Safety concerns mount in northern Ontario's booming film industry

Morning North10:19Safety in the film and TV industry

A recent accident on a Sudbury TV set has many in the industry talking about how to keep actors and crew safe in a fast-paced field. To get some perspective on the matter, we reached Joshua Bainbridge, an actor and director working in Northern Ontario.

A recent accident on a TV set in Sudbury is serving as a warning to northern Ontario's booming film and television industry.

Last month, actor Brendan Fletcher suffered an injury to his throat when a pistol went off on the set of the TV show Cardinal.

While the union that represents him reports the actor is "doing much better," the incident serves as a reminder for many that on-the-job safety is a key part of working on set.

"I don't think anyone is setting out to cut a corner or to intentionally put anyone in a bad situation, but sometimes they might forget that it is someone's first time doing this," said Joshua Bainbridge, who has been working as an actor and director in northern Ontario for several years.

He said it's a fast-paced industry that is growing quickly.

"In the last six months, especially, there's been a massive influx in the amount of projects that are going on. Because of that, there's a lot of people [who] are being brought in that are pretty new to the job of working on a film set. There's people that are learning as they go, trial by fire."

Precautions taken on set

Northern Ontario film promotion organization Music and Film in Motion is keeping an eye on the situation. Spokesperson Heather Dahlstrom said she's concerned the number of injuries will increase.

"I think sometimes people get blinded by the lights of Hollywood and don't think about safety," she said, adding that she once worked on a set in Toronto where someone died.

"I think in any industry there's always an incident. When someone cuts their arm down in the mine, is it in the paper the next day? If someone trips and falls and breaks their foot at work, is it in the paper the next day?"

There are numerous precautions taken on set, Dahlstrom said, such as following a Ministry of Labour safety handbook that outlines everything from using explosives to handling animals.

"If we're in the water, we refer to that book. If there's an explosion, we refer to that book."

"We have so many shoot days up here, there's going to be an accident every once in a while," she said.

'Actors are protected'

A talent agent who represents about 80 actors across northern Ontario said the issue of safety has come up a lot in the past weeks.

"I think people need to understand the actor's union does go out of its way to ensure the actors are protected," Jim Calarco said.

"There are rules and regulations in place to protect actors. I don't think people should have to worry about being on set.

Most of the time, "everything is fine," he continued. [But] you have that one accident on set and everyone starts to panic."

The president of Actra Toronto, which represents injured actor Brendan Fletcher said a union representative visited him in hospital the day following the incident.

"We're still waiting on the investigation from police and the Ministry of Labour," David Sparrow said.

"It did happen about two weeks ago and it was an unfortunate incident. The papers have reported that a blank pistol was involved — and of course there were many people on the set."

'So many moving pieces'

Bainbridge said "the pressures are tremendous" for those working on the set.

"You never want to look like the guy [who] can't handle it, [who] can't keep up," he said.

"There's so many moving pieces in the machine. And every piece costs so much money. And no one wants to be the person delaying what's happening. No one wants to be the person costing the production more money."

Just being aware of the risks involved with a particular shoot is important, he added.

"This is a work environment, and like any other work environment, there are dangers."