with the schedule as they would have to be repaired absorbing more time than necessary. This could be caused by actors dropping or snapping the props.

To reduce this risk I ensured the props were handled carefully and were only used when shooting, making sure everyone was aware of where they were, this meant no props were damaged on the day of the shoot, this was vital as the props involved in the indoor shoot were the main focus of the advert.

When shooting at my outdoor location I planned in advance for the shoot to take place on a sunny day as poor weather conditions can demoralise crew and cast, damage equipment and lead to slippery conditions increasing the chance of injury, avoiding this was key to the success of the shoot. However in case it did rain I had prepared waterproof clothing and footwear for myself and others.

When on set I used my risk assessment table to analyze the risks to myself and my actors, the table is shown below:

 Trip Hazard:

 

The shot above is one of the indoor shots I took with another actor indoors, the space we were shooting was made dangerous by the amount of equipment laying around, presenting real trip hazards if people were not aware of this it could of resulted in injury or damaged equipment. To avoid this I ensured that wires and equipment were put to one side and made others aware of the danger.

Damaging Props:

In this production we used model tanks and a board as props. If these props had been damaged by being dropped they could of been smashed thus we would be unable to use them, this would cost me time and money to replace the props and would postpone filming. To prevent this while on set I made sure only I handle the props and told actors to be careful when handling them. The image below shows one of the props.

Actors not arriving, Weather, tripping, footwear and lack of communication:

This still shows the range of risks the faced us during the outdoor shoot, my main risk for this shoot was my actors not turning up, to reduce this risk I helped transport them to the location as it was a rural location this helped me to stop this risk. As we were shooting outdoors in  the weather did pose a threat, heavy rain would of stopped the shoot, to avoid this I scheduled the shoot for a sunny/overcast day that would not threaten shoot conditions. I also packed waterproof clothing and covers for the equipment to reduce the effect of any rain, this also included wearing suitable footwear e.g Wellies to stop us getting wet and muddy feet. The final risk was a lack of communication due to being in a field, to reduce the impact of any consequences of this risk I informed locals of our whereabouts told friends and family and bought multiple fully charged phones to the shoot.