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Failure Mapping For Occupational Safety Management in The Film and Television Industry
Failure Mapping For Occupational Safety Management in The Film and Television Industry
Failure Mapping For Occupational Safety Management In The Film And Television
Industry
PII: S0925-5273(18)30226-3
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.05.024
Please cite this article as: Rachel Barbosa Santos, Ualison Rébula de Oliveira, Henrique Martins
Rocha, Failure Mapping For Occupational Safety Management In The Film And Television Industry,
International Journal of Production Economics (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.05.024
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Address: Rodovia Presidente Dutra Km 298 - Polo Industrial, Resende, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, 27537-000
Telephone: + 55 24 33813889
E-mail: prof.henrique_rocha@yahoo.com.br
1 Corresponding author: Ualison Rébula de Oliveira. Adress: 783 Desembargador Ellis Hermydio Figueira Street, Volta
Redonda – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 27213-145. Telephone: +55 24 30768785. E-mail: ualison.oliveira@gmail.com
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ABSTRACT
In the film and television industry, a wide range of risks in processes of launching new
products (series, soap operas or films) can cause accidents and affect the health and safety of
crews. Besides potential personal injuries, as a business, the whole production process in
under risk, since if a key player (e.g.: the main actor/actress) gets severely injured or dies,
he/she cannot be replaced and the project can be paralyzed, causing difficulties to the
company. This article purposes to identify the most critical process in relation to the
occurrence of accidents, evaluating the failures of the activities of this critical process, and
study of a large film and television producer in Brazil: A committee of experts identified
filming as the most critical process. We mapped the activities of this process, the potential
failures and their causes through a FMEA, identifying 15 modes of failure in the process and
32 potential elements that cause these failures. Combining and ranking those elements, 12
causes were considered critical and FTA was applied to identify their root causes. The result
was a procedure to analyze process failures tailored to the film and television industry, as
well as complete and objective visualization of the possible faults in this process, enabling
the company to correct them and providing elements for other researchers to investigate this
Keywords: Occupational Safety and Health Risk Management; Risk Analysis; Film and
1. INTRODUCTION
Despite the increasing attention paid to work safety, accidents causing fatalities and
severe injuries to workers, as well as negative effects on communities, the environment and
firms’ public image, are still all too common in many industries, with possibly devastating
bottom-line impacts, as reported by, among others, Aminbakhsh et al. (2013), Wu et al.
(2013), Zhao et al. (2014) and Khan, Rathnayaka & Ahmed (2015). According to these
authors, the implementation of more effective safety measures through good risk
flaws. In response, many methods, procedures and approaches for risk management have
been developed to minimize or manage failures (Knegtering & Pasman, 2013; Mohsen &
Fereshteh, 2017).
The literature review revealed shortage of studies about risk management in the film
and television industry, and a corresponding lack of data. A search on Web of Science
database, performed on Dec 19th, 2017, using “risk management” as search argument,
presented a total of 4,176 articles. Funnelling the search with the additional argument
“analysis” showed 188 articles about risk management in different areas such as industrial &
energy plants, supply chain & logistics, construction, health & occupational, financial &
aeronautics/astronautics, etc. However, no articles about film and television industry were
found.
According to Campbell & Mann (1987), McCann (1991), Caldwell (2008) and
Sullivan & Mckee (2015), the process of the film and television industry presents various
risks to health and safety of crews. Their processes have well-defined steps where the
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production methods or technologies pose a variety of physical risks and possible accidents,
among them excessive noise, slippery floors that can cause serious falls, and electrical
shocks, to name a few. All film crew members are exposed to risks to health and safety
(including mental), variously due to physical working conditions and high stress and
2008).
Among the accidents that occurred in the last years, one may cite the death of the
stuntman who fell during a TV series filming (Wattles, 2017); the actor who jumped
between two buildings and hit the wall (FILM, 2017); and a camera assistant died after
being hit by a train during a movie set recording (Pulver, 2014). As a matter of fact, if a key
actor/actress gets severely injured or dies (as happened with Brandon Lee while filming The
Crow), the impacts to the whole production process can be awful, even making the project
unfeasible.
overall risk management process in this industry. Campbell & Mann (1987) mentioned as an
example the musical Starlight Express: unsafe conditions were described as constant both
onstage and offstage, categorized in four potential causes of accidents: moving vehicles,
falls, electrical shocks and fires. Additional risks have also been identified as negatively
affecting the health and safety of cast, crew and any other individuals at the working
transmitted diseases/HIV (in the adult film segment), vibration, conditions of structures,
lighting and other equipment, use of flammable and other potentially hazardous substances,
Risk elements are present in any production, be it on a theatre stage or before the
cameras at a film set or outside location. Fire in a film and television company in Brazil
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caused a delay on a TV series launch and negative impact in terms of costs and company
improbable, because a tradition exists of putting the production above health and safety, as
reflected in the sayings “getting the shot is what counts” and “the show must go on”. The
cast and crew are so involved in the illusion that they tend to forget reality (Campbell &
Mann, 1987).
