Sarah Jones

[Gregory Irwin]

Interesting update...

 

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/midnight-rider-filmmakers-turn-themselves-in-to-authorities-1201262520/

 

That's a good start. All of the responsible people who were in charge and instructing the crew should be held liable for this criminal act - including the ADs, locations and the DP! If any member of my crew had been present (much more experienced than the young crew there), no one would have gone onto that rail without the proper authority. We simply would have said no. But when you are young, inexperienced and mostly trustful of your leadership and afraid of not doing your job for adverse repercussions, you tend to blindly do anything. That's what happened here. I want to see more of those responsible go to jail for the senseless and tragic death of an aspiring young woman.

 

G

[Gregory Irwin]

 

That's a problem. I didn't know that, but it doesn't surprise me.

 

Exactly what do the basic safety classes entail, Greg? Also, is there a safety officer present on the set for every union shoot?

 

Sorry Bill. I just read this post. The Safety Classes are organized by OSHA and basically can state that all IATSE employees have been certified in a series of on set safety practices. This is really just a layer of protection for the studios to limit their liability. They can say in case of an accident: That employee should have known better. He/she was certified in that area of safety. As for a safety officer, there is supposed to be one on set at all times. In reality, we rarely see one.

 

G

[Bill DiPietra]

Thanks, Greg. Sadly, I figured that was pretty much the standard operating procedure. "CYA" for the landowner and "best of luck" to the peasant workers.

[Alessandro Machi]

20/20 is doing a segment on this story right now, Halloween night, 10pm, ABC.

[Alessandro Machi]

I watched the Sarah Jones piece on 20/20. It was pretty thorough and took the first half of the show. Here is the link, well worth watching. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/camera-assistant-killed-midnight-rider-train-accident-26618524

[George Ebersole]

Like Arthur Freyer used to tell me many years back, sets are a dangerous place. I read the brief in the trades, but don't know all the details. There's a reason you have ADs, Production Managers, liaisons with the locals, and so forth. Stuff like this happens on occasion, though I'm sure we all wish it wouldn't.

 

I remember when I used to hang lights from stage grids, and would clip the safety chain or cable after tightening the C-clamp around the pipe, thinking to myself that a thicker chain with a tougher grade of steel with needed. Even though I never saw a single light come loose, much less fall from the grid, I was never comfortable with that level of safety. I learned to put it out of my mind, but I often wished that there was a more secure way to light a set/stage.

 

I read an interview with John Carpenter, and he talks about the helo crash on the Twilight Zone feature film, and how he was a pilot in training, and how that accident should NOT HAVE EVER occurred, but did because the pilot was swept up by John Landis ego and the notion that he was working on a feature film.

 

If you see something that's unsafe, you should speak up. You can replace a light, grip truck, dolly, camera, what have you. You can always replace equipment, and even reshoot footage.

 

You can't replace YOU.

[Phil Rhodes]

You can't replace YOU.

 

We can keep repeating trite phrases like that all night. Unfortunately the reality on the day is you can't replace your career, an immediate certainty that can easily override safety-oriented thinking.

 

I speak as someone who has knowingly made himself unpopular on film sets in this way. One generally isn't permitted even to head off technical problems without being castigated for it, let alone safety issues. Notice, as a result, I don't work on sets as much as other people here.

 

Unfortunately I don't think there's really a good solution. The unions are largely powerless. The workers are entirely powerless. Occasionally people will get killed and there's not much that can be done.

 

P

[Bruce Greene]

regarding the safety classes that we must take (union members in the US):

 

Without even considering that this was a live train track, it was clear that fall protection gear should have been required to work on this bridge. This is a topic covered quite extensively in the safety class. Even if this was a non-union production, at least some of the crew were union and must have taken these classes. They should have spoken their concerns. So, the most basic issue here is why did they keep silent?

[Phil Rhodes]

Because job security.

[Alessandro Machi]

The crazy part for me is with all that was done incorrectly, apparently those still on the bridge had found a spot alongside the tracks on the bridge to miss the train as it went by, but the bed on the tracks exploded on impact and bed shrapnel hit Jones and a couple of others as well, and that shrapnel pushed Jones into the path of the train.

[Bill DiPietra]

 

The unions are largely powerless. The workers are entirely powerless. Occasionally people will get killed and there's not much that can be done.

 

P

 

A union is only as strong as its membership.

[George Ebersole]

 

We can keep repeating trite phrases like that all night. Unfortunately the reality on the day is you can't replace your career, an immediate certainty that can easily override safety-oriented thinking.

 

I speak as someone who has knowingly made himself unpopular on film sets in this way. One generally isn't permitted even to head off technical problems without being castigated for it, let alone safety issues. Notice, as a result, I don't work on sets as much as other people here.

 

Unfortunately I don't think there's really a good solution. The unions are largely powerless. The workers are entirely powerless. Occasionally people will get killed and there's not much that can be done.

 

P

 

Ultimately it's your responsibility.

 

My personal anecdote, and I don't give a flying-f__k if this prevents me getting jobs by anyone who reads these boards; I was working a commuter / carpool video for Intel, and the producer/director and I were in her Honda heading southbound 101 a little north of NASA Ames. She was looking for slowdowns, but traffic was moving pretty good that evening.

 

She then ordered me to deliberately slow down in the fast lane with cars whizzing by us.

 

I refused.

 

Does anybody know how dangerous that is? Did she?

 

She finally relented and stated that I wasn't, and I told her "Damn right I'm not."

 

At which point she un-shouldered her Ikegami and put it in the back seat.

 

As I recall she was pretty distraught that day over some other issues (some equipment got destroyed somehow), but that's no excuse to try and grab extra footage by risking our lives by deliberately slowing to 25mph when everyone else was barreling by at 75mph +

 

On top of that, she had tons of raw stock shots of traffic jams from that evening's shoot. She's a "one man (lady) show" who's still in business, wears her heart on her sleeve on occasion, and has a good list of clients. She's also a little nuts (in a good way).

 

I've got a couple other stories, but that's one of the big ones that I think is notable. I don't care how important someone thinks a shot is, I'm not going to risk other people's lives, people who are just innocent bystanders in this case, so the director can fulfill a need.

 

Mister Rhodes; I somehow don't think that your safety mindedness is preventing you from tapping the larger 46,000 jobs per year market in the UK. If it is, then I might recommend you file a formal complaint against your last employer.

[George Ebersole]

Deadline's / Variety's video on the situation;

 

http://deadline.com/2014/07/deadlinenow-sarah-jones-death-indictments-and-whats-next-for-midnight-rider-video-799518/

[Brian Drysdale]

Director Randall Miller gets 2 years for involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing as part of the last-minute deal.

 

http://nypost.com/2015/03/09/movie-director-gets-2-years-for-train-crash-that-killed-crew-member/

[Mark Dunn]

Way to keep down the prison population.

[Alessandro Machi]

ABC is updating their program and it is airing right now on the west coast (10PM, channel 7). Now that the court verdict is in they were able to get access to more video and perhaps more information.