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Film and TV
IPAF Powered Access 2020
Lights, camera, access
Behind the glitz and glamour of high-profile Hollywood films and hit TV series, there is serious work to be done, much of it at height. Neil Gerrard discovers how powered access helps to set the stage for safe and efficient productions
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The star said they refused to work anywhere where there were any diesel machines because it made them cough and they couldn’t breathe. So we swapped them all out and put electric and hybrid machines in Neil Lawrence, Media Access Solutions
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Some of the world’s biggest film stars are known to be demanding. But you would perhaps expect powered access equipment hire firms to be untroubled by their requests. Normally that is almost certainly the case. But not so if, like Solihull-based Media Access Solutions (MAS), you are hiring out machines to major film and TV productions. The company’s operations director Neil Lawrence recalls how a big Hollywood star on a production where MAS’s machines were being used refused to return to the set until all the powered access equipment was switched from diesel to either electric or hybrid. “The star said they refused to work anywhere where there were any diesel machines because it made them cough and they couldn’t breathe. So we swapped them all out and put electric and hybrid machines in,” he says. Fortunately, MAS has a fleet of 25 hybrid Niftylift HR28 booms with a 19m outreach, so they were well equipped to deal with that particular
star’s stipulations. But the incident also illustrates some of the unusual challenges hirers face in what is a significant subsector of the powered access market. An important part of the cast Far from being confined just to the world of construction, boom lifts and scissor lifts have all sorts of uses on film and television productions, breaking down into three broad elements: their use in the construction of sets; their use as tools to enable the rigging of lights, drapes, green screens and other features on those sets; and their use as standalone lighting rigs, where large lights are attached directly to the machines themselves. The advantage of powered access equipment is that it can be used for working at height quickly and efficiently. If, for example, machines are being used to keep lighting on an indoor set consistent throughout a day’s filming, but the director isn’t happy with the way
18/03/2020 17:13