Risk analysis in this industry is therefore considered a good practice, but this is not
always done, especially for low-budget productions (McCann, 1998; Taylor et al., 2007;
Sullivan & McKee, 2015). Accurate statistics on the number of accidents and illnesses
occurring during the production of films and television programs are difficult to obtain,
however, the Center for Safety in the Arts compiled a list of 40 fatalities from 1980 to 1989
during the production of films and television programs in US and produced by American
occur in this industry, and the disclosure of these facts usually occurs through social media
In light of this situation, this study presents the following question: What are the
main failures in the process of the film and television industry and how can they be
identified, evaluated and mitigated? The relevance of this study is to offer researchers and
professionals of this business segment a perspective of the data about the film and television
industry, its risks, especially in the field of health and safety, and how to manage them.
In the present research, a case study of a film and television producer in Brazil that
mapping its macro process, the critical process was identified and the failure modes were
described and analyzed. Risks were, then, prioritized and the root and intermediate causes of
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the occurrence of failures were scrutinized, so that an action plan would be developed to
prevent/mitigate risks.
Entertainment and arts can be thought as a microcosm of all industries and their
occupational risks are in most cases similar to those found in more conventional industries
and the same types of precautions can be applied (McCann, 1998). Therefore, applied
method and findings in the present research can be useful in other sectors, to reduce their
This paper is organized into five sections: Section 1 presents the introduction,
justification and research objectives; Section 2, the literature review; Section 3, the research
methodology; Section 4, results and discussion, and Section 5, the conclusions of this study,
followed by References.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
organization regarding risks (De Oliveira et al., 2017). It involves a careful and recursive
process of documentation, evaluation and decision making during all phases of the life cycle
of the organization and can be applied in its various areas and levels, at any moment, as well
The ISO 31000 (2009) standard defines the risk management process by means of
seven main elements: communication and consultation; establishment of the context; risk
identification; risk analysis; risk evaluation; risk treatment; and monitoring and critical
review. This standard has been employed by many researchers as a base for developing risk
Teimourikia & Fugini, 2017). Nowadays, industrial processes are more complex, requiring
greater mental effort by workers. This high mental demand placed on workers tends to
increase the rate of errors. The result is a need to carefully consider the risks associated with
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the psychosocial and psychodynamic aspects of work (Oughton, 2013; Naderpour et al.,
2015).
Occupational Safety and Health Risk Management aims to maintain the risks under
acceptable levels, which, according to Naderpour, Nazir & Lu (2015), is a challenging task,
due to the dynamic nature of the risk factors. Therefore, risk analysis must be dynamic,
considering human and organizational factors, potential social, economic and environmental
impact on society, and the knowledge of specialists (Khan, Rathnayaka & Ahmed, 2015;
Villa et al., 2016; Iibahar et al., 2018), while keeping workers aware of risk assessment
results, i.e., level of risk of hazardous situations, and providing the basis for reducing risks
(Khanzode, Maiti & Ray, 2012; Shirali, Mohammadfam & Ebrahimipour, 2013; Jorgensen,
2015). Also, as highlighted by Lanoie (1992), the implementation of the occupational health
and safety risk management system can face obstacles such as the lack of resources and
trained personnel in occupational health and safety within companies and the lack of
Health and Safety regulations have been growing steadily over the past 50-60 years,
making employers primarily responsible for the safety of their employees (Jorgensen, 2015)
and promoting the implementation of occupational health risk management systems toward
a safer and healthier work environment (Lanoie, 1992; Okunn et al., 2001; Niskanen,
Although, even with the growth of health and safety regulations, current data show
that the occurrence of avoidable workplace accidents still persists (Aminbakhsh et al., 2013;
Isik & Atasoylu, 2017). These accidents result in injuries and / or illness or even death for
those involved. In addition, they generate negative impacts for companies, such as loss of
productivity, higher costs for treatment of employee health, higher costs due to tax payments
Dangerous situations can be hard to perceive and exist for many years until
indicators and use systematic “tools” to map faults and thus avoid accidents (Jorgensen,
2015; Koivupaloa et al. 2015). Process mapping is only a way to visualize and control an
organization’s activities. Collectively, the various mapping approaches are meant to increase
delineating the flow to reduce failures (Bolsson et al., 2013). In many business
Monforte et al. (2015) observed that process mapping allows better comprehension
of the welding process in the construction of offshore oil platform supply vessels,
identifying the critical points in relation to occupational health and safety failures. White &
Svetlana (2015) applied process mapping in three organizations and identified that the tool is
able to uncover and capture the knowledge within people and processes and can be widely
used to support organizational development and improvement. They applied the technique
According to Khanzode, Maiti & Ray (2012) and Tulashiea, Addai & Annan (2016),
environment caused by hazards. Those risks are mainly related to processes, technologies,
materials and people (Jorgensen, 2015; Khan, Rathnayaka & Ahmed, 2015; Villa et al.,
2016) and their occurrence frequency, as well as expected severity are used to measure and
rank risks. The reliability and accuracy of this process depends on the quantity and quality
Researchers often rely on input from specialists to analyze many themes, such as
identification of risk evaluation tools, potential critical risk factors and analysis of the
complexity of process failures, among others (Pinto, 2013; Ayra et al., 2015).
