Lights... Camera... Action !

Key Medic Brian Lax clowns around with actor Giancarlo Esposito on the set of "Breaking Bad."

It almost seemed like something out of a dream. Somewhere in the middle of the desert, paramedic Carol Thornton found herself standing with a film crew on the set of a multi-million dollar movie, Disney’s The Lone Ranger.

And just like everyone standing with her, Carol had her eyes fixed on actors Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, who were riding in full costume toward the camera, both perched on their horses, which were running at top speed.

Portraying Tonto, the faithful sidekick to Hammer’s Lone Ranger, Depp had become accustomed to riding horses, and this was supposed to be another routine shot—something Depp had performed several times while shooting this film. However, on this occasion, something was obviously very wrong.

The saddle Depp was riding on had come loose. Carol watched with the rest of the crew as Depp found himself slipping off his horse, still going at full speed. Suddenly, the choreographed illusion of Tonto riding high on his mount had become a crushing reality of Depp falling off his horse, striking the ground hard.

In a flash the film’s director, Gore Verbinski, stunt coordinator and Depp’s security guard all raced toward the injured actor, followed closely by Carol, who, as always, was hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.

Depp was quickly surrounded by his security and stunt team, all attention focused on him until someone in the crowd shouted, “Make room for the medic!” And then all eyes, including Johnny Depp’s, turned to focus on Carol.

“That was pressure on a whole different level,” says Thornton. “Luckily, Johnny was all right. I saw him immediately after it happened, 30 minutes later, and about 3 hours later when he was finally out of makeup and wardrobe so I could thoroughly check any trauma or bruising I may have missed earlier.”

A concern was that the horse may have accidently stepped on Depp’s chest after his fall. But according to Thornton, there were no signs or symptoms she could find to raise alarm.

A 21-year paramedic, Thornton has spent most of her career responding to 9-1-1 calls with Albuquerque Ambulance Service (AAS). In her career, Thornton has treated almost every type of trauma there is: gunshots, stabbings, burns—you name it. However, performing a full trauma assessment on someone as famous as Johnny Depp was relatively new for the veteran paramedic.

“I’m kind of getting used to it,” says Thornton. “You see them on the set almost every day and realize they’re just like any other person. But if someone as iconic as Depp goes down, the whole movie is impacted. How I perform can affect the entire schedule of this multi-million dollar movie. So yes, pressure on a whole different level.”

Two years ago Thornton decided to retire from her position as a supervisor at AAS and focus on being a set medic. Working on the numerous film projects being produced in New Mexico, Thornton has become just one of a growing number of EMS professionals in the state who are forgoing the “normal” career route of steady employment at an ambulance service or fire department. “It is definitely a feast or famine type of business,” says Thornton. “There can be weeks where you are not called and you have to take that into consideration. But after 20 years working for AAS, I felt it was time to move on. Working in the film industry seemed like a fun thing to do.”

Hollywood in the Desert

Throughout the years, New Mexico has played host to several films. With diverse, oftentimes isolated scenery and clear blue skies, filmmakers have been able to transform New Mexico into the Old West (Young Guns I & II, Wyatt Earp, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), other planets (Ghosts of Mars, The Man Who Fell To Earth) different states, (No Country for Old Men, The Longest Yard) and different countries (Traffic, Transformers I & II). However, lately New Mexico has begun to show a boom in film and television production of all types.

In the past five years alone, several summer blockbusters such as The Avengers, Fright Night, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Last Stand, Due Date, and Cowboys and Aliens, not to mention television series, Longmire, In Plain Sight and, probably most famous of all, AMC’s Breaking Bad have all been filmed in New Mexico.

Almost certainly the chief reason why New Mexico has become such a hot location to film are the numerous tax incentives and lower expenditures many film producers are offered to bring their project to “The Land of Enchantment.”

In June 2007, New Mexico began to offer a 25% tax rebate to any film production working in the state. And this is a refund—not a credit—on the full cost, not just the tax of any item used in the process of making the film. In other words, if the expense of an item, including tax, is $100, the rebate is $25. And there is no cap on this rebate—effectively cutting the cost of a production shot in New Mexico by a fourth.1

And the breaks just seem to keep on coming for the film industry. Earlier this year, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez (R) signed into law the so called “Breaking Bad” bill, which allows qualifying films an additional 5% in tax rebates.

