So I'm guessing most of you don't have the first clue who Sarah Jones is. That's probably because your Facebook feed isn't 70% below-the-line Hollywood crew.

Sarah Jones was a 2nd AC (of the 5 or so people on camera, 2nd AC is pretty much the bottom) on a film in Georgia that got killed by a train. Not the sort of thing most people expect to encounter in their jobs and indeed, there are all sorts of safety protocols on a legit shoot that prevent this stuff.

The problem is most shoots aren't legit.

I've got scars from this where I had to sneak past a cameraman in a doorway with exposed rusty nails (yes, I got a tetanus booster out of it). I've walked off some other stuff with my name on it, so I won't link. But while I work in a Union industry with lots of theoretical oversight, you can still end up dead because someone told you to put a bed on the train tracks.

    One scene in CBGB was filmed at a private home that had been secured with permission by the producers, although the house’s owners were not fully aware that a piano would be dropped down a set of stairs in the process – an omission Miller laughs about on the film’s DVD commentary, saying “So this is a real house and I don’t think they fully knew that we were going to drop a piano down their staircase.” In another scene exec producer Gant’s young son runs through a field of cows, to which Miller says, “I don’t think it’s dangerous at all to have a little kid run through cows – do you think?” One CBGB crew member told Deadline the production crew “never got a single safety bulletin” including a heat advisory, despite shooting through the hot Georgia summer.

Anyway. I've come to blows on this site before; as the central-casting nemesis of all piracy discussion, that's the sort of thing that happens. But I felt like sharing the kinds of shit that goes into the movies that you watch.

You wouldn't think a town like LA could rally around something completely and utterly. Sharia law? well yes, actually. And the fact that this production is trying to start over in LA has prompted a pretty impressive groundswell of people refusing to work on it.

Anyway. I felt like sharing.



jarf:

Very interesting. I am in the construction which requires permits for almost everything and huge oversight to make sure that nothing is done without a permit. My company has a few people who are tasked with acquiring permits and licenses, and this has been the same at the other construction company I worked at. Is this something that is often overlooked on smaller budget films? It is just a huge surprise to me that something would be done without the proper oversight.

I can get passed the idea of trying to work without a permit, but the flagrant damage that was done and went unfixed is amazing. It seems that you are more familiar with the film making world. Do you have any additional insight into things like permits/licenses and damage to property?


posted 3565 days ago