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Specialists can contribute to the application of risk analysis tools through the use of
adaptation of what has been identified in the literature for the process, these applications
being tools of risk analysis or risk-mitigating actions and judgments of results, depending on
the experience and mastery of the subject (Cicek & Celik, 2013; Ayra et al., 2015; Tremblay
Aminbakhsh, Saman & Murat (2013), Pinto (2014) and Ayra et al. (2015) identified that the
lack of data leads to a high degree of uncertainty in the application of quantitative methods.
According to Guo & Kang (2015) and Iibahar et al. (2018), in the absence of this
In order to assess the risk of accidents, Tremblay & Badri (2018) pointed problems
related to lack of availability of prevention specialists. These experts work long hours
through field observations, however they suggest repetitive interventions rather than
business-adapted interventions, which in the case of the film and television industry is a
problem, since mitigating actions should be specific to the business (McCann, 1998).
in assessing the risks of accidents that may occur due to process failures. Knowledgeable
experts are usually selected who will be evaluated, who will be familiar with the tool that
will be applied for evaluation and knowledgeable about the risks of accidents, including the
health and safety professional (Chemweno et al., 2015; Koivupaloa et al., 2015).
Among the researchers who suggest this committee formation are: Aminbakhsh,
Saman, & Murat (2013), who used specialists in civil construction projects and in risk
analysis; Cicek & Celik (2013) used two specialists from the sector under study and a
specialist in the risk analysis tool used; Koivupaloa et al. (2015), who used specialists in
occupational health and safety, however who worked in the company in question and
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therefore were knowledgeable about the processes; Oliva (2016), analyzing the enterprise
risk management in the supply chain of Brazilian companies and Tremblay & Badri (2018),
which formed a team of 10 experts, being selected a group knowledgeable in the process and
The origin of the expression “process safety” and its international evolution are
associated with severe accidents in processes that occurred in the period between 1960 and
1990, as the result of rapid industrialization and technological advance. The activities of
process risk management were also commenced in the 1970s. The most popular risk analysis
methods and processes developed and implemented in this period are the Hazard and
Operability Study (HAZOP), Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree
Analysis (FTA) and Event Tree Analysis (ETA) (Khanzode, Maiti & Ray 2012; Chemweno
et al., 2015; Guo & Kang, 2015; Khan Rathnayaka & Ahmed, 2015; Iibahar et al., 2018).
potential failures associated with each phase of a process (Kurt & Ozilgen, 2013). It is a
useful technique to gather the data necessary to make decisions for elimination or control of
risks, by identifying the failure modes and their effects, specifying the corrective actions to
eliminate or reduce the probability of failure and developing an efficient system to reduce
the occurrences of potential risk scenarios (Damanab et al., 2015; Tremblay & Badri, 2018).
In recent studies, FMEA has been used successfully to analyze risks in many processes, such
integrated with other methods (Cicek & Celik, 2013; Kurt & Ozilgen, 2013; Nowakowska &
The main advantage of the FMEA method over other risk analysis methods is
quantitative evaluation. In FMEA, the potential risks of processes are detected and evaluated
in each step, by attributing values to the frequency or probability of failure occurrence (O);
severity of the failure (S), which measures the impact of the failure on the process or on the
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types of injuries involved, as suggested by Khanzode, Maiti, & Ray (2012); and possibility
of detection (D), depending on which mechanisms or means exist to detect this failure.
The scale of the three variables has a range from 1 to 10, and a risk priority number
(RPN) is calculated for each failure mode by multiplying the three values determined (O x S
x D) (Garland, 2011; Kurt & Ozilgen, 2013; Cicek & Celik, 2013; Iibahar et al., 2018,).
According to Aminbakhsh, Saman & Murat (2013), the proper prioritization of these
risks is crucial for their management. After identification, analysis and evaluation of the
risks, some of them must be treated while others are assumed and still others transferred.
Hallegatte & Rentschler (2015) mention that if the risk evaluation is prepared with
indication of the potential costs, benefits of mitigation and consequences, and the
organization is capable of dealing with these consequences, the option of their acceptance is
justified. On the other hand, a risk treatment action is necessary if these consequences
cannot be managed.
