25m 16s

Fix it in Post: Looking at Post-Production Through a Human Rights Lens

Widening the lens and thinking about everyone who might be at risk

Has the area of post production been overlooked when we talk about safe and fair working conditions in the screen industry?

In this episode, Tacita Small and Keith Arrowsmith sit down with Amelia Knott, Human Rights Specialist for the TV industry Human Rights Forum, to explore how to improve working conditions once filming has wrapped.

From working for long hours with few breaks, to working with sensitive or disturbing material, to the pressures of shrinking budgets, Amelia shares some tips to create a culture where everyone working in post-production, including people in ancillary roles, feels comfortable to raise issues and speak up.

The WorkWise for Screen podcast is supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery Funding.

This episode covers:

The right to health in post-production, including mental and physical wellbeing and the right to family life
Working with traumatic or sensitive content
The pressures facing the industry and how these can impact individuals
The challenge of championing creativity without forgetting about safeguarding
Making sure everyone on a production works in fair and safe conditions, including ancillary workers like security guards.

Episode Topics

Introduction to Amelia Knott and her work in the area of human rights, and the specific challenges involved with working in post production, from physical wellbeing to working with sensitive content. (0:00-08:15)

The pressures facing production companies, insecure working environments and how to consider the wellbeing of ancillary workers on a project while balancing the need to champion art and creativity. (08:15-13:11)

Amelia gives examples of a positive working culture where nobody is forgotten and a culture is created where everyone feels valued and able to raise issues. (13:11-end)

Episode Highlights

I think a lot of the issues I found are well known within the post-production space. I found lots of issues to do with the right to health, including mental health. So for example, um, people being sedentary for long periods, not able to eat healthily, not able to take exercise, not taking the right breaks and so on. So there's a physical health and then there's also a mental health piece, uh which is both to do with being really tired and working long hours, bullying and harassment that goes on, um, in the sector, and also doing things like working with traumatic or sensitive content. So someone, um, in sound or editing or grading, might have to spend hours and hours and hours working with bits of really traumatic imagery. 05:17 - Amelia Knott

I think a lot of it actually comes down to culture. You set the right culture from the beginning. You say, you know, we are going to recognize everybody's contribution. If you see something or you're aware of something where you think there could be an issue, then you need to be flagging that and we will be able to then respond and look at it. Then you have everyone as the eyes and ears. It shouldn't be the responsibility of one person to try and figure out how everybody might be affected in some way. 15:11 - Amelia Knott

It's the challenge as well about being a creative industry and not wanting to stifle creativity and art, but also not putting it on such a pedestal that it comes at a cost to, of, of everything else. - 16:37 - Amelia Knott