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In the ninth episode of Short Hand, we’re thinking about how to make your short film set a productive, inclusive and safe space. You’ll hear from filmmakers Katie Sinclair (The Last Days, Signs), Ella Glendining (Octopus) and Jessi Gutch (Octopus, The Forgotten C) and psychologist and consultant Michelle White. 

Topics covered include: how to support your film crew and keep morale high on set, establishing rules for good communication between the director and producer, things you might need to consider as the producer to make sure everyone has their requirements met, why good coffee is a must, the role of the wellbeing facilitator and psychological safety.

The three pillars that make up psychological safety are transparent communication, high levels of trust and having a shared mission and shared goals.

Michelle White, 6ft From The Spotlight

SHOW NOTES & RESOURCES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Short Hand: Hello, you’re listening to Short Hand: A guide to making a short film – a BFI NETWORK and Film Hub South East podcast. Whether you’re actively making a short film or passively thinking about it, this is a podcast designed to help you on the journey from coming up with a compelling short film idea to editing it into a finished product. In this episode, we’re considering what it means and what it takes to create a safe, inclusive and productive environment on set. You’ll hear from two producers, a director and a psychologist about how you can run a production that makes everyone feel valued and listened to.

Katie Sinclair: Prior to any production that I’m working on, I will have a conversation with the filmmaker that I’m working with, who will be directing the project, and I will have a sense of how long the shoot is going to be, roughly the hours that the shoot will be and that will also include conversations with the 1st AD and the other department heads of the short film. And so I will have an idea of the sorts of demands that are going to be placed on my crew.

Short Hand: That’s independent producer and development executive Katie Sinclair, whose short film credits include the BFI NETWORK and Film Hub South East – supported The Last Days. She’s here to discuss her responsibility as a producer in terms of making her cast and crew feel supported and safe, and how exactly she goes about doing that, particularly when people might have accessibility needs. You’ll hear her reference how she takes this into consideration when hiring crew, so if you haven’t already listened to our episode on that, we highly recommend checking out Episode Six: On Crewing Up. 

Katie Sinclair: Are they going to be working at night, for example, are they going to have to travel you know quite a distance to get to a shoot? Will they have breaks? Will they be working continuous or semi continuous days? As in will they have an hour for lunch or maybe half an hour? And so that will all inform the wellbeing of my cast and crew. Now obviously night shoots can take much more of a toll on people than shoots that happen during the day. If we’re shooting in central London and most of our crew in central London, that is a lot easier than if I’m bringing someone to a location. And so all of that will then form the way that I’m contracting my crew and how I’m communicating with my crew and letting them know the sorts of hours that they might be working. And so I will have a contract that I will offer to crew and cast that will have been drawn up usually by a lawyer and that I’m working with or there are templates that you can request from the BBC or BFI or other financiers that you might work with. And in that contract, it’s setting up a promise that I’m offering to my crew and my cast of what is expected of them and what I am going to offer them so in terms of money, what I’m going to pay them, the hours that they might be expected to work, the length of day, whether they have a lunch break or not whether or not there is any overtime, so that they know what’s expected of them.

Some people might not read every line of their contract. I think realistically a lot of crew are busy. And so I will also outline in an email to crew members and the cast members, what is expected of them. With the cast often, you’re talking to their agents, you’re negotiating with them and getting a sense of what they might expect. And so from very early on, in the process, you are establishing kind of what you are expecting from others, but also you are gathering feedback and you are understanding whether what you are asking of a crew member or a cast member is acceptable to them. And if not how you might be able to adjust what you are expecting. For example, if I have any crew members who have accessibility needs for whatever reason, they might have a disability, I can listen to them and ask them for that information. So that I can then work that into my plan for the shoot. And even prior to that, you know, prior to all of this, when I’m hiring crew, I’m thinking about their past references and how they have worked in the past. So I’m talking to people who have worked with them beforehand. And I’m getting a sense of them and whether they are collaborative. I’m getting a reference for them, so that I know that I’m creating an environment that feels as inclusive and collaborative as possible. And I always try to hire as inclusively as possible and seek out kind of different kinds of crew and cast members.