The result of this process enables identifying actions to mitigate the risk of injuries,
occupational diseases and impacts on the work environment and assists the organization in
the effective development of risk-based health and safety risk management to ensure
compliance with the requirements operational and prevention of occupational diseases and
logical paths that correlate the root cause with atop event (Coles et al., 2010). Besides this, it
can be used for quantitative analysis using reliability theory, Boolean algebra and
probability theory to obtain the probability of occurrence of the top event (Khan et al.,
2015).
Those risk assessment tools can complement each other. For example, FTA can
underline the fault propagation from the root cause up to the top event (effect) (Coles et al.,
2010; Jorgensen, 2015; Khan et al., 2015), helping in the FMEA development, i.e., listing
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potential problems, as well as their qualitative and quantitative analysis (Kurt & Ozilgen,
2013). Cicek & Celik (2013) used an expert committee for the application of the FMEA and
started by brainstorming potential flaws in the risk of explosion in a marine industry and
found that the appropriate risk tool offers flexibility in simple and complex situations.
Recent studies have combined some other techniques with application of FTA, such as
FMEA and HAZOP. Generally, the technique used along with FTA identifies the failure and
FTA indicates the causes of the failure and their probabilities of occurrence, with the
combined information serving as the base for making decisions (Han & Zhang, 2013;
Recent years have been marked by profound changes in the nature of work. The
previous risk analysis models were designed for a type of industrial arrangement where
workers were treated a human cogs in the production system. In well-conceived work
environments, planning was focused on adequate ergonomics, with less attention paid to the
cognitive aspects of the process. Concern was often more focused on preservation of the
The lack of studies related to risk identification and/or procedures for risk
management in the Film and Television Industry drove us toward the quest for identifying
the main failures in the process of such industry and how risks can be identified, evaluated
and mitigated.
In order to accomplish with this task, a case study of a film and television producer
in Brazil was carried out in eight steps, as illustrated in Figure 1. The steps are described in
Identification of the
Identifiying the steps Identifying the critical
activities of the
of the macro-process process
critical process
Process Knowledge of Process
mapping specialists mapping
Understanding the
intermediate causes Identifying the failure
Ranking the causes of
and roots of high-risk modes of the critical
the high-risk failure
causes process and the risk
modes
level of the causes
FTA Calculate
RPN FMEA
Developing and
applying the action Analyzing the results
plan to mitigate high- of the failure mapping
risk causes process
Re-application
FMEA (actions of the FMEA
recommended)
The studies in health and safety risk analysis are usually developed in a sector
(Koivupaloa et al., 2015), in which activity, task or accidents that occur systematically
(Cicek & Celik, 2013; Ayra et al., 2015). Since no critical focus was identified in the
literature regarding to the film and television industry and the company does not have an
Occupational Health and Safety indicator, and thus, the lack of historical data was identified,
we identified the need to pinpoint the critical process in the occurrence of accidents in the
target company.
As previously discussed, in the absence of historical data, experts can contribute a lot
due to the knowledge about the process of the target company, and to begin the evaluation of
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the critical process, the first step was the mapping of the macro-process through the
In order to identify the main sequential steps that precede the macro-process of
launching a new product (series, soap opera or movie), we held a meeting with a committee
of specialists in the areas of occupational health and safety, special effects, and fire
prevention and fighting, and applied the process mapping tool. The committee was
composed of one safety engineer (with 17 years of experience in the entertainment areas),
two work safety technicians (respectively with six and three years of experience in the
entertainment area), one fire brigade supervisor (with 11 years of experience in the
entertainment area), and one special effects producer (with 35 years of experience in the
entertainment area).
The same committee of experts also took part in this step, involving establishment of
the “critical process analysis by specialists” (CPAS) to identify the most critical process in
the macro-process mapped. For this purpose, we prepared a questionnaire for ranking the
where 1 corresponds to very low probability and 5 to very high likelihood, as shown down
below.
1 2 3 4 5
Very Low Low Medium High Very High
The Likert scale is a research tool that converts qualitative into quantitative values, to
enable better statistical analysis of data. It is widely used by researchers in the field of
process analysis (e.g., Shirali et al., 2013; Gao el al., 2015; Iqbal & Babar, 2016).
For the purpose of identifying the essential steps of a business and focusing on the
critical aspects that can increase the rate of failures, CPAS will save time and resources by
avoiding unnecessary digressions to examine processes that are not critical, since only the
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failures of critical processes that can compromise the functioning of the system will be
completely mapped.
The committee evaluated each process of the macro-process mapped in the previous
step, allowing the identification of the most critical process (results are detailed in section
4.2), which was the base for the analysis in the next step.
