Risk assessment - Miss Georgiou

Risk assessment

The purpose of a risk assessment is to identify any potential problems that could prevent us from filming. A risk assessment will also help us to keep actors and crew members safe while filming by making them more aware of the risks that may be involved which could lead to them being more careful when filming because they know what to look out for. It is important to consider a risk assessment before filming because everybody involved in the process needs to be aware of any potential risks that they may encounter when filming in order for them to be able to prepare for them and find a way, prior to filming, to prevent the risks identified from occurring. Also, it is a filming requirement to have a risk assessment before filming because it helps to ensure that everybody involved is going to be safe while they are filming, therefore the people in charge cannot be held responsible if an accident does occur, due to the fact that they have identified the potential problems and have provided solutions for how they can be prevented. Furthermore, a risk assessment allows for a plan B to be considered for if an unforeseen problem occurs and prevents us from filming. A plan B helps us to ensure that filming is possible, and that our music video can be completed even if the original plan does not work out, for example, towards the end of our video we planned for the artist to be seen running through a forest, which coincides with visuals of the male character running, however, due to the fact that it is often raining which will make it much more muddier, we could always have the artist walking instead and then use fast pace editing to make it appear as though she is running.

In conclusion, for the majority of the filming process we did follow the risk assessment due to the fact that we knew before going into the filming process all of the things that could go wrong, therefore we made sure to be extra careful, especially when it came to filming the scenes that involved the car because we knew that they were more of a high risk and that so many things could have gone wrong, not just for us, but for other drivers on the road, however, our group and the actors involved made sure to maintain responsible driving at all times, for example, always wearing a seatbelt, and we tried to only film when there were only a few or no cars on the road, as this decreased the likelihood that a risk would occur. There were a few unforeseen risks that we encountered when we were filming, for example, while we were filming the running scene which appears towards the end of the video, the weather was windy and rainy, which caused the tripod to topple over while we were filming and therefore the tripod got in the way of the actor while she was running, which created the risk that she could trip over the tripod and injure herself, which was further made a risk due to the fact that the rain had made the ground muddy and slippery. In order to overcome this problem we had a member of the group who wasn't in charge of filming the scene to hold the tripod still which helped to ensure that the tripod and camera wouldn't fall over, and this also gave the actor a marker that they knew to avoid when running due to the fact that a person was easier to see compared to the thin tripod. After creating a risk assessment for our production, I have learnt that a risk assessment is essential for when ensuring the safety of everyone in our group during every aspect of the filming process. The role of a risk assessment is to create awareness of the potential risks that could be faced by our group while we are filming, and it helps to make us aware of who in particular is at risk which therefore causes us to be much more careful and to come up with ways to prevent these risks from occurring before we begin, for example, the actor portraying the artist was at risk while we were filming the car scenes due to the fact that she was behind the wheel of the car and had a responsibility for everyone else in the car, as well as anyone on the road or area where we were filming that had the potential of getting hurt.