Health & Safety

Health & Safety:

Prior to shooting in Madrid I had to ensure that I had considered all of the potential risks to my own and others health & safety during production. When it came to shooting in privately owned places such as the museums or flamenco show, I had to ask if I had the permission to record on their premises and to use my footage of their staff for promotional purposes. The following risks to our health & safety were considered:

1. Equipment: When setting up our interview with Amber and Louise, we ensured that the wires to our camera and microphone equipment were positioned out of anyone's way as to not cause a trip hazard and damage to the equipment.
2. Weather: Fortunately the weather caused no damage to our equipment while filming. However, we had to stop filming a couple of times due to rain. In retrospect it would have been a good idea to perhaps invest in some waterproof protection for our equipment as this did take away some of our time. The weather while recording our interview was unexpectedly delightful and even helped improve its value.
3. Location aspects: The streets of Madrid were of a maze-like layout and it can be easy to loose your bearings when unfamiliar to the place. To combat this potential nightmare I carried a map of Madrid with pinpointed positions of our hotel. We were also given the work phone numbers of our teachers on the trip if we ever needed their assistance. The iconic cobbled streets of Madrid posed a trip hazard while filming so it was essential for us to keep our equipment zipped up in our travel bags to prevent damage.
4. Members of the public: My fellow HNC students and I were carrying around very expensive equipment for the majority of the trip, this posed an obvious potential theft risk that could've even resulted in possible physical altercations. We were reminded of pickpockets as we landed and thus took precaution. While we were not using the equipment such as a camera for example, we would keep it closed away in our bags and have them strapped over our chest for added security. I also tried to avoid filming any members of the public in particular without their explicit consent to do so.