After defining the most critical process, we held a second meeting with the
specialists to identify the logical sequence of the activities of the critical process. This
culminated in the map of the filming process, which was subsequently validated by us
through direct observation of the activities carried out in the mapped process. Through these
actions, we obtained information to help comprehend all the activities making up the
mapped process, in line with the purpose and objective of applying that tool (Garland,
2011).
3.4. Identifying the failure modes of the critical process and the risk level of the causes
After identifying the steps of the critical process (previous step), we carried out a
FMEA of the process to identify the existing failures and to calculate the risk priority degree
for each cause identified in these failures, for the purpose of distinguishing the causes with
high priority.
According to McElroy et al. (2015), the cause of a failure mode that presents
these authors, the United States Army and the Automotive Industry Action Group also work
with this parameter (RPN≥300). Based on these citations, we adopted such limit to classify
the causes with high risk of the failure modes identified. Therefore, at this step of the study
We applied FTA to the high-risk causes identified in the previous step, with the
objective of understanding top events, by identifying the intermediate causes and the root
causes, in turn to develop an action plan to mitigate these failures (Chemweno et al., 2015).
3.7. Developing and applying the action plan to mitigate high-risk causes
As the stages of identifying risks, analyzing risks and evaluating risks were concluded, a
risk management plan was developed, as part of the risk treatment step described in the ISO
31000 (2009). As a matter of fact, the FMEA itself establishes a step for developing
The development of this action plan occurred with the experts’ involvement, taking into
i) For the development of mitigating actions, local laws should be considered and when
local actions are not identified the search should be extended to international legislation (Isik
ii) Mitigating actions cannot be generalist but specific to the target company (Lanoie,
1992; McCann, 1998; Okun et al., 2001; Niskanen, 2012; Oughton, 2013; Tremblay &
Badri, 2018);
iii) The risks considered as medium and low that can generate accidents with simple
consequences cannot be ignored (Khanzode, Maiti & Ray, 2012; Jorgensen, 2015);
iv) Risk and mitigation actions should be disseminated to all of the target company from
the senior management to the operational employees (Khanzode, Maiti & Ray, 2012; Shirali,
intermediate causes and base causes of the top event, for the causes classified as having high
risk (RPN≥300). This plan was presented to the people in charge of the areas for the purpose
The action plan was applied in a period of two years (November 2013 to December
For the causes of the failure modes with RPN below 300 points, we did not
formulate the development of the top events in FTAs. Instead, we used the actions
recommended from the FMEA form to minimize these causes instead of action plans, since
this step was developed only for the failure modes with RPNs greater than or equal to 300.
As established in the ISO 31000 (2009), the last element of the risk management
process encompasses monitoring risks and critical review. To analyze the results of the
failure mapping process, at the end of the two years we re-applied the FMEA and
recalculated the RPNs of all the causes of the failure modes. To check the efficacy of
applying the methodology developed, we evaluated the actions plans of the high-risk causes
The application of the tools resulted in a complete visualization of the process, its
failures and high-risk causes. These results are presented and analyzed in the same sequence
Application of the process mapping produced the logical sequence of the activities
No
Live
Post-production broadcast? Filming
Yes
End
Distribution Exhibition
Chart 1 presents the level of criticality of the steps of the macro-process of the film
3.2.
Chart 1: Analysis of the specialists in the step for defining the probability of accidents
work work
work special fire
safety safety
Steps of the macro-process safety effects brigade Average
technician technician
engineer producer supervisor
1 2
Development of the new
1 1 2 1 1 1.2
product
Pre-production planning 2 3 2 1 1 1.8
Preparation of the film set 3 2 3 3 3 2.8
Filming 5 5 4 5 4 4.6
Post-production 1 1 1 1 2 1.2
Distribution 1 2 1 1 1 1.2
Exhibition 1 1 1 1 1 1
Source: Authors
The specialists indicated that in the steps of new product development and pre-
production planning, the probability of failures is low, because in these steps the activities
are aimed at creation and planning, such as prospective budgeting, description of the
synopsis of the product, choice of the filming locations and types of sceneries, contact with
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government officials to obtain filming permits, choice of the cast and crew, and
storyboarding.
With respect to the preparation of the film set, the specialists considered the
committee, this phase involves preparation for the filming step, by visits to the filming
locations/stages to map and mitigate risks and to define the infrastructure for filming and the
crew, composed of qualified and trained professionals, and start of assembly of the scenery,
The post-production, distribution and exhibition steps also have low risk probability
according to the experts. When the show is exhibited live, these steps occur at the moment
of filming. In turn, the activities of the post-production step involve adjustment of the image
and soundtrack, graphic computation and addition of visual effects. Distribution can be by
optical fiber cable, microwave transmission, internet or on recorded tape or film stock, while
The filming step (see Chart 1) is considered to have the highest likelihood of
accidents. This step can involve high-risk activities depending on the scene, position of the
crew, filming environment and equipment used, among other elements. Besides this,
physical effort is necessary by the crew and actors, varying depending on the scene. The cast
and crew typically have a high level of anxiety and stress, which can be important factors
causing accidents. During the filming, other factors can heighten the risks, such as special
effects like explosions, car crashes, use of venomous or exotic animals and violent physical
acts of the actors. For this reason, the next section covers the flowchart of all the steps of
this process.
