Danger and exploitation lurk beneath unregulated filmmaking industry
Odwa Shweni’s 40m fall to his death on a KwaZulu-Natal film set in April 2018 raised a red flag about the precarious status of freelance casts and crew.
Beneath the façade of a thriving film industry, hazardous working conditions, bullying and sexual harassment are rife.
The producers of the Shweni film allegedly flouted protocols when they staged the fatal scene, without permission, at the Sterkspruit waterfall in the southern Drakensberg.
“There was no stunt coordinator on that set,” stunt professional Franz Spilhaus said. More and more producers who should be employing stunt coordinators are cutting corners.
At the time, the parliamentary portfolio committee on arts and culture called for urgent action, but nothing has changed.
The inquest into Shweni’s death is still pending and, according to City Press on August 25, the filmmakers allegedly rewrote the script and completed the film with a new crew, building on existing material.
According to that report, one of the producers, Sipho Singiswa, denied the claims of unsafe conditions and called them “absurd and either grossly exaggerated or devoid of truth”. The producers also referred City Press to their lawyer, who said the matter was sub judice.
“There needs to be a lot more awareness about safety on set,” Bobby Amm, executive officer of the Commercial Producer’s Association (CPASA) said.
“I always say to crew and to people from our talent base: don’t put your life in danger. No feature film or commercial is worth dying for.”
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence, but nobody knows exactly how many disreputable producers are out there.
“There are quite a few dodgy producers around. Normally, they contract crew directly,” said Jan Bowden, from CallaCrew.
Foreign filmmakers are part of the film industry equation. They get a rebate of up to 25% on production costs from the department of trade & industry and are spared the headache of unions calling the shots in the country’s unregulated industry.
Sara Blecher, founder member of Sisters Working in Film and TV, asked whether they should not contribute a percentage of their rebate towards making the industry safe.
“Some form of regulation is needed to improve the lot of independent contractors, who are not protected by the law. No action is taken against perpetrators of sexual harassment or reckless producers. The Odwa story is a case in point.”
The SA Guild of Actors (Saga) has thrown its weight behind a collective bargaining initiative.
“Without any bargaining rights, we have no say at all, legally, in our workplace safety. We are subject to the whims of whoever employs us,” Saga vice-chair Adrian Galley said.
Saga hopes to negotiate better terms of employment, pension, provident, medical aid, sick pay, holiday and unemployment schemes.
Commercial film producers are opposed to regulation.
“If the Occupational Health and Safety Act had to be applied on every film shoot to the letter of the law, you would never have a film shoot,” Amm said.
Liz McLeod from insurance broker GIB believes regulation would be a good thing. “It has not killed creativity anywhere else in the world,” she said.
CallaCrew cautions that “if the industry is restricted by a lot of rules, a lot of jobs would no longer be affordable”.
Amm supports the idea of an independent ombudsman, which is “not as extreme as the police, but at the same time something official where complaints can be lodged”.
She believes about 50 CPASA members will be willing to contribute to costs. Others in the industry argue that an ombudsman that is voluntary will be toothless and, if supported by the CPASA, would be ultimately dominated by the CPASA.
In the convoluted mechanics of an unregulated industry, brokers, insurers and film guarantors enforce compliance in cases where producers take out insurance, which is not obligatory.
Hollard Film Guarantors’s Paul Raleigh said: “We ask questions like, ‘Where’s the safety officer?’ or ‘Where’s the stuntman?’ If there are animals, you have to have animal anticruelty on board. We want to see personal accident insurance; we want to see a Film Producer’s Indemnity [FPI] policy and, of course, if production companies choose to do their own car insurance on rentals, then we need to see those policies as well.”
Raleigh wants to see greater protection for freelancers. “I have seen too many paupers’ funerals.” However, responsibility must be shared, since there is no coverage for freelancers between jobs. He also cautions that in France, fringe benefits have crippled the industry.
“Every freelancer is insured under the FPI, which the production company takes out. We insist because obviously in the event that something happens to actors, or there are equipment failures, they are covered.”
Raleigh believes regulation of the industry is possible. However, “It would take a massive industry initiative from everybody’s point of view and the major stumbling block will be: who manages it?”
SOME FORM OF REGULATION IS NEEDED TO IMPROVE THE LOT OF INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS, WHO ARE NOT PROTECTED
IF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT HAD TO BE APPLIED TO THE LETTER OF THE LAW, YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE A FILM SHOOT