What is Full-Spectrum Risk Management?
Epitome works with productions from the moment an idea becomes a screenplay all the way to the end: when the finished product premieres. We join your team during pre-production where we assist with everything from script risk analysis and location scouts to stunt planning and CGI prep. Our risk managers are on-set everyday of principal photography to help productions save time and money while simultaneously maximizing safety. The same team stays with the project through post-production to ensure risk and safety continuity and eliminate the efficiency drag of new additions. Our team doesn't move on until your project premieres.
EPITOME offers the most comprehensive risk management in the entertainment industry.
Scroll down for an overview of our process.
Pre-Production Overview
- Script Risk Analysis
- Location Safety Evaluations
- Stunt Planning
- CGI Prep
- Shooting Schedule Review
- Travel, Transportation, and Logistical Analysis
- Contingency Plan Development
- Fast-Tracked Insurance Approvals
- Bonding Agency Coordination
- Risk Tables
- Mitigation Charts
- Scene Treatments
- Assign Risk Management Director (RMD)
- COVID-19 Testing & Safety Planning
- Overall Risk Assessment from OSHA-Certified Safety Experts
Production Overview
- Daily Risk Management and Safety Assistance from one of Epitome's elite Risk Management Directors (RMDs)
- Active Risk Mitigation
- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Available as Needed
- Detailed Daily Logs
- Stunt Safety Evaluations
- On-Location Security Services
- On-Site Contingency Planning
- Firearm, Munitions, and Ordnance Safety
- Full-Service Set Medics
- Remote Location Emergency Medicine & Evacuations
- Daily Safety Briefing Support
- Ongoing Insurance Approval Assistance
- Comprehensive COVID-19 Safety & Testing
Post-Production Overview
- Ongoing Risk Management Director (RMD) Support
- Full Production Support On-Hand for Pick-ups & Re-shoots
- Post-Production Facility Security Services
- Comprehensive COVID-19 Safety & Testing for all Post-Production Departments
- Post-Production Contingency Planning
- Screening Location Safety Evaluation & Security
- COVID-19 Safety & Testing for Test Audiences and Screening Rooms
- Film Festival Travel, Transportation, & Logistical Analysis
- Premiere Event Risk & Safety Evaluation
- Premiere Event COVID-19 Safety & Testing
- Premiere Event Full-Service & VIP Security Services
Our Process
Epitome Risk works together with film unions, insurers, studios, and production companies to make every project as safe as possible. Our Risk Management & Safety Experts have combined experience on HUNDREDS of productions, from major motion pictures to hit television shows. Our team is comprised of current and former producers, directors, writers, stunt-coordinators, safety specialists, and OSHA-certified safety experts.
At Epitome, we maximize safety, mitigate risk, decrease liability, and save our clients time and money.
Scroll down for a more detailed look at our process.
Script Risk Analysis Department
The first step in our process is to send your screenplay to our script risk analysis department. There, our expert staff performs a scene-by-scene risk assessment of the project. Our analysts break down risk and safety issues by production department, creating a one-page risk analysis for each scene in the script.
We carefully run through all potential risk factors present in each scene as written, identifying stunts and difficult shots along with location, prop, costume, vehicle, actor, crew, resource, and pandemic safety issues. Our analysts also pinpoint high-risk moments where Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) would help maximize safety.
Epitome’s script analysts assign each scene an overall risk level: Medium, Medium-High, High, and Extremely High.
Our script risk analysis department is run and staffed by award-winning writers, directors, and producers with the proven ability to visualize the film from the page and catch risks that might otherwise slip through the cracks.
Once your screenplay or teleplay has passed through our script risk analysis department, it is accompanied by a document that has as many pages as there are scenes in the script, usually totaling a few hundred pages. This script risk analysis document is then sent along to our Risk Mitigation Department.
Risk Mitigation Department
Our risk mitigation team begins by assigning each potential safety issue a Risk Table Directory (RTD) Number. This process sees our team go through the script risk analysis document point-by-point, ensuring that each issue is individually identified and numbered.
Then, our team builds a customized, easy-to-read Risk Table Directory that details each risk, the safety issues involved, and their corresponding risk levels. Our safety experts then develop risk mitigation strategies for each risk, identifying the ways each element can be made safer.
Once our team has created the RTD, we then zero in on the scenes with High Risk and Extremely High Risk Levels. These scenes require special attention. Our risk mitigators create scene treatments for these potentially dangerous story moments.
Scene treatments are detailed documents that walk you through each of these riskier scenes, itemize the safety issues, illustrate their risk factors, and specify the path to minimize the risks and maximize safety without compromising your vision.
Our Risk Mitigation Department is run and staffed by OSHA-certified safety experts, and they are integral to Epitome’s ability to fast-track your production's insurance approval. Our risk mitigation process generates an easy-to-navigate, color-coded, and risk-numbered spreadsheet – along with detailed scene treatments – which acts as the dynamic, touchstone document for our Risk Management Department.
Risk Management Department
Once your project has passed through our script risk analysis and risk mitigation departments, it finds a home in our risk management department. Here it will stay until your project premieres.