Figure 3 illustrates the filming process, prepared according to the comments of the
Start of filming
Start and finish of the Filming
Sequence of
the filming
script
Disassembly of
End of filming
the set
The filming process flowchart revealed some close relationships between what was
mapped and descriptions in the literature on identification of risks, such as Campbell &
Mann (1987), who mentioned observation of risks during rehearsals, Sullivan & McKee
(2015), who mentioned risks during filming, and Caldwell (2008), who described risks in
This flowchart was fundamental to understand all the steps and functions of the
filming process. The critical process map presented the involvement of five sectors with
nine main activities, in which the fault mapping tool was applied and the risks analyzed, as
The FMEA was developed and allowed identifying the gaps in the filming process
that can negatively affect the safety of the people involved. All told, 15 failure modes were
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identified, with 32 potential occurrence elements (causes). Due to space and word-counting
the material considered in the pre-production planning due to failure resulting from first
On Director marks out the scene for camera framing, the failure mode Director
decides to change what was planned when visiting the location in the pre-production step
failure mode, while Positioning of the actors, extras/stand-ins had Alteration of what was
decided in the tests carried out previously for special effects; and Inappropriate positioning
of what was decided in the tests carried out previously for special effects; and Inappropriate
Disassembly of scenery had one single failure mode: Lack of adequate equipment
for disassembly, and one cause. Arrangement of lighting had also one failure mode,
Alteration of the crew linked directly to the scene presented three failures modes:
replacement of a device or overheated equipment; Haste of the crew to end the activity, and
five causes.
involving risk; Lack of knowledge of risks of the set; and Use of stand-ins who are
With failure modes found, their possible effects and causes, the existing controls
identified and the respective RPNs, risk mitigation recommendations were developed. Many
opportunities for improvement of the critical process were observed, such as:
- Better ergonomics of the equipment used on the sets, mainly for camera, audio
- Team rotation on long filming sets, in order to minimize fatigue and stress effects.
-Identification of adequate costume for each situation (eg: no wigs and synthetic
12 causes were found with RPN greater than 300. After a meeting with the
specialists, these causes were analyzed and stratified, producing four groups of basic and
principal causes, which after being addressed will solve the 12 causes. Chart 2 describes and
4.6. Applying the FTA and understanding the intermediate and root causes with high
risk
The FTA was applied to each high-risk cause (see Chart 2) and allowed the
committee of specialists to understand the succession of causes that preceded the top event.
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As an example, Figure 4 depicts the development of the FTA for the cause “Lack of
Lack of regular
suppliers, because they
vary according to the
Lack of a specific material necessary for
company to the special effect
prepare special
effects materials
Diversity of special
effects required
No specific
training exists
It’s part of the
for special
Lack of an business. The product
effects
operational has particular features
technicians
procedure for depending on the
contracting special effect
suppliers stipulated by the
director
Figure 4: FTA for the top event “lack of quality control of the material used for filming special effects”
Source: Authors
The results of the basic and root causes of each tree were analyzed and discussed by
4.6.1. Trees 1 and 2 (Lack of quality control of the material used for filming
It can be seen in Tree1 that the cause is due to the diversity of special effects requested
by the directors/producers. To prepare special effects involving fire, for example, a variety
of equipment and materials (inputs) is necessary. Due to this variation, there are no specific
suppliers for each sector. Because of this difficulty of obtaining specific inputs, equipment
and materials already available in the market must be adapted by those responsible for
producing the effect, and this adaptation is carried out based on the technical knowledge of
the person in charge. The film and television production company in question does not have
Trees 1 and 2 identify the root cause of the lack of specific training for special effects
technicians. The companies in this segment minimize the occurrences of this failure by
setting minimum training requirements for employees through courses existing in the
ii. Courses about Brazilian occupational health and safety legislation and
regulations;
these training sessions, the employees learn to use the material correctly, identify the type of
material for each effect and the correct use, and create mechanisms for the effects required
In analyzing the intermediate and root causes of this tree, it can be highlighted that
the focus of the direction and production people is the creation of realism in the final
product, but they are not aware of the role of the occupational health and safety professional.
They think that health and safety actions can make filming certain types of scenes
impossible.
Another cause is that college degree programs in entertainment do not cover the
theme of evaluation of the risk of job-related accidents or diseases, a factor that contributes
The main root cause here is the lack of professionals in the technical corps of the
occupational health and safety risks. This is due to the applicable regulation, NR 4 (2016)
from the Ministry of Labour, which establishes rules for the creation of a “specialized
service in occupational health and safety engineering” (SESMT) by companies, with the
objective of promoting health and protecting the integrity of workers while on the job. It is a
general rule, applicable to all economic activity categories, and the composition of the
2nd step: Identify the level of risk of that activity, according to Table I of NR-4.