On a short film, and on any film, but particularly short film, the producer is ultimately responsible for the safety and wellbeing of all crew and cast members. And that can feel quite scary and it can feel quite overwhelming at times. Because you can feel as though you are ultimately responsible if anything goes wrong, if anything happens, if anyone is not okay even for one minute you can feel very responsible. And that is a weight of responsibility. And so what you are always trying to do on a short film is mitigate the chance of anything going wrong. And you know, things will go wrong, that is the nature of of life, but also of filmmaking in particular. And so you are trying to put structures in place to ensure that things go well, whether that is from a health and safety point of view, making sure that everyone is following the risk assessments that you have set out to mitigate risk, emotionally and making sure that everyone is okay, making sure that everyone is being looked after.

My most recent production, and in all productions I do going forward, we had a Mental Health First Aider who was on board and who also performed the role of COVID supervisor so was ultimately kind of responsible in some ways for assisting with anyone who wasn’t doing well. But again, ultimately, the buck would stop with me. And so I think it’s about finding different ways to mitigate the risk of things going wrong, and ensuring that the health and safety and wellbeing of your cast and crew are of paramount importance and that everyone feels safe, and everyone feels comfortable to do the work that they do. Another way that you can ensure that is, for example, if there are any intimate scenes, using intimacy coordinators, which is now kind of the industry standard, and would be expected even on a short film. Making sure that everyone feels completely safe in the environment that they’re in. And so it’s some of those slightly less traditional roles that maybe haven’t been a guarantee at any point in the industry up until now, that will mitigate the risk of anyone feeling unsafe.

Short Hand: Next up, Katie reveals why open lines of communication are key to production safety, as well as establishing a good relationship with the director. And where she begins with setting that tone.

Katie Sinclair: I try to ensure that there are open lines of communication on all of my sets to ensure that everyone feels that they’re being heard. So that starts fundamentally with the relationship with the filmmaker with the writer, director will just director that you have a kind of open communicative line, that doesn’t mean telling your director when they’re in the middle of shooting, every little thing that has gone wrong on your end, but it’s making sure that they know of any constraints that might be on their time, or any issues that they might need to come up against, and that you are aware of any issues that they might be having. And so making sure there was a direct line of communication, for example, if you’ve only got two hours left at the location, and there’s a lot to film, or if they need a little bit more time with the actors, because the actors need to work something out, it’s making sure that you are communicating with each other. And so that you are able, as a producer, in particular, to fulfil the need that the director has, then also communicating with your Heads of Department.

So when you’re hiring those Heads of Department, making sure that you’re having conversations with them about what they need, and getting a sense, again, sometimes it’s things that they verbally tell you, and sometimes it’s things that you sense from them that they might need, or they might have a special kind of requirement in and that you can make sure you can facilitate that requirement. For example, if the production design team, you know, needs extra pairs of hands, because otherwise they will feel incredibly stressed, you can make sure that they have those extra pair of hands. On a shoot that I did recently, the DP turned around to me on the second day and said I really need another spark for tomorrow, I am going to struggle to make the schedule work and so you look at your budget and you go, ‘okay, we’re going to bring that spark in’ and that makes that DP feel they heard and that they are listened to. And then also with your crew, making sure that all crew members feel that they can come to you and talk to you about any issues they might be having. And that if they communicate a need to you that you can listen to them.

Short Hand: Finally, Katie details some of the things it’s good to consider at the start of a production to keep morale up or prevent emergencies, whether that’s catering, allergies, scheduling or resourcing. As well as why the producers own self care and safety is of paramount importance.

Katie Sinclair: There is a whole list of things to consider as a producer in terms of requirements that people will need in order to do their jobs most effectively on set. Those start with the basic you know, making sure people are well-fed and well-hydrated, you know, bottles of water and proper meals that are going to fill them up but also not overfill them. And then within that, making sure that all dietary access requirements are met. If you have any vegans or people who are gluten-free or anyone with any allergies, making sure that those needs are provided for.

