Set safety briefing template

What this is about

The two documents are constantly confused, and the difference matters when something happens. The risk assessment is analysis, written in prep, filed by production. The briefing is delivery: spoken on location, before the first shot, to everyone physically present — including extras, drivers, the client and the intern who arrived at nine. It is specific to that location and that day, which is why a generic text read aloud fails its purpose entirely. The attendance record is the part people skip and later need, because without it the production can describe what it said but cannot show who heard it.

A template is the starting point, not the goal: once it has been filled in by hand twice, it is worth asking whether the document should come out of the plan instead.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• The hazards of this location and this day taken from the assessment, named concretely — the open stairwell, the live traffic, the wet studio floor
• Escape routes, assembly point, fire extinguisher positions and the way an emergency vehicle would physically reach the set
• First aid: who the first aiders are by name, where the kit is, and the address of the nearest hospital with emergency admission
• Who is allowed to touch what — rigging, electrics, pyro, stunts, weapons props — and the instruction that nobody else operates or moves it
• The attendance record with name, function, date and signature, plus a rule for briefing anyone who arrives after it was held

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Take the hazards for this shooting day out of the risk assessment and drop everything that does not apply to this location.
2. Walk the location before the crew arrives and check that escape routes, extinguishers and the assembly point are where the plan says.
3. Hold the briefing on location before the first shot, with the whole set standing still — not over a radio while three people keep rigging.
4. Speak the specific risks and the specific behaviour you expect, then name the responsible people out loud so everyone can put a face to each role.
5. Have every person sign the attendance list, including extras, drivers and visitors, and note the time it was held.
6. Repeat a short version whenever the situation changes: a new location, a stunt, night work, weather, or a department that arrives later.
7. File the signed list with the day's paperwork so it sits next to the daily production report rather than in a phone.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Briefing the crew and skipping the extras, who are the group least familiar with the set and most likely to walk into a cable run
• Reading a generic template aloud, after which nobody can name a single hazard that is actually present
• No signed record, which leaves the production able to say what was covered but unable to show who was there
• Holding it after the first setup is already lit, when the riskiest hour of the day has already passed

With TillyGen

TillyGen carries the hazards recorded during breakdown through into the day they occur, so the briefing sheet arrives already filled with that location, that stunt and that list of people called.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.