Whatever job you do, you need to know about health and safety. In most companies a health and safety form has to be completed for every shoot, no matter how big or small, assessing all the risks, no matter how big or small. The forms are detailed, and there’s a lot of technical stuff that you need to know about doing risk assessment, which you’ll learn on the job. But the whole issue of health and safety is really quite simple, as long as you use your common sense. The big thing to remember is: no shot is worth getting somebody injured for.

A HEALTH AND SAFETY QUIZ

So, with that thought in mind, it’s quiz time again. (Oh good, we haven’t had one since Chapter 2!) Imagine this: you’re about to do a shoot in Florida. It’s for a children’s programme, so the presenter – let’s call her Candy – will be getting involved, taking part in all sorts of exciting activities. Here are the five stories that you’ll be shooting over your five days in Florida.

• 1.Candy learns to windsurf. She’ll be taught by a member of the American Olympic windsurfing team. And although Candy’s never done anything like this before, we’re promised that she’ll be able to sail on the open ocean by the end of the afternoon.
• 2.Candy goes into the Everglades with an alligator hunter, who says that Candy will be able to help him quite a lot, as it takes two people to hold down a fully grown gator...
• 3.Candy takes part in a rodeo. She can ride – according to her agent – so we’ve arranged for her to have a go at calf roping. And maybe steer wrestling. And perhaps a little light bull riding ...
• 4.Candy visits a facility called Working Wildlife, a place were they train animals for the movies. They’ve got everything, apparently: grizzly bears, lions, tigers, wolves ...
• 5.The highlight of the week: Candy gets to fly a fighter plane and have a dogfight. It’s a tourist thing, but the planes are real fighter trainers. The guns are replaced by lasers, and each plane has a detector. When you get a hit, the opposing plane starts to stream smoke from its tail. Brilliant!

So, here’s the quiz. Assess the risks of the whole shoot, and decide: what’s the most dangerous thing you’ll do all week?

Don’t look in the box below to see the answer until you’ve made a decision!

The correct answer is that the most dangerous thing you’ll do all week is ...

... drive to and from location every day.

Surprised? The problem with risk assessment is that it’s very difficult for an individual to consider risk logically. We’re all influenced by preconceptions and emotional responses. Intuitively it seems that riding in a rodeo must be more dangerous than driving, but statistically you’re far more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a car accident, especially when you’re driving on the wrong side of the road (remember, we’re in Florida!), and you’re tired after a hard day’s work.

Taking the examples one by one, let’s consider the risks. (By the way, I’ve shot all these items for programmes, although admittedly not in a single week!)

Monday, Candy learns to windsurf

First, check she can swim. Sounds obvious, but the obvious is often overlooked. And don’t just take the agent’s word for it – they’ll always say yes – but insist on speaking to the presenter direct, and make sure she knows exactly what you’re planning.

When we shot this item, the presenter learned in a sheltered, shallow marina, with no waves. About as safe as we could make it. Then we moved to a bay known locally as ‘Hurricane Gulch’, where things were a bit choppier! The presenter didn’t want to do it, and our instant risk assessment was that it was too dangerous. So we changed our minds – much to the presenter’s relief – and thought up a different ending to the story. And that’s lesson number one about health and safety: never be afraid to change your mind. If you’re not happy about the safety of a sequence, just say no! In British law, every individual at work is responsible for their own safety, and the safety of their workmates. It’s a criminal offence to be negligent – which means that if an accident happens and it’s proved to be your fault, you can be fined or sent to prison. So don’t take chances.

Tuesday, Candy goes gator hunting

Bobby the alligator hunter used to be an alligator poacher. Now he works for the Florida Wildlife Commission, catching and disposing of ‘nuisance alligators’; ones that have had the temerity to stray close to people. He’s survived into his sixties, and he still has all his limbs and other extremities, so he obviously understands gators. When we shot this story for real, we made sure that the crew had a proper briefing from Bobby first thing in the morning, so that everyone knew what to do if an alligator went for them. (For the record, in case it ever happens to you: you run in a zig-zag. Gators can outrun a human, but only in a straight line, and they’re very stupid and easily confused.) Note that we arranged the briefing before the shoot started, so that we had time to pay attention to what Bobby had to say, without having to worry about shots, sound, scripts or schedule. I also made sure that the call sheet specified that everyone should wear long-sleeved shirts and trousers rather than shorts, to protect against insects. And I bought a plentiful supply of rhino strength bug spray. In fact the cameraman was the only one on the crew who came close to being in an unsafe position that day. He got a bit too close to an alligator he was taping, probably because he was looking through the viewfinder, which isolated him from the reality of the experience. (Danger, objects in the viewfinder are closer than they appear!). He got a fright when the gator suddenly lunged at him. After that, he retreated to a safer filming position, and used a longer lens ...

So lesson two: do your utmost to ensure that everyone knows and understands the safety precautions, and has time to absorb the information.