Also with things like allergies, you know, sometimes you are filming in a house and someone might be allergic to a cat. And so you’re making sure that that cat, if there was cat in the house, that it has not been in any of the rooms that that person might be. Sometimes it’s the slightly lateral thinking of things and needs that you might not anticipate, but actually could dramatically affect filming on the day. And then you’re also thinking about time, you know, are you rushing people? Is there actually enough time in the schedule? To do what you need to do? Is there enough space? Is there enough equipment? Are there enough people on set? Is there enough crew? Are there too many crew members? Are we crowding things out? You’re thinking about all of those things, not just from a practical financial and filmmaking point of view, but you are thinking about those from a wellbeing point of view, because if people are stressed about time and they don’t have the equipment they need and they don’t have the crew they need, then their well-being is going to be impacted by that. And they are not going to feel comfortable, and they’re not going to feel able to do the best job that they can do. And also, that’s when things like health and safety slips can start to happen, because people feel under pressure, and people feel rushed. And they won’t necessarily perform their jobs to the best of their ability. And so you were considering all of that.

When you’re making the schedule and ensuring that you’re being realistic, as well as trying to cram as much into a day as you can, you’re also being realistic at what is achievable. And that could even involve going back to a script and making changes editorially, in order to ensure ultimately, the wellbeing of everyone in your cast and crew. As a producer, I think it’s very important that as much as you are supporting others, that you are also being supported yourself. And so on all of my short film projects, I will work with other producers, or co-producers or production managers, who will work in the production team to support me, and to support the rest of the cast and the crew but primarily to support me, who I can turn to, and I can work with and I can delegate to, and they can go and kind of help manage and help firefight and solve any problems that arise on the day. And they can report up to me as and when they need to.

That also goes for the Heads of Department who I delegate to a lot in terms of responsibility, making sure they are also responsible for the wellbeing and looking after their crew. And again, that’s about hiring well and making sure you find people that you can really collaborate with. But of course, tensions can run really high. Even with those considerations.

If you are going over time or over budget, or there are other issues, issues with mental health or wellbeing, for example, then tensions can run high. And so I think for me, it’s about communicating and asking whoever is kind of struggling or wherever they’re at issues asking you know, what is needed, what is required, what do you need in order to feel safe, and to feel comfortable and to be able to do your job? And then trying to facilitate that need, whether that is a crew member who needs to take a break, or needs to walk off set, go for a little walk or have a conversation with someone. Making sure they have the time and the space to do that, within the confines of the production, or whether it’s someone needs a little bit more time, a little bit more resource, whether we need to trim a scene, whatever it is that we need to do in order for them to do their best work. I’m trying to communicate with them in a reasonable empathetic way, and the cooler that I can seem and the cooler that I can appear. And the more empathetic to their situation, the better response I’m going to get out of them and the more comfortable they are going to feel in order to let me know what they really need and communicate what they really need.

My advice would be to just address the problem head-on and try not to ignore things, try not to let things simmer. For example, I had an issue on a short film that I made where the location owner kind of suddenly had a wobble and was feeling pretty scared and worried about having people filming her house and this was going to kind of directly impact you know, my filming schedule, because she kind of felt nervous and and was worried. And so it was about taking her aside and having a conversation with her and saying, what do you need? How are you feeling? How can I support you? Some might say it took quite a toll on my time because I was also thinking about fifty other things and making sure that the production would go ahead, but actually taking ten minutes to have the conversation with that location owner, even though contractually, we had the right to film in that location and we’re going to do so, just helped to smooth the process and helped everything to just feel a little bit calmer and a little bit cleaner and I felt more comfortable and the rest of the crew felt more comfortable knowing that the location owner was happy and had her needs met. And so often it’s about making those decisions of where to invest your time and energy. For me if I’ve done my job well in prep on a production, I should be doing very little on the shoot. I should be kind of sitting back and watching others do their brilliant job. And really what I’m doing is checking in with everyone and making sure everyone’s okay and fighting fires or solving problems as and when they arise.

