Mark Milsome Foundation Newsletter - February 2024

Latest news from The Mark Milsome Foundation

House of Lords debate

In recent significant developments, last week in the House of Lords, Baroness Angela Smith of Basildon, Labour leader of the Lords, raised questions around the ‘serious health and safety issues to be addressed’ for those working in film and TV, including the need to look at training, current legislation and the role of the HSE.

Samantha Wainstein, Andra Milsome and Rory Kinnear were in attendance and were thankful that Angela spoke about how Mark was tragically killed, saying ‘It's shocking and devastating, as it’s clear that it could and should have been prevented.'

During her impactful speech, Baroness Angela Smith cited statistics from the recent MMF/Bectu survey and went on to say, 'Those that work in this industry deserve more,' and proposed actionable steps forward. Baroness Angela Smith concluded her speech by stating ‘I hope that the minister will agree to meet me with campaigners to take this forward.’

We are pleased to announce that Lord Parkinson, Minister for Arts and Heritage has agreed to meet with the Mark Milsome Foundation, signalling a move in the right direction!

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Baroness Angela Smith for all of her efforts to advocate for better health and safety practices on our behalf.

CVP Event

In January, CVP hosted an event in collaboration with Mission Digital and Garden Studios. Images from our beautiful calendar were projected onto a large screen and were complemented by the curated soundscape of Dan Donovan, a talented keyboardist, composer, photographer and remixer. The turnout was remarkable and an enjoyable evening was had by all. During the event, Andra passionately emphasised the importance of crew speaking up in order to ensure safety on set.

Foot in the Door

We have recently invited colleges to nominate students for our Foot in the Door initiative. This year the invite has not only been extended to Cilect schools but also to those schools and colleges that are offering our Screenskills Level 2 Production Safety Passport course to their students.

If you have any work opportunities for our current trainees, please email us at secretary@markmilsomefoundation.com

BSC Expo

Thank you to BSC for providing us with a stand at the BSC Expo (16/17 Feb). Please come and visit us at stand 156, located between Elation Lighting and the BSC Studio. See floorplan here. Trustees, trainees and friends of the Foundation will be there, selling a range of merchandise and providing info on our H&S course. We look forward to seeing you there!

With warmest regards from all of us at the Foundation

Visit The Mark Milsom Foundation Website: www.markmilsomefoundation.com