So with these types of incentives, New Mexico continues to see an unprecedented rise in the number of productions being filmed or planning to be filmed in the state. According to an Albuquerque Journal article published on May 12, 2013, there were more than a dozen major film and television productions being filmed, or scheduled to be filmed, this year alone in New Mexico, including Johnny Depp’s new sci-fi movie, Transcendence, Mark Wahlberg’s The Lone Survivor and a western starring Seth MacFarlane.2

Union Rules

With each production shot in the state, New Mexico film union IATSE Local 480 stipulates at least someone who can administer first aid be present on the set. However, most film sets, construction sites and stunt rehearsals usually have at least one set medic, if not an entire team, available to respond should something go wrong.

IATSE Local 480 is a chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts. Medical services that work on film production fall under this umbrella of organized labor and are labeled as a craft, like carpenters or lighting technicians. And you must be a member to be allowed to work. However, the price to play is not free. In order to become a member of Local 480, you must first be nominated by someone who is a member in the union. Next, if selected for induction, you must pay an entry fee of $600. After that you must pay annual union dues of $300.

The union also retains a payroll deduction of 4% of all gross wages earned from every IATSE member. “Last year, I paid fees in excess of $4,000,” says Brian Lax, a key medic on several productions filmed in New Mexico.

These fees could make a new EMT or paramedic shy away from this line of the profession, and possibly with good reason—entry into the union is absolutely no guarantee of work. There is, however, a tremendous upside to joining the union. Higher pay and the amount of work one could potentially find working on a film production make joining very tempting.

Union pay for a medic is normally $27 an hour, usually higher than most ambulance services pay their paramedics.

Also, union rules force employers to pay overtime after 8 hours and double time after 12 hours, even if you only work one day each week. There is also about $80 worth of union-negotiated benefits, such as medical, retirement and pension plans, paid tax-free into member accounts for every day worked.

Similar rules apply extra payments for sixth and seventh days worked in a week and even a “meal penalty” of an additional $27/hour when crew are not given a break, sat down and fed a hot catered meal every six hours at work. Added up, these wages are arguably among the best pay EMTs can earn anywhere. The minimum qualifications needed to apply for a medic position with the union is an EMT-Basic certificate and a current CPR card.3

Medic on the Set

Using the term set medic on a film is often a misnomer. Actually, there are three types of medics employed for every film production: set medics, off-production medics and the key medic.

The key medic is often the first medical provider hired for a film production and works as the first aid department head. Hired by one of the film’s producers, the key medic is the person who is ultimately responsible for staffing the medical department with the right crew for the job. It’s a job with tremendous responsibility and usually reserved for people well known in the industry who have displayed on multiple films the ability to handle the job.

One person who has gained a reputation for being able to get the job done is Lax, a critical care flight paramedic.

With over 20 years in EMS, Lax understood the potential of “what could be” with being a set medic. A veteran paramedic who has been involved in EMS since 1990, Lax started working on movie sets early on. In 2007, Lax first worked as a key medic on the pilot of the Fox TV show Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Since then he’s gone on to be the key on several well-known films and television series.

In that time Lax has learned the skills necessary to be a successful key medic are often the same skills used working on an ambulance or flying in a helicopter as a critical care medic.

The way Lax describes the position is very similar to an incident commander at a large-scale event. The incident commander will remain above the minutiae and worry about the bigger picture.

“I can’t possibly be everywhere at once, but I have to be available to everyone,” says Lax. “We’re filming a movie right now where we have three different shooting locations, and three more construction mills building sets non-stop. All of them are spread out across miles and miles. I hire the right people and place them where I’m comfortable they are going to be able to handle what’s going on.”

In addition, scheduling the medics—and knowing where they are at all times—is also a responsibility that falls to the key medic.

“All of the medics hired work directly for the production, not the union,” says Lax. “I’ve got to be able to have the right number of medics, with the right skill sets available, when and where I need them.”

Set medics are those who are actually assigned to work on set while filming is being done. They work closely with the stunt coordinators, the on-set fire marshal and usually assistant directors. They attend meetings to see exactly how the day’s film schedule looks, whether or not there are any potentially hazardous stunts being performed and what the exact plans are should something go wrong.

Usually if filming is being performed in an urban area, like Albuquerque or Santa Fe, contact has been made with local EMS providers to ensure prompt response. If the filming is being performed in a rural area, ambulance service or air transport may have to be coordinated prior to shooting.

“Being able to look at a shooting script and recognize what kinds of potential dangers are going to be involved, then mapping out all of these preparations, is what I’m able to do very well,” says Lax.

