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Oct. 24th, 2021 08:44 pm1. Claudia Black on Film Set Safety - So, I started following Claudia Black on Twitter recently. Anyhow, she's been posting these amazing threads about how to handle life on a film set.
The link above is to the latest thread.
"If you’re an aspiring actor, and as my advice was good enough for a young Mcavoy I pray you’ll listen now.
When we were filming Pitch Black a producer came to give me a choice. They had a problem and needed to do a reshoot with me and a stuntie. The shoot thus far had been rough he crew was exhausted. 6 day weeks are unsustainable. Mistakes happen when crews are tired and often on the 6th day. The crew couldn’t say “no” to another Saturday but I could. I asked when they needed a decision & went to speak with some crew. I made sure that they themselves were choosing —rest vs an overtime paycheck— I would not presume to know their needs and priorities. They chose safety and rest. “Safety First,” is after all, an oft heard refrain on any decent set with its priorities in check. I returned to the producer and told him I was too tired and didn’t want to work the Saturday. He looked at me for a few seconds. I was a good actor and a bad liar. He went to say something, nodded instead and rescheduled. We do a lot of things on sets that would otherwise be illegal. It can be thrilling. It’s a privilege."
This was in response to the tragic shooting of a film photographer on a film set by Alec Baldwin. The shooting is being investigated, but so far appears to have been accidental and unintentional. AP NEWS COVERAGE of ON-Set misfiring of a gun that killed director of photography on the set of Rust
BTW there is a lot on this on Twitter - enough to demonstrate to me at least that Baldwin and his fellow producers cut some corners, and did not follow safety protocols on set, nor did they take measures to ensure their film crew was safe and well rested. There's one thread where a crew member is complaining about how crew members couldn't find a place to sleep that was close by, and that the producers refused to find one or pay for rooms, outside of a motel that was doubling as a homeless shelter. (This thread horrified Claudia Black.) Another thread made it clear that the Assistant Director wasn't attending safety meetings and pooh-poohing them as a waste of time. And wasn't taking the fire arm safety seriously. And another thread makes it clear how odd this was, and out of the norm - meaning normally strict safety protocols are followed and there's no way this would have happened if those safety protocols had been followed.
I'm in an industry where we have to take a four-hour safety training course each year in order to be near or on the tracks. And I'm inundated with safety protocols. We have Safety Meetings once a month. So I can well imagine what a film set that utilizes stunts and fire arms would require or should. Also recently the union representing television, theater, and film crews went on strike in part due to the lack of appropriate safety measures on film and television sets.
Days before the actor fatally shot Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer on the set of “Rust,” a gun used in the production inadvertently went off at least two times, ex-crew members said. The incidents prompted a complaint to a supervisor about the safety practices on the set, which was outside Santa Fe. The crew members were among several workers who quit just hours before the fatal shooting over complaints about working conditions and unpaid work.
According to an affidavit, Baldwin was told that the gun was safe before he fired it, and an assistant director “did not know live rounds were in the prop-gun” when he gave it to him.
According to Twitter feeds, the assistant director didn't know because he didn't attend the safety course. The Fire Arm specialist, put the guns on the prop table. The AD picked up one and handed it to the actor, who then fired it, killing Hutchins and wounding the director.
Per the Times:
( here's what they know and don't know about the fatal shooting - and it kind of syncs with the twitter feeds )
[Right now various folks in the entertainment industry are petitioning that firearms be banned from film and television sets in the future, and they rely on special effects. I can't blame them. And why not? Also, it does make me wonder about the violence in our films and television series - and how easy it is for stuff to go wrong.}
2. There's two intriguing new comic series coming from BOOM! - involving the Angel and Buffy verses.
* Angel Goes Hollywood with New Comic
( New Angel Comics - Angel is in a television series by day and fights monsters by night )
Shame they can't reboot that as a television series. Honestly that's the one version of the old vampire as detective they haven't done. I'd watch it. They don't have to make it Angel. Or they could and recast with a hotter actor?
* Buffy The Last Slayer - has a 50 something Buffy fighting vampires in a dystopian future, with Spike, and a sword wielding gray-haired Xander.
( 50 year old Buffy the Vampire Slayer )
I wish they'd do that as a television series too - on Netflix. They could hire Claudia Black to play a 50 something Buffy, with Marsters as Spike, and recast Ben Browder as Xander.
BOOM! Studios - snatched the rights to Buffy, Angel, and Firefly from Dark Horse and IDW. And have rebooted the stories in new directions. I stopped with the reboots. But the above two takes look intriguing. And I may go back and sample some of the reboots.
[Note - Whedon may have been an asshole to work with, but I still like what he created with various other writers and actors. It's a universe I still enjoy. Also Stephen DeKnight, Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson along with Tim Minear - were all good writers. As were the actors involved, and crew.]
3. ( RIP Semi-Famous Folks who died of Cancer this week )
4. I wasn't going to talk about COVID, but alas...got email from my union. (I'm in an international union.) Anyhow - it is supporting the mandate for vaccines at least.