Ella Glendining: In terms of the director-producer relationship on set, I’m not entirely sure that me and Jessi were very successful with our project. We barely spoke because we were busy and stressed. But I think it’s just checking in with each other lots. And yeah, for me, it’s really all about building up that relationship prior to the shoot, I think that’s crucial. And yes, just being able to trust in each other.

Short Hand: That’s Ella Glendining, a writer, director and actor, and 2020 ScreenDaily Star of Tomorrow. Her credits include the BFI-NETWORK funded short film Octopus, which was filmed in and around Norfolk and recently premiered at BFI Flare. Ella is also currently in production on her debut feature documentary Is There Anybody Out There?, about people, such as herself, with rare disabilities and medical conditions seeking to find like-bodied souls.

Ella is joined by the producer of Octopus, Jessi Gutch, a BIFA-nominated producer and filmmaker in her own right, based in Folkestone. Together, they discuss building trust to enable a smooth on-set experience and keep the stress at bay. 

Jessi Gutch: When I’m producing, and this might not be everyone’s method, but for me, I almost see it as like at the point that you get onto set, the role should almost be to kind of protect the director from all the stuff that is kind of going on. I almost want to try and almost make a protective shield around the director so that all this stuff that’s most likely going wrong, or is like becoming a challenge or kind of unforeseen events, you’re just sort of almost dealing with that in the background. But I agree with Ella that building up the trust to that moment is definitely key.

Ella Glendining: Yeah, I do think actually, that you protected me very well on set, having said that we didn’t work well together. I think what I meant was, I hardly saw you, because she was so busy protecting me.

Jessi Gutch: Octopus was one of those sets where it just seemed like and I think sometimes that happens, like sometimes you get a shoot where it feels like the film gods are on your side. And like the weather just works exactly how you want it to and you know, things just fall into place. And then sometimes I think, which is sort of what happened to us…A very good example would be, which often happens, where you’re running a bit behind schedule. And so in Octopus, we had a location that was a pub, but the pub, you know, it was like summer. We did not have the money to have them close the pub. So we sort of negotiated a reduced fee. And the fact that we would be there kind of in the morning, and that we would be gone. By the time it was the lunch rush where we would be quite in the way and sort of losing them custom. So we were running a bit behind schedule. So I guess kind of behind the scenes I was having that conversation with the pub owner to try and basically negotiate a bit more time, but without kind of pissing them off so much as to ruin that relationship, which I don’t think Ella would have seen because they were obviously in the middle of shooting, but it was all kind of behind the scenes I guess.

Short Hand: Next up Ella talks about vocalising her needs as a disabled filmmaker and how she likes to work, while Jessi reflects on how she caters to those needs, as well as how her own experience of living with incurable ovarian cancer has sharpened her desire to create caring, empathetic and inclusive sets.

Ella Glendining: As a disabled filmmaker, I am very vocal about my needs, and unapologetic about my needs. And I’m equally very aware of other people’s needs or I try to be. It’s about not apologising and lots of forward planning, making sure that places are accessible and obviously communicating with the producer and everyone.

Jessi Gutch: I’ve had, I guess a bit of an interesting journey in the sense that for the majority of my life, I’ve been non-disabled, but then in the last three years have had a diagnosis which has kind of meant me entering into this amazing community of people and I guess, sort of educating myself even about I guess what I would describe as almost a politics of care is the best way I could describe it. And I think you can really tell when sets are run in that way, and when they’re not. And I think that is probably one of the things that I most enjoy about producing actually, because I really do think as well as the director, the producer kind of sets the tone for that sort of energy on set.

I think what I’ve learned as well is that the most crucial part of embedding that politics of care into a set, I think, is right at the beginning, because I think that really sort of strikes that tone. And it can be really easy not to do because, you know, the kit might be arriving, the cast is then arriving and you know, everyone’s sort of milling around. But I think there’s something really important to me about kind of bringing everyone together at that beginning point. And in features, it might not be quite as feasible to do this, because you just have so many more people, but for shorts, I really don’t think you have any excuse not to kind of at least do a sort of intro round. And, you know, have people’s preferred name, preferred pronouns and their role and just kind of go round, we’re talking probably, what, 20 to 30 people, so it’s going to take just five minutes, but I think it just immediately kind of makes everyone just feel like they’ve actually know who they’re working with, and how to kind of refer to them.

