Bird House Productions
A Production Services Company in Houston, Texas

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BHP Set Medics work safely during COVID-19

 

Safely working in film production during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic

Information and education is important for a higher quality of Safe Sets

Lynn Birdwell, Bird House Productions, Executive Producer


During the past year, we have all seen on-location and in-studio behind-the-scenes photos of our friends and colleagues -- in crew and talent roles -- on set in varying situations, safe and not safe. Each time I see a photo of crew members crowded around a monitor, masks on or masks off, I am fearful that because of those choices, someone may pass the virus to someone else inadvertently and someone will become ill, the virus exposure not having been contained.

Since March 2020, we have often passed on projects that we felt were not going to protect the crew. Several crew members have reported, to their great surprise and disappointment, they have shown up at their call time to a shoot to find neither the talent nor their clients wearing masks, and were never planning to put them on. I have heard those kinds of reports as recently as two weeks ago. At this point, not having been briefed in advance about that likelihood by the producer, director, other parties who are participating in the shoot remotely, the local crew must decide if they will:

  1. immediately walk away; or

  2. just keep their masks on and finish the job, go home, quarantine from their families for 14 days, collect that one job check, and lose two weeks of work while self-quarantined.

I have seen both of these scenarios play out, here in Houston and elsewhere.

In Houston, in particular, it’s more important than ever that we each protect ourselves and our families. We should each take every personal precaution in our day to day lives, but also should expect a very high level of expectation of a strong COVID safety compliance plan from our production companies, agencies, clients, and all those managing the organization and scheduling of the job itself.

As we have learned to shoot with smaller crews, limiting exposure, and requiring longer time to do things we would have done faster with a larger team, shoots have evolved to accommodate safer sets. From not shooting at all to slowly developing possible COVID-safe methodologies, the film industry has experienced a steep learning curve in the last year.

Throughout the Summer and Fall of 2020, we were glad to have participated in the development of general production industry guidelines for COVID-safe production practices and risk mitigation protocols. But it really hasn’t been until right now that we are noticing approved production budgets, especially for larger or global companies, consistently including generously endowed line items related to COVID safety, such as PPE and testing. This usually includes one or more COVID Compliance Officer (CCO) as a crew member, no matter how small the rest of the crew footprint is. And as a matter of course, PPE is now usually shipped directly to the local production office, or a P-Card provided specifically for that purpose, without any delay or question about the value of that budget line item.

And -- finally -- it’s becoming the absolute norm for a PCR swab test (or other form of COVID-19 testing) to be a firm requirement for all personnel working on all projects. And on long form television series and features, weekly or even daily testing is simply part of the job requirements. Every day upon arrival at set, whether for a one day or muli-week shoot, it is at the very minimum required of every person to have his or her temperature taken, to complete a health questionnaire, and sign a COVID-19 waiver in a screening area before entering the production studio or location.

Newly created during 2020, the CCO is a unique position on the film crew. This person can be someone who has production experience as a Set Medic, who would already be a healthcare professional or first responder, such as a paramedic, fireman, or nurse. However, more and more, we are seeing other crew members taking the required courses and becoming certified to serve as a CCO. This is possible because the position of CCO does NOT take the place of a Set Medic.

BHP Set Medics was developed by Erin Krammer (EMT/Paramedic) and Julie Earley (C-NPT, CEN, CFRN, CCRN-A). The Set Medic is prepared to examine and evaluate the medical care needed to crew and talent. When BHP Set Medics was formed, the only focus was on the safety of the crew and talent, to provide support for emergency medical assistance, because at that time, we did not have a contagious pandemic to address. However, these types of medical professionals -- paramedics and nurses -- are already highly trained to deal with the protocols needed as a part of their required career skill set. They are usually the folks teaching the COVID informational classes for the rest of us.

At this time, BHP Set Medics’ professional personnel are certified to serve as the Lead CCO on set. This is especially important if there is a crew and talent headcount larger than 20, for which a department of more than one CCO is required.

But every one of our professional crew members in Houston should consider becoming certified to take on this newly-important crew position of CCO. Because we are in Houston, which is a market with a smaller crew base, many of us often can be found on set, working in a different position from shoot to shoot. If nothing more, it doesn’t cost much to have a full and thorough education about how to work more safely and with confidence. At this point in the pandemic, everyone on set should feel informed enough to feel very comfortable in bringing attention to anything that does not fit within the parameters of a safe set.

Many projects now require crew and talent to watch COVID-related safety videos and to take short questionnaires about COVID safety protocols, prior to coming to set. This is great, but they are very elementary, and the courses that are most informative are much longer, providing far more depth of information. Even with the initial vaccines now becoming available, due to the fact that the virus is mutating so quickly, we can expect to be working under these protocols for some time to come. We should all strive to know as much as we can to insure our safety on set and to protect our families when we return home from a shoot day.

According to Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease expert who heads the Wellcome Trust, “Curtailing infections sharply has the added benefit of reducing the chances for the virus to evolve even further. Already other variants have emerged… It is essentially a numbers game: The more virus is circulating, the more chance mutants have to appear.”

In the long term, mutations will arise that threaten the usefulness of current vaccines. And since we want to work, let’s actively practice coronavirus safety precautions throughout our personal and professional lives.

Among the many, many online COVID-19-related courses now recommended for use in relation to film production, we suggest these:

COURSES SPECIFIC TO PRODUCTION

Health Education Services (through BigMarker.com)

Safe Sets International (recommended by Wrapbook.com)

CSATF (available to IATSE, DGA, SAG-AFTRA, Teamsters and other guild members)

LINKS TO KEEP CLOSE AT HAND

Not a course, per se, but a great access for resources, especially for commercial production, we like this article and all it’s many links for the various time periods and department needs and solutions: https://www.wrapbook.com/covid-19-filmmaking-resources

The Joint Report of the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and Teamsters’ Committees for COVID-19 Safety Guidelines - A Safe Way Forward (this was written in mid 2020 and has yet to be updated, but it’s very helpful) https://www.sagaftra.org/files/sa_documents/ProductionSafetyGuidelines_June2020EditedP.pdf

INCREDIBLY HELPFUL COURSES ABOUT WORLD HEALTH AND THIS PANDEMIC

World Health Organization (WHO)

Johns Hopkins University (through Coursera)

Stanford University (through Coursera)

OSHA (through 360Training.com)


We will try to keep this updated as changes come. If you have any feedback, please share with lynn@bhprod.com

 
ProductionLynn Birdwell