( union's stance and we've lost 48 members to the virus )
( From the Times Briefing )
[I don't tend to supply links to the articles, because most of them are under paywalls.]
The link above is to the latest thread.
"If you’re an aspiring actor, and as my advice was good enough for a young Mcavoy I pray you’ll listen now.
When we were filming Pitch Black a producer came to give me a choice. They had a problem and needed to do a reshoot with me and a stuntie. The shoot thus far had been rough he crew was exhausted. 6 day weeks are unsustainable. Mistakes happen when crews are tired and often on the 6th day. The crew couldn’t say “no” to another Saturday but I could. I asked when they needed a decision & went to speak with some crew. I made sure that they themselves were choosing —rest vs an overtime paycheck— I would not presume to know their needs and priorities. They chose safety and rest. “Safety First,” is after all, an oft heard refrain on any decent set with its priorities in check. I returned to the producer and told him I was too tired and didn’t want to work the Saturday. He looked at me for a few seconds. I was a good actor and a bad liar. He went to say something, nodded instead and rescheduled. We do a lot of things on sets that would otherwise be illegal. It can be thrilling. It’s a privilege."
This was in response to the tragic shooting of a film photographer on a film set by Alec Baldwin. The shooting is being investigated, but so far appears to have been accidental and unintentional. AP NEWS COVERAGE of ON-Set misfiring of a gun that killed director of photography on the set of Rust
BTW there is a lot on this on Twitter - enough to demonstrate to me at least that Baldwin and his fellow producers cut some corners, and did not follow safety protocols on set, nor did they take measures to ensure their film crew was safe and well rested. There's one thread where a crew member is complaining about how crew members couldn't find a place to sleep that was close by, and that the producers refused to find one or pay for rooms, outside of a motel that was doubling as a homeless shelter. (This thread horrified Claudia Black.) Another thread made it clear that the Assistant Director wasn't attending safety meetings and pooh-poohing them as a waste of time. And wasn't taking the fire arm safety seriously. And another thread makes it clear how odd this was, and out of the norm - meaning normally strict safety protocols are followed and there's no way this would have happened if those safety protocols had been followed.
I'm in an industry where we have to take a four-hour safety training course each year in order to be near or on the tracks. And I'm inundated with safety protocols. We have Safety Meetings once a month. So I can well imagine what a film set that utilizes stunts and fire arms would require or should. Also recently the union representing television, theater, and film crews went on strike in part due to the lack of appropriate safety measures on film and television sets.
Days before the actor fatally shot Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer on the set of “Rust,” a gun used in the production inadvertently went off at least two times, ex-crew members said. The incidents prompted a complaint to a supervisor about the safety practices on the set, which was outside Santa Fe. The crew members were among several workers who quit just hours before the fatal shooting over complaints about working conditions and unpaid work.
According to an affidavit, Baldwin was told that the gun was safe before he fired it, and an assistant director “did not know live rounds were in the prop-gun” when he gave it to him.
According to Twitter feeds, the assistant director didn't know because he didn't attend the safety course. The Fire Arm specialist, put the guns on the prop table. The AD picked up one and handed it to the actor, who then fired it, killing Hutchins and wounding the director.
Per the Times:
( here's what they know and don't know about the fatal shooting - and it kind of syncs with the twitter feeds )
[Right now various folks in the entertainment industry are petitioning that firearms be banned from film and television sets in the future, and they rely on special effects. I can't blame them. And why not? Also, it does make me wonder about the violence in our films and television series - and how easy it is for stuff to go wrong.}
2. There's two intriguing new comic series coming from BOOM! - involving the Angel and Buffy verses.
* Angel Goes Hollywood with New Comic
( New Angel Comics - Angel is in a television series by day and fights monsters by night )
Shame they can't reboot that as a television series. Honestly that's the one version of the old vampire as detective they haven't done. I'd watch it. They don't have to make it Angel. Or they could and recast with a hotter actor?
* Buffy The Last Slayer - has a 50 something Buffy fighting vampires in a dystopian future, with Spike, and a sword wielding gray-haired Xander.
( 50 year old Buffy the Vampire Slayer )
I wish they'd do that as a television series too - on Netflix. They could hire Claudia Black to play a 50 something Buffy, with Marsters as Spike, and recast Ben Browder as Xander.
BOOM! Studios - snatched the rights to Buffy, Angel, and Firefly from Dark Horse and IDW. And have rebooted the stories in new directions. I stopped with the reboots. But the above two takes look intriguing. And I may go back and sample some of the reboots.
[Note - Whedon may have been an asshole to work with, but I still like what he created with various other writers and actors. It's a universe I still enjoy. Also Stephen DeKnight, Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson along with Tim Minear - were all good writers. As were the actors involved, and crew.]
3. ( RIP Semi-Famous Folks who died of Cancer this week )
4. I wasn't going to talk about COVID, but alas...got email from my union. (I'm in an international union.) Anyhow - it is supporting the mandate for vaccines at least.
( union's stance and we've lost 48 members to the virus )
( From the Times Briefing )
[I don't tend to supply links to the articles, because most of them are under paywalls.]
