The Skill Mela Shoot: Power, Fumes and a Blocked Exit
Sunita is floor manager for a two-day 'Skill Mela' being filmed inside a district exhibition hall in Hisar in June. Her crew of four has a DSLR, a tripod, one LED panel, an extension board and a 5 kVA petrol generator placed in the corridor because none of the hall's sockets are earthed. By 11 a.m. the hall is at 41 °C, the generator's exhaust drifts back through the door, two 15 m cables cross the main visitor walkway, and a fire exit is partly blocked by empty flight cases. A volunteer trips on a cable, is unhurt, and laughs it off. The organiser says, 'We have done this for years, nothing has happened.' The shoot must continue for the valedictory session at 4 p.m., the client has paid 60% in advance, and the crew has been on its feet since 7 a.m. with one water break.
1. Rank the hazards in this hall by risk and state the first three actions you take before the 4 p.m. session.
Read the worked answer
Rank by severity multiplied by likelihood, not by how visible the problem is.
Highest risk - carbon monoxide and the blocked exit. Generator exhaust in a corridor beside a hall with visitors can cause headache, dizziness and collapse, and CO gives little warning. A blocked fire exit matters because a fire involving petrol or unearthed wiring would trap a large crowd. Next - unelectrified/unearthed supply. A generator feeding unearthed sockets plus long cable runs over a floor where people walk is an electrocution and fire risk, and the cables are already wet with condensation from the heat difference. Lower but real - trips and heat. The volunteer's fall is a near-miss, not a joke; 41 °C with an LED panel and no water breaks leads to heat exhaustion and careless handling.
First three actions:
- Move the generator outdoors, away from doors and air intakes, and run the cable in by the shortest safe route; if it cannot be moved, stop using it.
- Lift cables off the walkway - along walls, over doorframes, or under proper cable ramps - and clear the fire exit completely.
- Brief all four crew on water, shade and rotation, and get the organiser to confirm the changes in writing.
The point is to remove the hazard at source before trying to manage behaviour.
2. The organiser argues that years of incident-free shooting prove the setup is safe. Explain why that argument fails, and apply the hierarchy of controls to this hall.
Read the worked answer
Why 'nothing has happened' is not evidence. It is a tiny sample of past events, and near-misses like the volunteer's fall are rarely recorded. The exposure is seasonal and short, so a serious event may simply not have coincided with the crew yet. Risk is about what can happen and how bad it would be, not about a run of luck. A fall that produced a laugh today produces a fracture at a different angle.
Hierarchy of controls, applied:
- Eliminate: shoot the valedictory session using the hall's own supply if it can be earthed and protected, or with battery LED panels - no generator on site at all.
- Substitute: replace the petrol generator with a battery/inverter unit; replace the 15 m runs with one short lead and an RCD/ELCB.
- Engineering: earth the supply, fit an RCD, duct the exhaust outside, fit cable ramps, secure the flight cases away from the exit.
- Administrative: written briefing, signage at cable crossings, a named first-aider, water and rest rotation, emergency numbers at the desk.
- PPE: closed footwear and gloves for handling cables - last, and never a substitute for the steps above.
Admin controls such as 'be careful' are the weakest; elimination is strongest. Note also that the organiser does not own the crew's safety - the producer does.
3. What do you record and who do you tell if the organiser refuses to move the generator or clear the exit?
Read the worked answer
Document first, then escalate in a way that leaves a trail.
What to record: time-stamped photos of the generator position, the exhaust path, the blocked exit and the cable crossing; a short written hazard note describing each risk, who is exposed and the control you asked for; the name of the person you told and their exact response; and the crew briefing sheet with signatures. Note the near-miss with the volunteer too - near-misses are the cheapest warning you will ever get.
Who to tell, in order: the organiser in person, then the same points in writing (message or email) so the refusal is on record; your producer or production head, who carries the duty of care to the crew; and the client, not as a complaint but as a schedule risk - 'the 4 p.m. session may be delayed or relocated because the exit and power supply are unsafe.'
If nothing changes: withdraw the crew from that position. No valedictory footage is worth a CO exposure or an electrical injury, and a paid advance does not purchase consent to unsafe work. Offer a workable alternative - shoot from the hall entrance with battery power, or record the speeches with a single locked-off camera on a long lens from outside the risk area. Send the client a revised plan the same day, and keep copies of everything in the project file.