Wednesday, Candy rides the rodeo

We shot this story at one of the top rodeos in the USA, so they didn’t want to soil their reputation with any nasty accidents. The presenter we used was a good rider, plus we insisted that she wear full safety gear: helmet, pads and gloves. Then on the day we decided to have the presenter only do an event called ‘goat tying’, which is how children start learning rodeo skills. There was still a chance that she might fall off, so we also checked that there was an ambulance and paramedics on hand (they were there for the real rodeo later). This is an example of an intrinsically dangerous activity that we made as safe as possible by putting ‘control measures’ in place. And it made a great item!

So lesson three is: just because something is dangerous, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it. But you must make sure that you’ve thought about all the things that might go wrong, and what control measures are needed. And always shoot with the best people – experts who know what they’re doing.

Thursday, Candy visits Working Wildlife

For the sake of the quiz, I moved this place to Florida from its real location in Los Angeles. Working Wildlife is where they train big, dangerous animals for movies. As the animal trainers got to know us, they started to offer more and more exciting things for us to do. Including: would we like our presenter to go for a walk with the lion? What would you say? The director and cameraman loved the idea. The presenter was less happy, and Tim the sound recordist wondered if, talking about danger, there was any danger of a tea break?

The director and I conferred and did an instant risk assessment. It went something like this:

Me: ‘Are you sure it’ll be safe?’

Him: ‘Yeah ...’

Me: ‘I suppose their whole business revolves around animals being safe with stars ...’

Him: ‘Right, let’s do it!’

Me: ‘And they told me that the lion was hand reared, and is very calm with people ...’

Him: ‘It’ll look fantastic with the mountains in the background.’

Me: ‘And the handler will have the lion on a choke chain all the time.’

Him: ‘Where did Tim get that cup of tea from?’

Well, you get the idea. It seemed to both of us that it would be a great shot, and the trainers wouldn’t have offered it if it wasn’t safe – their reputation relies on people not getting eaten by their lions! But as a precaution, I scribbled some safety notes down on the back of my copy of the call sheet – just to prove, if I ever needed to, that I had spent some time thinking about the risks. What happened next was interesting: the presenter was still scared, so I volunteered to have a go first, just to prove it was safe. The presenter agreed that if I didn’t get eaten, then she’d have a go too. And she did, and it made a great sequence. (Later on the same day a leopard went mad and ate Tim’s microphone – but that’s another story ...)

Lesson four: make sure you assess every activity for risks – even if it’s something set up at the last minute. And make sure you make a note of your assessment in writing. Just in case, your honour ...

Friday, Candy gets to fly a fighter plane and have a dogfight

The key here is that it’s a tourist attraction. Licensed, reputable and obviously safe – they take people up every day. So the only real safety question is: are we adding to the risks by taping? The planes were two seaters, so the crew couldn’t go up. So we shot this item by putting a minicam in the cockpit, with a cable running to a video recorder under one of the seats. We made sure that the pilot checked and approved the cable runs, and the positions of the camera and recorder. We also allowed plenty of time for the rig, so it could be done calmly and quietly. In fact on this particular day, ‘health’ was more of an issue than ‘safety’ – the presenter was violently airsick. She pleaded with us not to show the footage of her throwing up ... but of course we did!

So lesson five is: make sure that the shooting doesn’t make a safe activity dangerous. Be particularly aware of things like:

• cameras getting in the way in confined spaces such as cockpits of aircraft
• people concentrating on the filming instead of the activity
• and worst of all, people playing up to camera.

Years ago a well-known animal show did an item called ‘the world’s most poisonous snakes’, and they had 12 of the nastiest ones in the studio. They recorded the item, making great play of the doctor and nurse on standby just behind the cameras. Then the studio was cleared, leaving just the item producer and the handler to put the snakes away. But – and here’s the dangerous bit – the crew all gathered in the scene dock to watch the handler at work. He put away the most dangerous snakes first, carefully and methodically. But when he came to bag the swamp viper, he started playing to the crowd ... and the snake whipped round and plunged its fangs into his hand. With great presence of mind, the handler put the snake into its bag – and then collapsed onto the studio floor. Of course by this time the doctor and nurse had left the studio, and gone for their tea break. The handler was rushed to hospital by ambulance, given the antidote, and he lived to tell the tale – with a painful arm for a few months to remind him not to play to the gallery.

The production team were at fault though, for allowing the crew to watch. Boring though it is, they should have insisted on giving the handler time and space to do his job without distractions.

CHECKING WHAT’S IMPORTANT

To sum up, here are five important things to remember about health and safety:

• No shot, for any television programme, is so important that it’s worth somebody getting killed or injured for it.
• Everyone is responsible for everyone else’s safety, and you could face a hefty fine – or even a prison sentence – if you do cause someone to be injured.
• The most common cause of accidents and near misses in the television industry is falling or tripping over cables and other objects – not being eaten by lions or crushed by a charging steer.
• Because the most dangerous thing you’ll do all day is drive to location, always allow people plenty of time to get there. It’s rushing that causes accidents.
• You can do just about anything, as long as you employ good control measures.