Supporting staff and crew on a production has never been more important, and The Film and TV Charity’s free toolkit aims to establish a framework to ensure that happens with the minimum friction possible. Sheryl Hickey reports.
Production companies from pre to post around the UK are responding to the mental health crisis which has been reported across the industry, and can now have access to support and information through The Film and TV Charity’s free, online-accessible resource: ‘The Whole Picture Toolkit.’
In a discussion at this year’s Media Production and Technology Show, productions across different genres and scales revealed how they are engaging and advocating the resource’s use, and how they are supporting different levels of staff and crew in their mental wellbeing.
The talk was chaired by Louise Benson, Director of Development at the Film and TV Charity and featured Dawn Beresford, Director of Talent, Commissioning for BBC Content, Claire Riddell, Production Executive at Rare TV, Claire Fone, Head of Production Operations at Sky and Sophie Freeman, Toolkit Engagement Producer, who all spoke on seeing the whole picture when it comes to supporting mental health, from pre to post-production.
“(It’s a) whole team exercise, it’s not just the crew that needs to be taken care of. If you’re looking at grisly murder scenes in an edit all day, or you’re researching that and looking at archived footage, that can be hard to turn off when you go home.” – Claire Riddel, Rare TV
Claire Riddel of Rare TV, whose showreel includes productions for the BBC, ITV, Yesterday and Outdoor Channel, explained how they successfully use the toolkit on an extensive list of productions and genres. Speaking about their approach to using the toolkit when commissioning shows, Riddel explained: “(It’s a) whole team exercise, it’s not just the crew that needs to be taken care of.
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