And me and Ella did another film recently where it was all disabled talent and like probably majority disabled crew. And it was just one of the most brilliant things I’ve worked on. Because I think it felt so natural, because everybody had that lived experience. And I think I’m really interested in how that then translates, maybe when it’s not a majority disabled crew, but maybe the answer is to just be very diverse and inclusive in your kind of crew hiring.

Ella Glendining: In terms of directing fiction, I am very obsessed with actors and working with actors, and that feeling very collaborative. So I like to get feedback on the script and on the character and make sure we’re really on the same page also, and this is not just just with actors, but all HODs. Certainly Jessi and I worked really collaboratively on the script and stuff. But I was gonna say, I’m big on references.I like to share the things that inspire me. So music, other films, I’m big on feeling like we are all super on the same page and have the same shared vision. And yeah, I’m also perhaps too honest about my feelings. But I think that that can be good because it encourages other people to be honest about their feelings and stuff. So I like to have professional but personable relationships with the people I’m working closely with.

Short Hand: Finally, Jessi details what a happy set looks and feels like to her. And Ella reveals why food, coffee, and rest are contributing factors to this.

Jessi Gutch: So for me, I think the happy set feels non-hierarchical. I can’t abide by treating some people differently to anybody else just because of the role that they have. And it’s not to say that you don’t understand that who’s playing what role and that, you know, some people come with more experience than others. But I think everybody still plays their part. And I think you can really tell when you’re on a set where actually the people at the so called ‘top’ genuinely respect everybody who is working on that film and see their value. And then even on just like a basic level, I think personally, I don’t see any reason why we should be doing, you know, 12 to 14 hour days consistently. In most industries, that doesn’t happen. And, you know, I think that does need to be like a real kind of shift to understanding that the film set is not life, people have other lives. And I think that actually, it also comes into being disabled actually, and kind of learning that you do have to protect your energy. And it’s really important to do that.

Ella Glendining: I think that’s a great answer, Jessi. For me, I love delicious food, regular breaks and nice coffee. That puts everyone in a great mood. So everything Jessi says, plus nice food.

Jessi Gutch: One other thing that I think is really important in terms of everyone working together in tandem on a set, and it having just a genuinely good energy of like everyone working together for the same goal is kind of bridging that divide between production crew. I like it because sometimes it does feel like you’re sort of the bad guy that’s always there just to stop everyone having fun. And that can be actually really mentally draining. And I think, you know, as producers and like the production team, you are almost seen sometimes I think as just like the ones just saying no all the time. And so I guess what I sometimes also try and do is just try and like bridge that divide. And I don’t really know exactly what the tips are that I have for doing that. But I think, you know, maybe even it just comes down to like, if you’re, say, a producer or in the production team, just like learning a bit more about, you know, how the crew work and like what they need to do to get their goal, I guess, because I think then sometimes if you meet people in their language that can sometimes help. It at least shows that you’re sort of thinking about them, and that you know, what they have to try and achieve. But yeah, I think that’s also quite an important one in terms of feeling like a big happy family with oat flat whites.

Michelle White: The work that we’re doing at 6ft From The Spotlight is really you know, we’re a training and advocacy company that focuses on wellbeing and things like psychological safety in the Film and TV industry. So in terms of our ambitions for changing the industry, we definitely have ambitions. I think I’d have to acknowledge though, you know, we are very collective in terms of the way that we work. There are lots of good organisations around who we’re working to do this with us. So it’s something that we see as a collective effort, because there are lots of things that need to shift and change within the industry. So it is something that we were very conscious, we’ll never be able to do this on our own. And we’ll need to do it with a lot of kind of feedback as well from the people who actually work within the industry. And we work with lots of amazing organisations like the BFI and BAFTA and The Film and TV Charity and BECTU to do this.