For instance, just one stunt filmed for an episode of Breaking Bad involved two experienced stuntmen being T-boned at a high rate of speed by another car driven by a third stuntman. This potentially dangerous stunt required several meetings between the set medic and the stunt coordinators. The stunt was deemed dangerous enough that it required not only two set medics on hand, but also the series key medic, an ambulance, a fire coordinator and, should the need arise, a landing zone for a helicopter.

One shoot Lax was on set to personally supervise involved a scene filmed for the vampire film Fright Night, where stuntmen were going to be set on fire in a cramped basement.

“I had more than the normal number of medics on set that night, because the potential risk was so high,” says Lax. “I mean, we were intentionally setting people on fire!”

The off-production medic is the one responsible for watching over the various laborers, carpenters and set designers, etc.—basically, anything that goes into the building of the sets used in the filming process. There are usually no cameras or actors around the construction site, and the pace is certainly more laid back and casual. And while being a construction medic may definitely seem less glamorous, it certainly appears to be the more practical job in terms of steady work and stability.

Off-production medics usually work regularly scheduled 12-hour days—the last four paid at an overtime rate. This type of stability attracts a lot of medics who have families or use film work as a second job. “It’s certainly the job I’d have if I wasn’t doing key work,” says Lax. “Working off production you can still have a fairly normal life. Working on set, you may have a call time of 4 or 5 a.m. and not get off until late that night. You just never know.”

Also, off-production work is much easier to get. Whereas usually one medic works as set medic, eight or 10 more medics will be working that same day off production.

And, working off production also may require a lot more of the skills one is accustomed to learning throughout EMT or paramedic school.

“There’s always somebody getting their fingers caught, pinched or cut off, and it’s more than likely going to happen on construction, where they’re constantly working with those heavy saws and drills,” says Lax.

Developing Movie Set Protocols

In 2009, Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad, approached Lax and asked him if there were AEDs on set as part of the medic kit. “Mr. Gilligan felt it would be important for them to be available, if needed,” recalls Lax, who could not have agreed more, but had to inform Gilligan they were not available.

New Mexico requires medical direction for the use of AEDs and set medics at the time were considered to be providing first aid skills on set without medical direction.

Not one to be happy with an unfulfilled need, Lax contacted the New Mexico EMS Bureau and wrote a one-page protocol for AED use, which got approved. He then hired a medical director and created a registered special event medical rescue service, which he named Motion Picture Set Medics (MPSM).

The next year, Lax kept writing until he had a full set of ALS protocols and expanded the capabilities of MPSM to support medics on film in working up to their levels of licensure—something that has not been done anywhere else in North America.

Lax followed that up by assembling a group of medics who purchased two ambulances that would serve their needs of providing standby service on larger stunts and remote location work. Their company now owns four vehicles, including a 4x4 go-anywhere ambulance, which was widely used on The Lone Ranger. More information about MPSM can be found at their website, www.movieambulance.com.

References

1. New Mexico Film Office. www.nmfilm.com.

2. Gomez, A. Star-studded N.M. offers TV series, movies new incentives. Albuquerque Journal, May 12, 2013.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

3. IATSE Local 480. www.iatselocal480.com.

Paul Serino, AS, CCEMT-P, is a 10-year medic currently working with Albuquerque Ambulance. He has an associate degree in EMS from Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell and a bachelor’s degree in journalism/communications from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

See the full article here 

Read More

KU grad goes from on-set medic to directing filmmaker

Kasi Brown was working as an EMT on a set for a commercial in Los Angeles recently when a dangerous stunt went horribly wrong.

“This guy who was doing his first ramp jump had to jump over a tractor in downtown L.A.,” she says. “He went up on the ramp 35 feet in the air, and his motorcycle chipped sideways and landed on top of him, narrowly missing the camera crew that was right below.”

Contributed Photo

Kasi Brown, a Lawrence High School and Kansas University graduate, is making her first film, “Gone Doggy Gone,” along with co-director Brandon Walter, center. Also pictured is first assistant director Charles Bennett. “Gone Doggy Gone” is a comedy about a kidnapped dog and its owners, a couple who treat it like a baby.

Contributed Photo

"Gone Doggy Gone"

Brown not only had to treat the man and prepare him for his trip to the hospital but also manage the chaos that ensued. When an on-set accident happens, everyone from the stunt coordinator to the producer to the first assistant director wants to get involved — all with their own motives.