Chart 3 shows the makeup of the SESMT that must be established by film and
television producers, according to the number of fixed employees. This is only required of
companies with 501 or more employees, at which threshold only one full-time employee
specialized in work health and safety must be hired. The number of SESMT people
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increases for larger companies. However, it is not common in Brazil for film and television
producers to have 501 or more fixed employees. Instead, they outsource workers when
Chart 3: Composition of the SESMT for film and television producers in Brazil
50 101 251 501 1001 2001 3501 More than 5000, for each
Risk
SESMT to to to to to to to group of 4000 or fraction
level
100 250 500 1000 2000 3500 5000 greater than 2000**
Work safety 1 1 2 5 1
technician
Work safety engineer 1* 1 1 1*
2
Labour nursing aide 1 1 1 1
Labour nurse 1
Labour physician 1 1 1 1
(*) Part-time (minimum of 3 hours per day)
(**) The total size is determined considering the size of the range from 3501 to 5000 plus the size of the
group(s) of 4000 or fraction thereof greater than 2000.
Source: Based on Table II of NR-4 (2016) from the Ministry of Labour
The parameters of Brazilian legislation contrast sharply with those adopted in the
Australian state of Victoria (Australia, 2013). While in Brazil the need for a safety specialist
depends on the number of employees and general risk level of the company’s activity, in
Victoria a safety supervisor must be present at the filming location anytime the risk of the
The specialists interviewed during this study expressed the belief that resolution of
the failure “lack of holistic vision of risk by the directors and producers” (Tree 3) would
enable mitigating or even eliminating the failure “lack of technical guidance and monitoring
during filming”.
The recommendations of the action plan were applied by those in charge of the areas
and we accompanied the results of this application for two years. These recommendations
helped lead to the creation of procedures, alteration of standards and in some cases alteration
of suppliers. To illustrate the development of this phase, here we discuss the cause “lack of
quality control of the material used for filming special effects”, related to the failure mode
special effects material”, where the recommendation to reduce this failure is “require the
Minimization of the failure involved dividing the types of special effects and
identifying the corresponding equipment, materials and activities used, as shown in Chart 4.
For each type of effect, eight actions were applied (Identify all the equipment,
products and materials (inputs) used for each effect; Identify the pertinent regulations for
each product regarding necessary certification; Identify minimum health and safety
suppliers of these materials, with inclusion of the requirements of regulations and minimum
demands of the company; Approve the procedure with the department in charge of
contracting suppliers; Procure three suppliers in the market that satisfy the scope defined in
the procedure; Inspect all materials upon receipt to attest that they satisfy the requirements;
and Train the team involved in the operational procedure adopted), where the areas in charge
defined the actions that would be implemented, the people responsible for these actions and
(2004), Bandaly, Satir & Shanker (2016), Giannakis & Papadopoulos (2016), Hallikas &
Lintukangas (2016), Wiengarten et al. (2016), and Fan et al. (2017). The application of these
actions produced a reduction of the RPN of this cause from 480 to 40. This was due to
reduction of the variables of occurrence (O) and detection (D) in the calculation of the RPN.
With the inclusion of the requirements of regulations on occupational health and safety in
the standard procedure for purchasing special effects materials, the occurrence of the cause
“lack of quality control of the material used for filming special effects” was reduced from 6
to 2 points, and with disclosure of this procedure, the identification of this cause on the sets
A special effects material receiving procedure was elaborated with all the normative
requirements and product quality guarantee and standardization requirements (eg: bombs
would be received in the exact size and quantity of gunpowder required to explosion effects,
eliminated the manipulation of this chemical during the recording and reduced the risk of
accident and the chance of errors in the preparation of the material). Purchasing sector
The implementation of this action directly influenced the Occurrence and Detection
indices for RPN recalculation, however, the Severity variable was retained, since the
occurrence of special effects accidents during the recording is considered with maximum
severity, due to the fact that the impacts can be very negative, among them: the occurrence
of injuries in actors, extras or onlookers; occurrence of injury to the main actor which
damages the entire recording process; disclosure in the media about the accident that directly
impacts the company's image; cancellation of the recording, which impacts on the cost of the
4.8. Analysis of the results of the failure mapping process in the film and television
industry
For the purpose of understanding the influence of applying all the recommendations
in the failure mapping of this process, which occurred between 2013 and 2015, we re-
applied the FMEA and recalculated the RPNs of all the causes of the failure modes.
professionals of. Among the topics addressed, the most important were equipment risk
analysis and special effect project risk analysis. The implementation of this action also
directly reduced the Detection and Occurrence variables and reduced the RPN from 540 to
40.