Short Hand: That’s Michelle White, a psychologist, coach and consultant, specialising in leadership, resilience and wellbeing. She is also the Co-Director of 6ft From The Spotlight, a non-profit organisation seeking to improve the mental wellbeing of people who work in the film and TV industries. Here she provides a primer into the work they’re doing, their ambitions to change the industry and the role they’re developing to enable this: the wellbeing facilitator.

Michelle White: I mean, our ambition is, we state it as creating mentally healthy productions. So  we want the industry to be a place where people feel safe, where everybody feels included in the industry, we want it to be a place that actually engenders creativity and productivity where people can be healthy within the industry. You know, we hear so much about, the working hours, things like bullying and harassment, the lack of inclusion in the industry. Now we’ve got all of the return to work COVID restrictions, crew shortages, which are now kind of impacting throughout the industry, there are so many challenges, and a lot of these could be ameliorated if we got some of the key working conditions right, and we think creating psychologically safe spaces for people would be a really good start. There’s a myriad of things that we could do there. One of the key things, though, is training. And it’s about kind of training people, management, HoDs, line producers, producers, directors, to really understanding a little bit about what is a psychologically safe workplace? What is good leadership and good management, what does it involve? And what does it really mean to make people feel safe?

The training that we’ve put in place is, again, it’s multifaceted, because there are many different challenges. So we do things like mental health risk assessment training, for example, which is something that would happen at the pre-production stage. We actually look at the scripts with producers to work out, are there key points here that are triggering for people? What are the topics? What are the themes? Are there vulnerable contributors involved in this production? Then how do we safeguard people? Because often in the industry, you know, we’re working with really difficult content. And that’s not always acknowledged. And the impact of that isn’t always acknowledged. And then imagine if you know, you’re working in post, right, and you’re an editor and you have to watch traumatic content over and over again. So we want people in terms of the mental health risk assessments to really think about these things and think across the whole of the production chain.

We do training around mental health and the law. So do people understand what the duty of care is towards their workers and towards their employers? You know, we have to take reasonable and productive steps to protect everybody and to protect the psychological wellbeing not just the physical wellbeing. So duty of care is actually pretty broad. It’s your workers, employees, but it’s also freelancers, contractors, subcontractors, interns, trainees. So you know, mental health and the law is really important. So people understand what the legal requirement is. We do things like how to create a wellbeing policy for people. What is a psychologically safe workplace and how do you create psychological safety? We do things like how to create a resilient crew, you know, emotional resilience, positive interventions, practical strategies to help people tackle bullying and harassment, how to work with vulnerable contributors.

There’s lots of different training packages we offer and we’re trying to sort of work across what the different, quite complex needs are, that arise working in working in the film and TV sector. So that’s some of the training that we do. The other thing that we do, which is I guess the biggest thing that we do is the new role that we’re trying to develop or that we are developing for the film and TV industry: the role of the ‘Wellbeing Facilitator’. So this is a person who goes and works hopefully, in pre-production across the whole scope of the production and looks at things like mental health risk assessments, works with the producers to try and set up a mentally healthy production, and is then on set or on location or at the production with the crew. It’s a third party role. So you’re not part of the crew. But you are there as a visible presence, somebody who can actually intervene with anything from bullying and harassment de-escalating that, providing a kind of listening space, sometimes that’s all people need is that they want somebody to talk to, reducing distress, looking at schedules, you know, looking after vulnerable contributors if they’re there. So the Wellbeing Facilitator is just a very visible on-set presence, that’s third party, they report back into 6ft From The Spotlight. So they’re there almost as a kind of consultant. That’s the big thing that we’re developing at the moment with the BFI.

Short Hand: Following on from that, Michelle discusses both how you train to be a wellbeing facilitator and how you might be able to access one for your production. But bearing in mind that short films are, well short on time and often budget, Michelle provides some advice for whether or not your production needs one, and if not how you can still factor in well being and psychological safety.

