Canadian Occupational Safety

Lights, camera, safety Creative nature of show business pushes boundaries By Amanda Silliker K eith Perepelkin was a stuntman working on the 20th Century Fox fi lm Firestorm in 1996. A skydiving instructor with more than 3,000 jumps under his belt, he was tasked with jumping from a helicopter over Stawamus Chief in Squamish, B.C. to fi lm an aerial scene. But when his parachute failed to open, he fell to his death. The coroner's report called for the establishment of industry-wide safe practice codes, and Actsafe was born in 1998. Actsafe is a non-profi t association in Vancouver with a mission of pro- viding health and safety training and resources to British Columbia's motion picture and performing arts industries. "(The entertainment industry) is somewhat unorthodox. The regula- tors write regulations and guidelines based on general hazards, high-level stuff, nothing really specifi c, so fall protection looks very different in the motion picture industry than it does in construction where you don't want big, yellow visible D-ring vests on your stunt actor," says Geoff Teoli, executive director. Teoli became the executive director of Actsafe in 2013. Previously, he had worked as a location manager in the motion picture industry for studios such as Warner Bros., MGM and Sony Pictures. Safety has always been a big part of his role. "It was the department that was the most often dealing with the safety hazards, especially those ones related to site-specifi c hazard assessments, such as working in abandoned build- ings or fi lming off a rooftop on a high rise or car chases," he says. OHS mostly exists at the grassroots level in the entertainment industry — a safety offi cer on a project is very rare, says Teoli. Supervisors and individual departments on a production end up taking ownership of safety themselves. "You see a lot of creativity and ingenuity," says Teoli. "(There are) explosions, stunts, jumping off build- ings, car chases and they seem to be pretty high-risk stuff and they pull them off regularly without incident." A common issue in the industry is that the creative nature of the business can be at odds with safety. For exam- ple, sometimes workers may want to step outside permit boundaries when fi lming a motion picture in order to get the best possible shot. "The camera person takes a lot of pride. They are crafts people, they're artists and they want to help make the production as great as it can be," says Teoli. Issues most often arise when there are production changes. When fi lming a movie, assessments and hazard miti- gation are done before the production starts, but often something will change once the camera starts rolling. "That's where location managers or directors start to feel pressure because they have done a lot of work to get to a certain point and then they get there and for creative reasons they need to make adjustments, and sometimes those are done without the proper reassessment," says Teoli. Most of the injuries in the industry are sprains, strains and falls. Sets are constantly being erected and taken down, moving from one location to the next, all done by hand. "In the motion picture industry it's not uncommon for six to eight of those large semi trucks to be loaded and unloaded everyday when they're going on to a new location," says Teoli. "(The carts of equipment) weigh hundreds of pounds; they hurt when they go the wrong way or people fall off the back of a truck trying to move one around." In live concert venues, stagehands are pushing carts, boxes of gear and stage pieces by hand across the sta- dium fl oor which leads to hand, foot and ankle injuries. Performers also face risks when they are on stage. For example, in May, U2's guitarist The Edge fell off the stage during a concert in Vancouver. Performance spaces include all kinds of raised stages and elevation changes that create tripping and falling hazards — especially in low light conditions. "On a sound stage or a concert hall the lights are turned down so the audi- ence or camera can get the right effect but it makes it diffi cult for workers to see the edges," says Teoli. Actsafe offers safety courses specifi c to the performing arts and fi lm and television industry. Its general safety awareness course, which is mandated by some of the unions, covers topics such as rights and responsibilities, moving equipment and working out- side in extreme weather. It also has a new worker orientation that covers industry-wide hazards including light- ing and working on stages. Actsafe also offers a fi rearm safety awareness course to teach people how to work with and around replicas. "An entry-level person going into the props department or an assistant director who is trying to co-ordinate a shoot can better understand what to expect when working around weap- ons. And not just how to handle them, but what the safe distances are and why you don't point a weapon at any- body even when it's a fake," says Teoli. Last year, Actsafe began renting automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to its members. "Unions have members that have died on site due to cardiac arrest. And these were usually due to pre-existing conditions, however, had an AED been available in many of these cases, it might have been a better chance of survival," says Teoli. Actsafe is hoping to create an AED system and unifi ed training within the industry so when workers go from one job to another, the same piece of equipment will be there and they will know how to use it. The ultimate goal is for productions to start investing in the devices themselves. "We wanted to try and normalize it in the industry," says Teoli. "Once that happens, it's like a seat belt; you feel wrong without it." Actsafe has recently put together a task force on dancer health. "That's going to be challenging because dancers are athletes and we don't have a lot of ability to control an artistic athlete and their performance," says Teoli. "A lot of them push them- selves really hard and injuries become part of that lifestyle, but we're trying to see if there is anything we can do on the return to work side of it or educate younger dancers in the dance schools." 8 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com UP CLOSE Geoff Teoli, executive director, Actsafe Congratulations to the following OHS professionals who have recently been granted the Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) ® Professionnel en sécurité agréé du Canada (PSAC) ® designation. The BCRSP is a self-regulating, self-governing organization accredited by the Standards Council of Canada to ISO 17024 (Personnel Certification Body) and by BSI Management Systems to ISO 9001(Quality Management System). Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals/Conseil canadien des professionnels en sécurité agréés 6700 Century Avenue, Suite 100, Mississauga, ON L5N 6A4 905-567-7198, 1-888-279-2777, www.bcrsp.ca Clayton Abraham CRSP Shane Adam CRSP Adebola Adesida CRSP Islam Adra CRSP Brian Akkerman CRSP Boko Akou CRSP Mark Allan CRSP George Asamoah CRSP David Asekomhe CRSP Donald Ashley CRSP Harjot Aulakh CRSP Jerry Bankas CRSP Steve Bilan CRSP Christina Blair CRSP Ryan Blais CRSP Brice Bouwa Tsemo CRSP Ian Brennan CRSP Allison Burke CRSP Rodney Buysse CRSP Kurtis Calder CRSP Maria Calogeros CRSP Myrna Campbell CRSP Kristopher Carrington CRSP Rhea Cece CRSP Etienne Chabot CRSP Diane Chan CRSP Yanic Chiasson CRSP Michael Chua CRSP Wei Jie Chye CRSP Robert Clark CRSP John Clarke CRSP Justin Clarke CRSP Jason Clarkson CRSP Mary-Ann Clavette CRSP Neil Clements CRSP Timothy Collins CRSP Travis Cooper CRSP Teresa Corboy Kelly CRSP Darren Correia CRSP Kathleen Cote CRSP Kevin Cripps CRSP Daryl Davidson CRSP Madelyn Davidson CRSP Marivic De Guzman CRSP Danielle Desautels CRSP Raymond DeSmit CRSP Glenda Dodgson CRSP Brendon Eaglesham CRSP Jodi Engel CRSP Sashelle Finley CRSP Troy Forman CRSP Andrew Frenette CRSP Lindsay Friesen CRSP Brian Fushell CRSP Allen Gales CRSP Randy Gauthier CRSP Jenine Gebhart CRSP Randolph (Randy) Gordon CRSP Ramona Gossweiler CRSP Romeo Gould CRSP James Greenwood CRSP Robert Grimson CRSP Susan Gropp CRSP Tammy Hanson CRSP Bree Hawrylak CRSP Bradley Hayes CRSP Sean Henderson CRSP Manuel Herrera CRSP Barbara Hildebrandt CRSP Guy Hiltz CRSP Jennifer Hoey CRSP Thomas Hogg CRSP Steven Holan CRSP Lauren Hurley CRSP Richard Hutchinson CRSP Douglas Janzen CRSP Julie Johns CRSP Stephen Johnson CRSP Andrew Kamel CRSP Cindy Karpan CRSP Rennie Kissoonsingh CRSP Nickolas Kladas CRSP Justin Lajoie CRSP Darcy Lambe CRSP Jessica Levson CRSP Mark Lindsay CRSP Nataliya Lukasheva CRSP Tom Mackay CRSP Eugene MacMahon CRSP Tamera Madden CRSP Robert Marin CRSP Dustin Martin CRSP Megan Martin CRSP Ravinder Mavi CRSP Christian McCormick CRSP Lorraine McIntyre CRSP Brianna McLaggan CRSP Kristin Sean McPherson CRSP Shannon McWatters CRSP Lisa Medeiros CRSP Kelly Mikkelson CRSP Melissa Molloy CRSP Melissa Morin CRSP Joseph Moulton CRSP Amanda Muench CRSP Andrew Munn CRSP Adam Paoletic CRSP Richard Poulin CRSP Ali Akbar Qadirian CRSP Daryl P. Ramsay CRSP Michael Rau CRSP Peter Raycroft CRSP Kathryn Reichheld CRSP Troy Richardson CRSP Chad Roberts CRSP Maria Robibero CRSP Denine Rodrigues CRSP Scott Rogers CRSP Lee Rosenberg CRSP Preston Roy CRSP April Russell CRSP Susan Sawatzky CRSP Cindy Schiewek CRSP Kelly Schulp CRSP Dale Scott CRSP Steven Sharp CRSP Adam Shevalier CRSP Devon Sidwell CRSP Jake Siegner CRSP Daniel Smith CRSP Patrick Smyth CRSP Frances Spencer CRSP Marty Stephenson CRSP Cody Stern CRSP Christopher Taylor CRSP Travis Teague CRSP Billy To CRSP Tracy Lynn Umar CRSP Lorne Uruski CRSP Jolanda Van der Laak CRSP Maria Vomiero CRSP Jeffery Walter CRSP Jennifer Watson CRSP Patrick Sean Waugh CRSP David Wiebe CRSP Erwin Wiebe CRSP Heather Wilson CRSP Tony Wong-Hen CRSP Roger Zhang CRSP Derick Zimmerman CRSP Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals BCRSP_NewCRSPAnnouncment_June2015Examination_COS Magazine.indd 1 8/20/2015 10:22:02 AM

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