Safety
Addendum from October 21, 2021 (Written by Robert Daraio and/or "The Frontline")
IATSE Local 600 DP, Halyna Hutchins, died today because she showed up to work. Her children were orphaned today because she showed up for work. She deserves more than a moment of silence. She deserves every crew member in this industry putting down their tools and walking off the job. Shut it down. This has to stop.
There have been other high-profile fatalities on film sets involving prop guns and sloppy safety measures.
In 1993, Brandon Lee, 28, son of the late martial-arts star Bruce Lee, died after being hit by a .44-caliber slug while filming a death scene for the movie “The Crow.” The gun was supposed to have fired a blank, but an autopsy turned up a bullet lodged near his spine.
Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, tweeted: “Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on “Rust.” No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period.”
In 1984, actor Jon-Erik Hexum died after shooting himself in the head with a prop gun blank while pretending to play Russian roulette with a .44 Magnum on the set of the television series “Cover Up.”
Serious and sometimes fatal film set accidents are rare but have increased in recent years.
A 38-year-old crew member last month sustained critical injuries after a major fall at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood during construction for the Netflix film “Me Time,” which stars Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg.
“The Walking Dead” stuntman John Bernecker died in 2017 from injuries sustained while filming a scene in Georgia for the AMC series’ eighth season.
In the same state, crew member Sarah Jones was killed in a 2014 train accident during the making of “Midnight Rider,” and her family was awarded $11.2 million after filing a wrongful-death lawsuit.
A year earlier, a helicopter pilot, camera operator and crew member were killed in a helicopter crash in Acton during the filming of a reality series for Discovery Channel, the worst film-set accident in California in three decades.
Every year crew members are killed falling asleep while driving home from outrageously long shoot days.
Nobody should have to die making Films and Television.
Sarah Jones was an Assistant Camera Operator on several films. Her last film was "Midnight Rider," being shot in Georgia in February of 2014. It was her last film because she was hit by a train while the crew scurried from a train trestle on which they did not have permission to be filming.
She was 27 years old. Sarah and the other members of the cast and crew were duped by "above the line" crew (meaning producers and director) who knew that they did not have permission to film on the bridge. They gambled that a train wouldn't come through when they were filming. The producers lost their bet when a train--going 58 miles per hour chugged around the corner. And Sarah Jones lost her life.
In late 2014, as the court cases revolving around her death and the injury of other crew members continued, there was a particularly strong response in the film community to the apology issued by the film's director, Randall Miller.
Sarah Jones was an Assistant Camera Operator on several films. Her last film was "Midnight Rider," being shot in Georgia in February of 2014. It was her last film because she was hit by a freight train while the crew scurried from a train trestle on which they did not have permission to be filming.
She was 27 years old. Sarah and the other members of the cast and crew were duped by "above the line" crew (meaning producers and director) who knew that they did not have permission to film on the bridge. They gambled that a train wouldn't come through when they were filming. The producers lost their bet when a train--going 58 miles per hour chugged around the corner. And Sarah Jones lost her life.
In late 2014, as the court cases revolving around her death and the injury of other crew members continued, there was a particularly strong response in the film community to the apology issued by the film's director, Randall Miller.
I would really like for the DFM class to please read the blog post linked below. Written by Nick Carr, a location scout who (at the time) worked in New York City, he describes his reaction to the statement released by Miller. And, more instructively, he tells a story about his first years as a location scout and what the pressure of "making the day" or "getting the shot" can drive a crew to do.
Warning: Carr's Scouting NYC blog post linked below contains some rated-R language. I know you've heard the words before, but if you will be offended by the use of the f-word, please don't read the link below.
<a href="http://www.scoutingny.com/why-director-randall-millers-statement-on-sarah-jones-death-is-absolutely-grotesque/" target="_blank">http://www.scoutingny.com/why-director-randall-millers-statement-on-sarah-jones-death-is-absolutely-grotesque/</a>.
Please know, my dear students, that as much as I might rib or poke or pressure, I want you to please, please, please always be safe. Do not risk your life or your health for a shot. Do not risk the lives of others or their health for a shot. You must always recognize what's important--and getting an A in my class or getting the shot 'in the can' on a professional film set isn't the real important thing.
Warning: Carr's Scouting NYC blog post linked below contains some rated-R language. I know you've heard the words before, but if you will be offended by the use of the f-word, please don't read the article at this link: http://www.scoutingny.com/why-director-randall-millers-statement-on-sarah-jones-death-is-absolutely-grotesque/
(Alternative Google Doc created from post (including some of the comments section): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ADsSN4ky3tv2wEHmZs7dLfWsQwhWRiXUqha9sIYuVC8/edit?usp=sharing)
If you're short on time, please read Carr's remembrance of his own early career (on the blog post, the memory below is found below the second to last photo after the red text).
When I first heard of the incident last year, I found myself having a very emotional reaction. In particular, it brought me back to an incident that happened very early on in my career.
I was working as a locations production assistant (lowest job there is) on a large movie being helmed by a very famous director.
We were filming on a rooftop I’d scouted and helped to secure. Contracts were signed, insurance was in place, building reps were on site, riggers had prepped the location, and we were all ready for the shoot.
Then something unexpected happened. The director arrived on the rooftop, looked around, got a funny expression on his face, and announced we were on the wrong roof.
This was an extraordinarily odd thing to say, as not only had we scouted this very rooftop with him personally, we had later tech scouted it with the entire crew. Nevertheless, the director looked around, pointed at a neighboring rooftop, announced that that was where he wanted to film, and started off.
This sent the crew into pandemonium, and soon, everyone was frantically trying to haul equipment off our rooftop and get into the neighboring building where we had absolutely no permission to be. Mind you, this wasn’t a small independent film – it was a $100 million dollar studio film with a crew numbering well over 100.
The director managed to get into the building and took the elevator to the roof. The camera crew arrived next, and loaded up the intensely small, incredibly ancient elevator with gear. A few guys managed to squeeze in with it, and they started up.
The elevator got stuck somewhere between the 17th and 18th floor.
There was nothing we could do. We obviously didn’t have a super on call as we did at the original, planned location. Hell, we didn’t even know who the management company was. I recall an off-hand suggestion being made by a producer that if we were able to get in touch with management, to make the filming deal before letting them know about the elevator situation, as they might otherwise charge us more.
The crew members remained trapped in that elevator for about half an hour before we finally managed to locate someone who could get them down. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew used the stairs, and the director was able to get his shot, which lasted all of 4 seconds in the final film.
What I’ll never forget is a crew member turning to me right at the start of the whole fiasco and asking “Should we be doing this?”
All I could do was shrug. Who was I, a lowly locations production assistant, to stand in the way of a famous, well-respected director and hold up his $100 million film?
It chills me to think that had that same young locations PA been on set that day in Georgia and been asked the same question, he would have ultimately trusted his director, Randall Miller, and gone right up on that train trestle with Sarah Jones.
When I look at pictures of Sarah Jones, I see myself.
“Should we be doing this?”
The single saving grace about this horrific incident is the fact that we now have something to say when a simple “no” won’t suffice for people like Randall Miller, who disrespect their crew by treating filmmaking as an exercise in swashbuckling derring-do.
We’ll simply say “Sarah Jones.”
OUTCOME:
After reading, please make a response that accomplishes two tasks:
(1) indicate that you've read the article and recognize
(a) the importance of safety and
(b) the difficulty of prioritizing safety when getting the shot is emphasized.
(2) make a clear statement about how you will prioritize safety during the filming of your production.