Michelle White: In terms of the way that people trained to be Wellbeing Facilitators, they can train through our company, which is 6ft From The Spotlight. And we run a seven day training scheme. And it covers all of those parts that I just talked about really. So mental health risk assessments, wellbeing policies, how to handle bullying and harassment. We talk a lot about how to be resilient. We teach people kind of basic coaching approaches which helps them to navigate you know, management and leadership conversations that they might need to be involved in working with vulnerable contributors or how they can intervene. There’s a lot of in-depth training around what are the ways that you can intervene? How do you de-escalate difficult situations without kind of completely destabilising the production? What everybody wants is for the production to stay on track, and for people to be as as happy and healthy as possible. And we think these things should work in parallel together, that these things can work together. And that’s really what the Wellbeing Facilitator does. And we train them to do that. They also get a lot of backup from 6ft From The Spotlight. So we’re not just parachuting people into productions and leaving them there. We actively work with them, they have a back-up person at 6ft From The Spotlight, who would be somebody like me or one of my co-directors, and we work with them so that they’re an actively supported person. And if they need support, we will come in and work with them to support them as well. So there’s there’s a structure around it.

And in terms of accessing Wellbeing Facilitators, you know, it can be done through the BFI pilot and we work a lot independently as well. People just go through our website and contact us and we’ll have a conversation with them about putting a Wellbeing Facilitator on the production. If you’re making a short film and you’re shooting over the course of a few days and you have a tiny crew, right let’s say it’s under 10 people, it’s possible that you just don’t need a Wellbeing Facilitator. So we’re not saying that these should be a staple of every single production and people should use common sense about that for sure.

And of course, budgets, there’s no way that every production, particularly if people are doing shorts that they’ll be able to afford a Wellbeing Facilitator. So we completely understand that, but what people will need to do, even if they’re a tiny crew, and they’re just making, not just making, because shorts are incredibly difficult to make and to do, but if they’re making a shot, you would still need to take into consideration the wellbeing of your cast and your crew. So what you can’t do is just pretend that the wellbeing of the humans in your team isn’t important because it is and because you still have a legal duty of care toward them. And it’s really important that even if people don’t have Wellbeing Facilitators that they really think about these things, we’re thinking about different models, and in different ways that we can make this accessible for as many organisations and production companies that would want to use one. But our message would be if you can’t use one, which is really understandable where tiny budgets are concerned, you still need to think about the wellbeing of your cast and your crew.

I think that in order for producers to think about how they would create mentally healthy productions, you’d want to think about creating psychologically safe spaces for people to work in. And we know that psychological safe spaces are really important because they’re where people feel most included. And they really supercharge things like creativity and innovation. So they’re very, very good for film and TV environments.

So you know, there’s different ways of looking at psychological safety. A really easy way to look at it is to think of the three foundations or the three pillars that make up psychological safety, which are transparent communication, high levels of trust, and having a shared mission and shared goals. And these three things work very much together. If you don’t have one of them, in a sense, you don’t have any of them. So just kind of understanding a little bit about what the foundations of a psychologically safe environment are is really important. And to pay attention to that and think about how you can design your production, and your interactions with the cast and crew so that you’re observing those foundations, to think about the content, you know, we’d urge everyone to really think quite seriously about the content. And if there’s anything triggering in there, or things, you know, themes, content that might be sensitive for people, particularly, you know, if you’re working in post, and you’re going to be exposed to that over and over again for longer periods of time.

And beyond that thinking about developing compassionate line management relationships with people, you know, not ever treating people as though they’re kind of robots or cogs in machines who are there to engender someone else’s vision. To really see it as a team. The management relationship as we know is really, really important. People will stay on projects that they hate, if they like their manager and they’ll leave jobs and projects that they absolutely love if they don’t like their manager. So we know that’s a really, really important relationship. So to just pay attention to these relationships and think about what are the things that you can do to make sure that those relationships are trusting and that you’re being transparent with people, and that you have a sense of shared mission across the team. And if you can think about those things, you’re probably well on your way to building a psychologically safe environment for people to work in.

Short Hand: Thank you for listening to Short Hand. Look out for our tenth and final episode next week all about editing. Thank you to our guests this week: Katie Sinclair, Ella Glendining, Jessi Gutch and Michelle White.