On-Set Safety: Who to Include on Your Call Sheet

On-set safety is a crucial element to the filmmaking process. From intimacy coordination to on-set advocates, taking precautionary measures during all aspects of production will allow for a more successful production that your cast and crew remember fondly. Being in charge of a set can be stressful, but prioritizing the safety and comfort of others will allow everyone to put their best self forward in a comfortable environment. 

Call Times - Let People Rest

When creating schedules and call sheets, an amateur assistant director might forget to include crucial details like meal breaks or rest time between shoot days due to the stress of getting all of your shots in on time, but giving your cast and crew the appropriate amount of rest could truly make or break your set. An overworked, tired crew will not only create a worse product, but could become a serious safety hazard. This is not just an issue in independent or low-budget filmmaking, either: large film studios and television networks have had repeated issues with giving crew enough time to rest. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon comes from the 2006 documentary Who Needs Sleep?, directed by Haskell Wexler, which chronicles the effects that long hours in distant locations have on filmmakers. The film tells the tale of Brent Hershman, an assistant camera operator on the set of Pleasantville (1998), who passed away after falling asleep at the wheel coming home from a 19 hour shift. This 19 hour shift was not an isolated incident, either – Hershman worked multiple 19 hour days in a row that week, with a short turnaround time between days that was diminished further by his hour and a half commute to and from set. 

All of these factors should be considered when putting a call sheet together. Questions you should be asking yourself include how long are you going between days, how long do you shoot before your first meal break, and how far is your location from your cast and crew members? Not only is this a safety hazard when not considered, but you could be in legal trouble as well. Specific laws will be different everywhere, but typically contracts will have people working 10-12 hours a day. More importantly, 12 hours is the standard turnaround time, or time between leaving set one day and arriving the next. Production workers worldwide are looking to shorten these standard hours even more, with U.K. filmmakers promoting a study alongside the BBC that deemed the current 10 hour workdays “unsustainable,” with shorter days being a potential solution to crew shortages. 

As a general rule of thumb, especially as an independent filmmaker, ensure that no one in your cast and crew is called for longer than 10 hours, and that everyone has the appropriate amount of time to return home. Meal breaks should be standard practice, and if you fall off schedule, don’t make your cast and crew suffer for it – work with your Assistant Director, Director, Director of Photography, and producers in order to cut unnecessary shots later on in the shoot. 

Intimate Scenes

The role of intimacy coordinators is relatively new to the film industry, but has quickly created a new standard for the filming of intimate or provocative scenes. The role of the intimacy coordinator is to choreograph intimate scenes and advocate for the safety and comfort of everyone on set during those scenes. Intimacy coordinators are an incredible asset to productions that feature explicit content such as simulated sex, nude scenes, or otherwise vulnerable scenes. They communicate between actors and the director to plan intimate scenes so that everyone is aware of what will be happening on the day – crew included. 

Choreographing, or preparing, the intimate scene is another aspect of an intimacy coordinator’s role. Actors will often feel more empowered if they know exactly what the boundaries of a scene are. No one wants to be surprised with a full nude scene when they get to set, especially if they have not agreed to that prior. Part of an intimacy coordinator’s role is to maintain the boundaries established in previous discussions and rehearsals of the intimate scenes of a film, whether that means boundaries between actors participating, crew working, or the director’s vision. 

Even if hiring an intimacy coordinator is out of your budget, having someone whose sole focus during intimate scenes is the comfort of everyone in the room is a great way to maintain a comfortable atmosphere on set. Additional tips for filming intimate scenes include having lots of breaks for the actors and crew, working with a skeleton crew, and ensuring privacy for actors immediately before and after filming. 

Weapons and Stunts

Questions regarding the use of weapons in film and television opened up recently after Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while filming Rust in 2021 due to the mishandling of a firearm. The ability to practice safe weapons use and coordinate safe stunt scenes is an extremely important skill for filmmakers to understand, especially due to the stressful environment that set can create. Because being on-set can be so stressful, pre-production work when prepping for stunt scenes or weapons use is the most important aspect of making sure everyone is safe on set. By planning everything beforehand, everyone knows what to expect once they get on set, and no one is wasting time trying to figure out what’s going on with the stunt scenes or weapons. 

The role of a stunt coordinator is to choreograph and prepare actors and crew for stunt scenes. On large budget productions, this will often include the use of professional stunt doubles, but smaller stunts or lower budget films will typically have actors completing their own stunts. Obviously, preparing actors with proper equipment is important, from crash mats to harnesses or wiring. Other elements to consider when completing pre-production for stunts include considering where the camera will be, and what camera movements or cuts you can make to keep the actors in as safe of a position as possible. Additionally, when on set, limiting the number of physically intensive stunts that you do will help keep the actors healthy when continuing with the rest of the shoot. 

The pre-production work for an armorer or weapons master, the people in charge of handling all weapons on set, involves noting all weapons that will be in scenes on both their marked script and on the shooting schedule. Then, the armorer should review all weapons prior to them being needed on set – this will ensure nothing is rushed day-of. All cast and crew involved in a scene with weapons should be briefed on the weapons being used, how dangerous they are, and their severity. For example, a completely fake gun is very different from a B.B. gun, or firing blanks. Similarly, a prop knife and a real knife can cause varying levels of damage. These briefings should happen during a production safety meeting, which would ideally be prior to arriving to set. However, if necessary, this can be conducted the morning-of. 

During production, the armorer’s sole focus is on the weapon and keeping it safe. If it needs to be loaded, an armorer will ensure that it is empty prior to its use. Additionally, they will hand the weapon to the actor using it at the last possible second before shooting, taking it back in between takes and immediately after use. During use, they will review the actor’s use of the weapon. This will ensure that no one who does not know how to use the weapon, or was not cleared to use it, will be handling it the entire time it is on set. Additionally, armorers and stunt coordinators alike should not be rushed while on set. No matter how stressful the day has been or how rushed you might be to get that shot, these jobs are not what should be sacrificed in order to squeeze that shot in, especially if you are working with elaborate stunts or serious weapons like guns. 

General Tips

If you are working on a low-budget film, it might not be possible for you to hire these specialized roles. However, having someone dedicated to on-set safety can change the atmosphere of your production and make below the line crew members feel a lot safer when reporting problems. Often, this role goes to the assistant director, although it could also go to an assistant producer or on-set advocate, depending on the needs of your individual production. This person should not be the director, producers, or cinematographers, as their focus on portraying a creative vision might make actors or crew members afraid to speak out if their actions are making them uncomfortable. 

Knowing which scenes are emotionally and physically more taxing is another important thing to note, that way you know not to rush through these specific scenes. For example, do not rush your armorer to be up for a shot in five minutes if something is wrong with the weapon, and make sure actors are given enough time to take breaks during intimate scenes if necessary. Explicitly noting these scenes when creating a schedule, so that you know they cannot be cut short, is another way to accomplish this. 

Lastly, overpreparing your cast and crew for all potential safety liabilities is the best way to promote a safe set. A well thought out production safety meeting will keep safety on everyone’s mind. If you set an example as a leader by explicitly prioritizing safety and comfort over your final product, that will set the tone for the rest of your crew to follow. 

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