“I had a PA once stick a fork in a paper shredder, which jumped back and went through the webbing in his hand. A set painter cut his thumb off,” Brown says. “And sometimes it’s just Band-Aids and Advil. When it’s Band-Aids and Advil, I can write my screenplay.”

Luckily for Brown, a Kansas University theater and film graduate, her on-set experience managing chaos in Los Angeles, where she’s lived since 1999, has uniquely prepared her for her biggest challenge: Making a feature film.

“Gone Doggy Gone” — which she is co-writing, co-directing and co-starring with creative partner Brandon Walter — has just completed principal photography and is now going through the lengthy process of cataloging shots and preparing them for editing.

The goal is to have the indie feature — a comedy about a kidnapped dog and its owners, a couple who treat it like a baby — ready for submission for January’s Sundance Film Festival and the rest of the 2014 festival circuit.

From EMT to filmmaker

Downtime on the set may have given Brown some extra hours to touch up her script, but it also allowed her to visit other departments during filming. By talking to different crews and seeing firsthand how everything is put together on a film set, she prepared herself for the unpredictability of shooting “Gone Doggy Gone,” which started right away during casting.

Originally, the movie was to be populated with members of their own sketch comedy troupe Mother Approved, whom Brown and Walter had in mind for certain parts while writing the film.

Things changed dramatically, however, once the fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo.com was completed and casting had begun in earnest.

“We ended up casting just us from the [IndieGoGo] video,” Walter says. “One actor didn’t know if he wanted to act anymore, another actor moved away, and another actor just didn’t see eye to eye with us anymore about the project.”

“It wasn’t us who weren’t interested anymore — it was their life circumstances that led them in all different directions,” Brown says.

Instead, the pair combed the deep pool of unknown actors in L.A. and became extremely impressed by the actors who ended up in the film. When Shaina Vorspan walked into the room, they knew right away from her “hello” they had found the right person to play Jill, despite the 200 or so others they looked at.

Brown says that Jeff Sloniker, who plays a detective named Dan, is “the next John Belushi,” and Dan’s father is played by Richard Riehle — a true “that guy” character actor perhaps best known for his role as longtime Initech employee and “people person” Tom Smykowsi in “Office Space.”

Kansas ties

There’s plenty of homegrown talent working on “Gone Doggy Gone” as well.

Actor Cameron DeVictor attended Lawrence High School with Brown, while she knows actress Jenny Nichols Kurpil from her time at KU. One of the film’s producers is Adriane Zaudke from Wichita, and Marina Proctor from Kansas City (who worked on 2011 best picture nominee “Winter’s Bone”) served as head makeup artist.

The relationships Brown has built as an actress (she’s appeared on TV’s “ER” and “Monk”) and as an EMT also helped her make connections that were imperative in making a film for less money.

She and Walter (who co-starred in Jim Carrey’s “The Yes Man”) were able to get special deals on production equipment and locations, as well as finding investors and people to donate other valuable items to the project.

But what advice do the first-time writer/director/actors have for others hoping do the same thing? Because they play the couple in the film and were often on camera together, it was a challenge trying to stay focused on the production while acting, especially when it’s 4 a.m.

“Exhaustion can make you make poor decisions,” Brown says. “Even though you’ve got your shot list and your storyboards and everything, you have to make sacrifices during the day.”

Finding a crew that was willing to go outside of their roles and take responsibility elsewhere was the key to a successful shoot.

“Looking through the footage, we’re so amazed at how great everything turned out. We were able to talk through it together and with our crew members,” Brown says. “That was the most important thing we learned: Communication. Especially when you’re in a hard place.”

“I second that,” Walter says.

See full orginal article here

Read More

Film Medics and those that help the crews

by: Film Works Staff

The hard-working local members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) have more than a few things in common. Not only do they service the film and television industry and help ensure film works in L.A., they’re also a pretty humble bunch.

Set Medic Lance Mancuso

In fact, whenever we visit with IATSE members and shamelessly gush about how cool we think their jobs are, everyone’s quick to redirect the spotlight to someone else. Last week, we sat down withIATSE Local 767 member Lance Mancuso to learn more about his work, and the contributions he and his fellow set medics make to California’s signature industry.

IATSE Local 767 dates back over 70 years, with set medics tracing the beginning of their profession back to the swashbuckling days of Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks was the first to insist a nurse be employed on every one of his action-packed productions. Today, Local 767 has about 200 members, making it the third-largest provider of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in greater Los Angeles. Only the city and county fire departments represent bigger pools of labor.

