Health and Safety

To make sure our health and safety during filming covered all possible dangerous areas, we did some research looking at other Council's rules of filming. These are the rules of filming for Hampshire:

"Hampshire has many unique locations from vast rural areas such as farmland and the New Forest National Park to seaside locations and industrial derelict sites. We also have a vast range of beautiful historic buildings as well as cottages and villages.  We will be happy to accommodate your needs where possible and we will always try and help with your filming requirements.

It is recognised that most production companies act in a responsible and professional manner. However, all film makers are asked to take their surroundings into consideration.

Productions must be sympathetic to the environment they want to use and work with any restrictions they find with locations that are in areas of outstanding natural beauty and are preserved or with historic buildings or monuments that are considered delicate and fragile.

The local authority has a duty of care towards residents and businesses and will exercise control if a particular production is causing an unreasonable nuisance or noise.

Every precaution must be taken to ensure the safety of the general public at all times and a contact number for the production must be available to the council and the police.

Clear guidelines of what the script or scene involves and appropriate caution must be taken for filming in sensitive areas or at unsocial times

Areas that require any sort of set building, dressing, disguising or are subject to any sort of special effects will require a grantee to be returned to a required standard.

This code of practice sets out the standards that we would ask production companies and/or their sub-contractors to follow while filming in Hampshire."

The first rule states that production must be sympathetic to the environment. In our piece, we use several props that could be harmful to the environment if not recycled in the proper way, such as the energy drink bottles or cans Bob uses. If we leave these around outside, an animal may get caught up in one of the props and gain an injury. It makes the environment look littered and unpleasant. On top of this, littering is a crime punishable by a fine. We will take care in recycling props and also storing them during production.

The second rule asks that you do not cause a nuisance or noise. This is a commonly followed rule regardless of filming. However, filming is excitable and fun and it is easy to cause noise and perhaps be a nuisance. This is not just a hazard towards our filming crew but also towards our actors as they too may get carried away. To resolve this problem, we will take responsibility for our actions making sure we are well mannered and behaved. As for the actors, we will keep them in check and if they do begin to be a nuisance we will deal with them appropriately. If their behaviour persists, they will be removed from the cast and a replacement will be found. This is unlikely to happen as we evaluated how well each actor performed and behaved during their auditions.

The third rule only partially applies to us. We are not a threat to the public, neither are we a professional production company, so we do not need to contact the local council or police. However, safety towards the public is an important part of filming. As a result, we will avoid anything dangerous or illegal, or anything that may appear so. If when directing we decide something else has to be changed that may be a hazard to the public, we will either find a secure location away from the public or find an alternative solution. Like our last rule, this is very unlikely to occur during production but will be considered during production.

We will have our script and storyboard with us throughout production so if questioned by a member of the public, we can show them our intended plans for filming. Also, we are not filming during unsocial hours or in crime sensitive areas. Rule four has been considered but poses no real threat to our production.

Rule five asks that anything changed in your filming area be put back to normal once your production is over. The only thing we will be changing during production is bedrooms to fit the characters. Once production is done in each location, we will carry out a clear up session and return the bedrooms to their previous state.

An example for health and safety guidelines for Essex was not available. However, Essex Council may consist of more rules and precautions that Hampshire Council may not have deemed necessary. Though minor, we must consider the following:

We are young and therefore stereotypically portrayed throughout media to be more inclined of being a nuisance. This may lead to adults feeling threatened towards us as it is uncommon to see seventeen year olds with filming equipment and setting up in a location. If someone’s home is within the frame of filming, we will ask for permission of the homeowner who will be fully aware of our intended actions. Other members of the public, whose homes may not be visible in the frame, that live nearby may ask what we are doing. If after explaining they still feel threatened and insist for us to leave, we will move location and avoid arguments or kicking up a fuss. This is unlikely to happen as Broomfield is generally a safe and calm village. If it did, however, we would not belittle ourselves to the stereotypical portrayal of our age group.

Another thing to consider is health conditions for our actors. We asked our actors if they had any specific allergies or medical requirements before filming. It was important we asked this as we do not want to harm our actors or put them at risk. An example where this information would be useful is when our character Tom eats a blueberry muffin in the film opening.

Scott Collins