With the UK’s ever-growing production landscape, a wealth of skilled and experienced crew remains an essential component of the UK’s offering. One area of this is an increased focus on safe set practices, which have expanded over recent years to include areas such as mental health, accessibility standards, sustainability, intimacy coordination and COVID-19 safety.

The British Film Commission, as part of this year’s SeriesFest in Denver, Colorado (4th- 11th May) hosted a panel discussion featuring leading experts in these fields who shared first-hand insights into how these important new roles and regulations are impacting today’s and future productions.

Speaking on the panel, Louise Marie Smith, BFC sustainability consultant and founder and managing director of Neptune Environmental Solutions, highlights the importance of ensuring a sustainable approach to infrastructure:

”I’m working with the British Film Commission, looking more at production infrastructure, so if we’re asking productions to behave more sustainably, we have to provide the infrastructure for them to do so.”

She explains how her on-set role as a sustainability consultant requires the ‘’buy-in of the entire crew’’, who can help reduce the environmental impact of productions with a sustainable outlook and mindset.

On the successful implementation of safe set practices, Louise Marie Smith emphasises that early decision making and a wholistic approach are the way forward:

‘’It’s about integrating and embedding it in every single decision that is made from day one. You should be thinking about the mental wellbeing of your crew, the accessibility of your shoot, and you should be thinking about the impact on the planet around you.’’

Leo Anna Thomas, Wellbeing Facilitator and member of the Board of Directors at 6ft form the Spotlight, adds that “working with producers to change the infrastructure” is key to ensuring cast and crew wellbeing.

Wellbeing facilitators, she explains, ‘’help empower people to have a conversation’’ and find their voice during large and busy productions.

“It starts with everyone having that sense of purpose and that we can do things differently.”, says Elaine Hall, Set Advocate for accessibility.

“As on-set advocates, we can express what needs to be expressed.”

With the introduction of safe-set practices and improved accessibility on set, Elaine Hall emphasises how productions ‘’find that what’s good for individuals with disabilities, is also what’s good for everybody.”

She concludes by stressing the importance of on-screen diversity and representation as ‘’if you have the possibility to say ‘there’s someone like me on screen’, then the fabric our culture just deepens and widens and we make systemic change in all aspects, where people will want to be sustainable, and want to feel healthy emotionally.’’

Moderator: Keisha Hattchet, Staff Editor at TVLine

Panellists: Louise Marie Smith, Leo Anna Thomas, Elaine Hall

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