Our elite risk management department is run and staffed by former members of U.S. Special Forces and combat veterans. This team has been involved in high-risk operations on nearly every continent for hundreds of productions combined. From HALO jumps and shark tagging to repelling into active volcanoes, our risk managers have seen and done it all.
Our risk management department will be the hub for your production’s risk and safety needs. This department actively assists with vital, ongoing production procedures like:
- Fast-tracking your insurance approvals
- Coordinating with bonding agencies
During pre-production, our risk management experts will:
- Perform risk and safety analyses on location scouts
- Develop contingency plans, stunt evals, and CGI prep
- Design custom COVID-19 safety and testing strategies
- Analyze your travel and logistical plans
- Create individualized risk services to assist through the life of your project
Our risk management department remains assigned to your production throughout principal photography where we assist with:
- Active, on-set risk mitigation and management
- Stunt safety
- Set security
- On-site medics, emergency medicine, and evacuations
- COVID-19 testing and safety
- High-risk maneuvers requiring Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
- Daily safety briefing support
- Firearm, munitions, and ordnance safety
- Risk minimizing and safety maximizing strategies custom-made for your production
As your production transitions into post, you won’t have to worry about onboarding new safety staff. Our risk management department stays on the job.
Post-production often hides risks because re-shoots and pick-ups crop up suddenly and might involve new personnel. These events essentially send the project back into production for a short period of time. Our risk management team provides much needed safety and risk management continuity during these fast-paced returns to set.
Not only will you have the full support of Epitome’s Risk Management Department, but you will also be assigned your own Risk Management Director.
RMDs - Risk Management Directors
Epitome assigns an RMD to each production. This safety expert joins the project during pre-production and will be your primary contact for all your risk and safety needs. You won’t have to worry about an influx of communication from various Epitome personnel. We speak to you in one voice and that voice belongs to the RMD.
Your RMD will travel with you on location scouts and communicate with your stunt teams and safety personnel. The RMD is on set every day to assist your team in achieving your safety goals. The RMD works with union reps and department heads to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Armed with Epitome’s Risk Management Tables and Scene Treatments, your RMD will help make your production run smoothly, save you money, maximize safety, and minimize risks and liability.
RMDs create detailed daily logs that account for both safety successes, close-calls, and areas for improvement. They generate after action reports and a full-scale safety evaluation once your project is wrapped.
This documentation is integral to our ability to fast-track insurance approval, coordinate quickly with bonding agencies, and assist unions in keeping their members safe.
Your RMD remains your primary safety support and point of contact from pre-production all the way to your premiere. This allows Epitome to provide industry-leading risk and safety continuity.
But RMDs are not alone. They have their own support staff, beginning with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).
SMEs - Subject Matter Experts
When your production wants to do something truly risky – like, say, skydiving, free climbing, or animal attacks – your RMD calls in a SME.
Epitome has a deep roster of SMEs who specialize in all manner of risky production elements. Our ranks are filled with:
- Munitions experts
- Bomb techs
- Pilots
- Dangerous animal handlers
- Combat medics
- Extraction specialists
- Base jumpers
- Skydivers
- Stunt drivers
- Fight safety experts
- Shark divers
- Free climbers
- Firearm safety instructors
- Engineers
- Cave specialists
- And more
Special situations call for specially trained personnel. Our Subject Matter Experts are there when you need them.
COVID-19 Safety Teams
Epitome Risk provides full-service pandemic production testing and safety. Our certified COVID-19 Safety Team equips productions with qualified COVID-19 Officers, streamlined testing, expedited results, and around-the-clock availability.
We offer state-of-the-art, HIPPA-approved results tracking, waiver management, and PPE packages. We are certified to work nation-wide so your domestic pandemic production is covered.
We own our own lab, FourthWall Testing. This CLIA-Certified, Cola-Accredited laboratory is located in Atlanta’s bustling production hub.
Our COVID-19 Safety Teams work hand-in-hand with our RMDs and SMEs to provide you with one, cohesive, comprehensive safety strategy. Shooting in the middle of a global pandemic is risky, but Epitome’s COVID-19 Safety Teams give you all the tools, support, and confidence you need to succeed.
Epitome Security Teams
Productions have come under attack recently. Violent individuals have injured and killed production personnel. These disturbing incidents have also delayed and even shut-down productions.
Epitome offers elite, on-location security services, security logistics consulting, VIP security, bodyguards, and full-service, large-scale event security. Our team of ex-military security personnel have elite training that helps keep productions safe in these strange times.
Our security services include:
- Protection Against Increasing On-Location Violence Toward Productions
- Prevention of Overzealous Fan Incursions
- Property Protection
- Protection From Dangerous Wildlife
- VIP Personnel Details On-Location
- Premiere Event Security
Our security teams can blend in or stick out, depending on each production’s specific needs. The RMD assigned to the production can recommend and assign the appropriate security detail when necessary.
Take Production Safety Seriously
Whether it's a blockbuster action movie, a reality TV show, a music video, a scrappy independent film, or an online media production, Epitome's customizable risk management and safety process is here to help you avoid unnecessary delays and shutdowns due to avoidable issues. Our experts will save you time and money while keeping your vision intact. Take production safety seriously and contact us for a custom quote today.