So how do set medics find work in the industry? Film or television projects with crews of 200 or more are required to hire no fewer than two set medics under union rules and Cal/OSHA regulations.  For smaller productions, only one medic may be required. With the rapid loss of California-based feature film production, set medics’ job prospects have been particularly hard-hit. “On a typical television show,” Mancuso explains, “there could be 40 drivers and 50 grips, but only one set medic. The bigger-budget films employing more than 200 people — and therefore more than one set medic — almost never shoot in California anymore.”

Mancuso’s industry career started after he joined the US Air Force, in which he served until 1981. Like many who work in Hollywood, Lance always had a desire to be a part of the film business and, after serving his country, he worked for a few years as an actor. One of his acting roles on the hit daytime soap General Hospital must have given him an itch, because in 1988, Mancuso left Hollywood temporarily to become a firefighter for the Los Angeles County Fire Department and San Bernardino County Fire Department. Then, in 1992, a friend working as a background actor asked Lance if he would be interested in being a set medic. Lance took the job and, just like that, Mancuso’s second career in Hollywood began.

For the first several years, Lance worked as a set medic for non-union shows, accruing valuable experience while making connections and learning what he calls “the language of sets.”

“We aren’t just medics, we are SET medics,” Mancuso stresses, underscoring the importance of knowing the business of making films and television shows. Mancuso became a member of Local 767 in 1995 after getting his first big break on the Universal Studios feature Ed.

After 1995, Lance’s set medic career took off, taking him all over the world to follow work where he could get it.  “You never know where you are going to be tomorrow,” Mancuso explains, “One day you might find yourself on the unemployment line, or you might be on the chow line of a big picture.” The unpredictability of the work means a career as a set medic isn’t for everyone.

Film Works staffers interviewed Lance on the production stages of CSI: New York, which recently wrapped production for the season.  Even though only a small crew of five was left taking down sets,  Mancuso had enough medical equipment and supplies at his station to treat a fully-staffed crew. Lance said he’s used to sitting on the sidelines for hours on end, joking that he feels “like a school nurse with nothing to do.” But at any given moment, all hell can break loose.

“People can — and do — die working on film sets and serious injury is always possible,” Mancuso explains. When something does go wrong, like a heart attack in a distant location or a severed finger during set construction, set medics are the first responders on the scene.

An illustration of why set medics are important happened in 2010 in New York on the set of Black Swan. While filming a rigorous dance sequence, actress Natalie Portman dislocated one of her ribs.  She recounted the experience on The David Letterman Show and expressed concern that the production had failed to hire a set medic for the shoot that day.

“I don’t even think that’s legal!” Portman said. “Before you take away a medic, take away my trailer!”

The very next day, Portman’s trailer was gone, but a set medic was on hand. Representatives from Local 767 sent Portman a large bouquet of flowers and showered the actress with praise for speaking out in support of their jobs. To the set medics, Mancuso mused, Portman came out looking like a hero.

Here at Film Works, and on behalf of film crews around the world, we’d like to salute some other heroes: our set medics.

You can see the original post here http://filmworks.filmla.com/2012/03/05/film-set-medics-mind-mend-local-crews/

Read More

Odd Hollywood Jobs : The role of the set medic...

Set medic Tony Whitmore with Jackie Chan

Time for another installment of our series on Odd Hollywood jobs, which looks at the gigs behind-the-scenes that help make the movies.
When films include a lot of action, and really big stunts, sometimes, people get hurt. That's why you need a set medic. Medic Tony Whitmore has worked on films ranging from "The Hangover" and the "Amazing Spiderman" to "Bad Teacher" and "War of the Worlds."
Whitmore joins the show to talk about how he got into this corner of the business. 

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:

On how he got into the profession:
"I'm a lifeguard with L.A. County and have been for a number of years. A friend of mine was a production supervisor and I had worked on something as a lifeguard and the medic said, 'You really ought to look into this as a career.' I approached my friend and asked her how I got into it and she told me that she was on a movie. They hadn't signed their contract yet and I could come in and fill out my start work and when the movie flipped and became union, then I would be on the payroll and I could continue to work. Get the 30 days that one needs to get in order to qualify to join and that was how I did it. That was 17 years ago."

On what a typical day looks like:

"I have a large cart that has all my medical supplies on it and it's set up so it's accessible by the crew. I will station myself next to the cart and open it much like someone opens their business for the public. The crew knows where the cart is. They know that they can help themselves and I'll go around and say hi to everybody and see how they are doing. People approach me if it's a Monday, something may have happened over the weekend that they would like some treatment for and then settle into the day. Usually, I will hang out with the video assist so I'm close by and know what's going on on camera."

