Some of you know this, some of you dont but in the fall of 2002 I almost died working on a Roger Corman produced film. The film was working long days into nights outside of LA and not providing hotel rooms. One night driving home I fell asleep at the wheel, drifter across several lanes and was thankfully woken by the rumble strips on the shoulder where I regained control of the car. I was the camera loader and told my boss what had happened the following morning. Word spread through the crew and they heads of department told the producers that if they didnt immediately provide hotel rooms that day, they were shutting down production. The producers gave me a stern talking to, making me feel like shit for stirring up trouble and then, because I was in the camera truck loading and unloading film while they passed out hotel rooms they tried to deny me a hotel room that night. Thankfully the 1st and 2nd AD heard what was going on and let me sleep with them in their hotel room and I got my own room the following day. That same film had a scene filming on train tracks at night. There were more safety regulations in place in that film than the one in the article. They had railway workers there, we were well aware of oncoming trains and kept a safe distance away. But still, the filmmakers pressured some camera people to run up next to the tracks and steal a shot of a passing train. The railway workers were pissed and I believe some people got in trouble, but not in any meaningful way considering the camera operators could have been killed. This kind of thing happens in big budget pictures, but its more prevalent in low budget filmmaking, where people think theres glory in trimming the fat of Hollywood and shooting lean and guerilla style with no safety people on set and no safety measures.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 07:49:30 +0000
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