Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Rigging Safety: The Epitome of Loving Thy Neighbor
Church Production Magazine: At its core, rigging safety is about putting others first. We can’t easily hang thousands of pounds in the air without a terrifying concern: “Have I done this safely so that those below will be free from harm? Can I close my eyes at night knowing I have done everything morally, ethically and legally possible to keep others safe?”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
It is amazing to think of a time when rigging safety standards and conventions were not enforced, especially so recently. It seems that the idea that heavy things falling are dangerous should not be an exceedingly new one. After all, gravity has been around for a while (at least as long as I can remember). I find it very surprising that it took so long for someone responsible for flying heavy lights and scenery to think, "hmm, I hope this doesn't kill anybody. I sure wish I knew how many pounds this clamp could hold." Even without exact engineering techniques that exist today which allow us to know how much strain elements can endure, the use of clips, redundant supports, and double and triple checking procedures seems like it should have been commonplace. I find it staggering that the occasional falling of stage lights onto stages (during performances no less) was simply viewed with the attitude of "this seems like a problem, could we get someone to fix this?" rather than "this event was catastrophic and warrants investigation, consequences for those responsible, and immediate implementation of standards to prevent a repeated incident.
I thought this article was fascinating and I was struck by how lax certain theaters can be when it comes to rigging safety. It seems like common sense that one should be extra careful if one is hanging something heavy from a height, especially if there will eventually be people underneath it but apparently this is not obvious to everyone. I am glad to see that there has been progress in this area and that safety is taken a lot more seriously now than it used to. I like to think that one of the most important jobs of anyone working on a production is the safety of the actors and of anyone that will be interacting with the space. Rigging especially is something that needs a lot of attention because, if something goes wrong, the consequences can be very real and very serious and I really hope that the push to increase safety continues.
Though this article has little substance about actual rigging, it has an interesting frame: Rigging Safety as caring about each other. As technology increases and we have the ability to monitor loads with computers, standard practices are going to change. While the steps the industry has made already made are great, progress will still be made as technology increase. I think it's interesting that this article is in Church Magazine because the commercial theater and entertainment industry has more money to spend on safety. This can leave smaller theaters, churches, and other places without the same safety standards. When rigging, evaluating and keeping people in mind, can be an important part for smaller organizations. As we go further, hopefully rigging accidents will become less common due to increased awareness and new safety equipment. In 10 years, it will be interesting to see in what ways this article is still relevant and how the industry has changed.
This article gives an excellent overview of the history of the safety practices used for rigging temporary overhead lighting in our industry. I found it interesting that it took such a long time for things that are nowadays no-brainers to become worked in as best practices. The simple fact that they at one time made unrated c-clamps and used them to hang things over peoples heads hurts my insides. As well as the fact that they didn't use safety cables on barn doors let alone the fixture itself, I find very unsettling. However, all this being said I am mostly disturbed that currently, the industry is just running off a best practice mentality and that there are no clear up to date rules and regulations for what they should be doing and how things should be done correctly. at the end of the article, they say " But we can keep working at the standards, adapting to what is reasonable and possible for our time, and—I hope—getting a little bit better with each iteration." I also hope people will go and review the new standards and help move things forward!
When you think about rigging in the industry I think this article has a very strong line in regards to rigging safety, “Can I close my eyes at night knowing I have done everything morally, ethically and legally possible to keep others safe?” This simple question I often feel is a good golden rule in regards to rigging over head. That said I feel standards are very important but I still feel that you will want be aware of what are the rigging limits of any gear that you’re using. But we really need to be aware and understand why the standards are what they are so when there are gaps we can try to make safe rigging choices until the standards manage to catch up. I would just remember that when you are rigging over head to also follow the rigging design factors which I believe my be more strenuous than the current ansi standards.
I enjoy the quote about sleeping at night with your rigging solutions. This is a good quote, but it really only applies to people who have any kind of rigging knowledge. If you don't know that what you're doing is wrong, you'll sleep like a baby, even if your're rigging your flats with blood, sweat, and gaff tape. This really highlights the importance of rigging edcuation, and, like the article says, consulting the new emerging standards for rigging that are being worked on right now. I really appreciated it when Bill Sapsis came to our class and talked about writing the new rigging standards for ESTA and ANSI. I think it's really important to have publically available standards that allow everyone to know whether what they're doing is right or wrong.
Post a Comment