On the most challenging moments of the job:

"Usually when there is going to be a stunt involved in filming and the stunt coordinators that I have worked with have just been tremendously professional, very well prepared. Infrequently have I witnessed any accidents because of the preparation that the stunt people have put into it. But there is some tension because it's an accident.

"We don't know what's going to happen and anything could happen and occasionally it does if it's a stunt where somewhere is going to go through a glass wall. For instance, we had this on "Captain America" and there's a lag between when the stunt person is going through the glass and when the special effects people will fire off the squibs to break the glass. In this on particular case, the actor, the stunt person, went through the glass a little early so he hit it full force, it broke after he hit and he sustained some cuts to his hands that necessitated going to the hospital for some stitches."

On the worst accident he has ever seen:

"The worst accident I have ever seen, we were doing reshoots on a movie in Palos Verdes at a location where all the equipment needed to be helicoptered in because it was difficult to get to the actual location. The shot involved a boat being pulled on to the rocks, it was empty, by another boat using a line piece of rope. What happened was that they had just recently developed this spectra-line, which was super terrifically strong. It was mounted to the bow of the boat with a false bow eye so you couldn't see it and they could take it out in special effects.

"In the first take, the boat came on to the rocks and the line was cut by the barnacles on the rocks. I was standing next to the stunt coordinator in line with the rope. And it recoiled, but not like a steel cable so I thought, 'I'm going to move because I don't want to be here even though it's not steel cable'. He elected to stay in that position, reattached the rope, they decided they want the boat to come in hotter this time, faster. Unbeknownst to them, on the first take it has weakened that bow eye so when it came in faster and it hit the rocks again, the piece of pipe to which the rope was connected, which was about a foot long and had a nice eye on it, broke loose from the boat, came flying through the air, the stunt coordinator, who had remained in his spot to watch the shot happen, a piece of metal flew towards him. He attempted to duck to get under it, but it caught him in the middle of his forehead and cut him about halfway down his head. 

"The crazy part about this is we got him up to the hospital and he went off, got 63 stitches, came back later in the day to operate a boat for a scene in another marina. That is the sort of mental toughness that stunt people have. They are contrary to how a medic wants to operate with a patient because they always want to continue on. Most people would like to be taken away, taken care of right away."

On what it takes to be a set medic:

"It's a combination of diplomacy, crowd management, and communication. The diplomacy because everybody knowns the person who has been injured, we have worked long hours, we may know the people personally. There's a sense of family on a movie set so everyone is very concerned, and my responsibility is to be able to calm the crew and let them know that the individual is getting the proper medical attention, and to be able to communicate clearly with the first assistant director what needs to be done in terms of do we need transportation for this person'. What's going to be the follow-up after the initial treatment? Working with the producers to let them know how we are going to continue on, should this take the individual out of the day. And that's where all those three attributes come into play."

On the toughest movie star:

"Probably, Kurt Russell. He injured himself and was very adamant about continuing on even though my recommendation was that we take some time off and we better treat his injuries.

See the orginal post here http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2013/11/25/34827/odd-hollywood-jobs-set-medic/

Read More

Set Medic Saves Heart Attack Victim while shooting a production...

Movie set medic Lee Burks
 helped resuscitate a woman at
 Piedmont Park in midtown Atlanta
last week. He's pictured above with
Academy award winning actress
 Jennifer Lawrence.

ATLANTA — 

A movie-set medic was in the right place at the right time when a woman went into cardiac arrest at midtown Atlanta's Piedmont Park. 

"I've been a paramedic for 21 years. My job is to help people no matter who it is or where they are," 

Lee Burks told Channel 2's Carl Willis. 

He was working a set at the park last week for a movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Colin Farrell when a woman collapsed in the parking lot. 

"When I arrived, she was laying over here behind this tree," he said, showing Willis. 

Burks said he ran the equivalent of two football fields to reach her. Her son said he had been hoping for a miracle. 

"I stood at my mother's feet and said, 'Lord, please bring her back,' and the paramedic walked up," Eric Thomas said. 

Burks said he was happy to do the job.

"We did two complete rounds of CPR and then reassessed for a pulse and found out the patient actually had a pulse," he said.
The woman, 82-year-old Annette Thomas, was too weak to talk but was back at her northwest Atlanta home Thursday.
"I've always believed in miracles," her son said.

See the whole original story here 

Read More