iii) Development of a risk analysis procedure for recording sets, including holistic
risk analysis for all areas and recording tasks. Each elaborated risk analysis was presented to
the Directors and Producers, along with risk signalling and their mitigating actions. The
implementation of this action also directly reduced the variables of Detection and
production's lack of knowledge of risk, since these professionals participated in the risk
analysis process and began to understand that creation can go on, while equipment and
material substitution, and changes in the dynamics of the scene can mitigate the risks. In
addition they understood the negative impact to the company in case of occurrences of
A significant reduction was achieved in the RPNs for the 12 high-risk causes, with
the highest value, observed in 2013, of 540 falling to 40 in 2015. Graph 1 depicts the
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behaviour of the RPNs of the 12 high-risk causes in the two FMEAs applied (2013 and
2015).
RPN 2015
RPN 2013
Graph 1 – Representation of the RPNs of the 12 causes identified in the first FMEA (2013) and second FMEA
(2015).
Source: Authors.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The literature review revealed the shortage of studies about risk management in the
film and television industry. Therefore, this study contributes by describing a systematic
procedure using a variety of tools that, if properly combined, has good potential to reduce
the risks of work-related accidents in this business segment in a way not yet explored by
With respect to the steps and objectives proposed, the results indicate that:
i – The process mapping of the film and television industry provided a vision of all
filming);
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iii – The application of the FMEA to the activities of the critical process enabled
mapping 15 failure modes with a total of 32 causes that can generate accidents and harm to
iv – The RPNs calculated by applying the FMEA and knowledge of the specialists
allowed identifying 12 causes classified as having high risk and their prioritization, and
v – The result of applying the FTA enabled understanding the high-risk causes of
failures and enabled preparing an effective action plan to mitigate the failures;
vi – The application of the action plan for two years enabled analyzing the results of
vii –Re-application of the FMEA in 2015 demonstrated that the development and
application of the integrated failure mapping procedure presented in this study attained its
objective, as revealed by the significant reduction of the RPNs between 2013 and 2015.
Such achievements allowed attaining the general objective and suggest that the
method used to evaluate risks and map failures is applicable to the processes of the film and
television industry and can help companies in this segment to mitigate or eliminated these
failures.
We identified the critical process in the film and television industry, its failure modes
and potential elements that caused these failures: risks were evaluated based on the opinions
of the experts.
In regards to the process critical risks, they resemble those of other industries,
however with different intensities. To illustrate, the activities of the Civil Construction
industry and the activities of construction of scenarios are somehow similar, however, the
impacts are differentiated, for example in the occurrence of a serious or fatal accident with
the main actor, the product in question can be impacted directly since the actor cannot be
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replaced, while in other industries, operators are replaced in the process more easily. In
addition, the negative impact on the media is high because the disclosure is immediate.
As a result of the analysis of the proposed method, the critical risks were identified
along with their root causes and they were treated effectively. After assessing the probability
of Occurrence, Detection and Severity of these causes, it was concluded that these risks need
Then, actions were proposed to mitigate the failures, the action plan was applied and
the effectiveness of the implementation of the proposed actions was verified. The 12 high-
impact causes were minimized significantly after application of the action plan.
That action plan was only possible thanks to the initial failure mapping process,
which allowed complete visualization of the processes, identification of the critical process
(filming), mapping of the failures that can generate accidents and harm to the health and
safety of the cast and crew, the secondary and primary causes of these failure modes, and the
potential of an action plan based on all the knowledge obtained during the case study
The mitigating actions were quite similar to the ones applied to other industries, i.e.,
procedure development and updating, as suggested by Ayra et al. (2015) and Koivupaloa et
al. (2015); Capability building training; preparation of risk analysis and dissemination for
the entire workforce including senior management (Jorgensen, 2015); ergonomic evaluation
and adaptation of equipment; assessment of the costume (which can be comparable to adapt
uniforms to the risks). By the other side, mitigating actions for recording risks were unique,
since the exposure time is very short and does not justify an investment in engineering
We also discussed the issues faced in implementing and communicating the proposed
measures, thus illustrating the process of risk analysis and the negative impact to the
accidents;
In closing, we stress that the techniques and approaches presented in this study,
involving integrated and systematized mapping of failures in the productive processes of the
film and television industry, has huge potential to identify, analyze and evaluate failures,
thus minimizing the risks of accidents that can impair the health and safety of workers of the
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FAILURE MAPPING FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY MANAGEMENT IN THE FILM
HIGHLIGHTS
A procedure is proposed to analyze process failures in the film and television industry.
The critical process of occupational health and safety is identified and analyzed.
Visualization of the process enable formulating effective action plans to mitigate faults.
Techniques presented in this study have huge potential to identify, analyze and evaluate failures.