Deadline: The death of Midnight Rider camera assistant Sarah Jones continues to spark a safety movement in Hollywood. Today the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG, IATSE Local 600) launched their own “ICG Safety” app designed to help members anonymously report unsafe working conditions on film and TV sets across the world. Jones, who was killed at the age of 27 in February in a train accident on set in Georgia, was an ICG member.
3 comments:
I don't think workers in the entertainment business realize how important safety is for any performance. This app is going to make the knowledge of what is right and wrong for safety so much easier for those you are questioning if that have a safe set or not. I remember in our high school theatre we knew the basic safety rules of the shop and how to build for the actors to feel safe and still WOW the audience. But my junior year, safety rules started to change for the entire state and no one had a copy of what that was. If we had this app it would be so much more convenient so we would always be up to date with the safety rules and regulations.
In the late 1800s, when unions became a national phenomenon, the stagehands unions, along with steel and foundry workers, were the first segments of the workforce to form unions, on account of poor payment security and job haphazardness. While this app serves a great purpose, allowing stagehands to help improve their working conditions without fear of retribution, it is sad that there is still so much of an attitude of "this is the way things are done" that we have to fix things anonymously.
It is really great that there is a way for workers to report unsafe working conditions but it should not have to be done in secret to prevent job loss. As a worker if you have a fear of your safety you should be able to freely report it and not be afraid this will affect your job status. Safety should be one of the main concerns of any employer and your employess should feel safe while they are working. On top of all of this I find it absolutely devastating that a young women had to die in order for there to be a need to complain about safety. How many more innocent lives will have to be taken to allow people to speak more freely about safety?
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