The members of NWARG may share in the hobby of Amateur Radio but they are a really diverse group of characters with a massive skillset of knowledge. This skillset extends not only to other hobbies and interests but of course to the jobs that our members carry out on a day to day basis. One such member is Pat Harper 2W0HUU who is employed as a TV and Filmset Medic, this is his story;
Time on set as a medic can be an easy life or it could all go badly wrong. My 3 years working as a TV and Film set medic has been a real eye opener, not a lot of people know how much work goes into making a film or a mini series.
To make any film or mini series you need a lot of people, ie: sparks for lighting, Sound recordist, Camera operators, Riggers, Grips, (grips are part of the camera crew who set up camera on different types of lenses, Tripods. Sliders etc), Floor runners who run around like blue arse flies making brews shouting quiet when the camera starts rolling. Then of course you have Costume who dress actors for there rolls, may be several changes a day, hair and make up who make sure they are good for camera, art department making sure the scene is all set up and looking as it should, locations they find all of the places to shoot, it could be on the street in somebody’s house or studio, plus various other departments.
So as a set medic what is my position? Well I am a medic on film and tv, for the 3years I have been doing it I have only had 2 major incidents on set, 1 was a torn aorta and a broken tib and fib. My job as a medic is to just sit around and wait for somebody to call medic on the radio, it can be very boring at times as I am not allowed to help any other department with there duties, reason being I my self might get injured then filming has to stop. So I spend a lot of time walking around talking drinking plenty of tea eating biscuits etc, I work away sometimes, like writing this now I am at a studio in Cardiff in an office waiting to be called. 99% of the time I am called its for the usually paracetamol and ibuprofen. So as you can see not a very exciting job really but I love it
