Ana Gómez, technician in occupational risk prevention in cinema: “I have had to stop filming”

She says cut, but she’s not a director, and although she can stop an entire shoot with her single glance… she’s not the producer either. Ana Gómez is a technician in occupational risk prevention in film and television and in each scene that is shot she is always in the front row ensuring the safety of the entire team. “From the lighting technician who puts on a spotlight to the protagonist she lights up”, she emphasizes. One of the first films she worked on was “The Kingdom of Heaven”, which Ridley Scott recorded in Huesca. Her last commission was “Cerdita”, a shoot that has taken her to Extremadura and has not yet been released. Between the two there are hundreds of movies full of stories and anecdotes. “I can’t count all of them,” confesses Ana, “but sometimes I’ve even had to stop filming.” Her work begins with reading the script. “I’m also there,” says Ana, “to find out what is going to be recorded and also where it is going to be recorded.” She is the gaze that stops to assess the risk behind each scene. If explosives are used, if it is recorded in a natural space or if there is a chase on a highway. Ana in one of the shoots. NIUS It is also in charge of measuring the time so that the working day is not longer than it should. “They always want to record one more take,” explains Ana. This is what happened to her on one occasion when she had to ask a foreign director to finish shooting and continue the next day. “If I let him, they’re filming there until eleven o’clock,” Ana jokes. Where the film crew sees a perfect setting, Ana detects the dangers. “It’s a lot of responsibility,” she tells NIUS. After all, she watches over the safety and health of dozens of people. “We are even waiting for the person in charge of the catering who brings the water to the filming set.” Ana with the film director Fernando Colomo. the risks are different. Sometimes she has had to call disinfection teams because there were fleas in the place where they wanted to shoot or she has asked that the beams of an old house be reinforced inside which a scene was taking place. The American film Megan Leavey, starring Kate Mara, was quite a challenge for her. With a plot centered on the relationship between a soldier and a mine dog, the risks multiplied. Weapons, explosives, helicopters, animals on set… In this case they had an actor dog, Rex, and his double. “We have to have a veterinarian on the set, see that the dog has its vaccinations, make sure that no one starts playing with it…”, says Ana.Ana in a still from the movie Poliamor.NIUSThe pandemic forced her to go to extremes the precautions. She had to test the entire filming team because a single positive could stop an entire production, with the consequent economic losses that this entailed. “Once in the movie Polyamory, several extras tested positive and couldn’t go to film,” recalls Ana, “and part of the team ended up appearing in the film as extras, including me.” While the director and screenwriters put their imagination into each film, Ana is in charge of putting reality into each recording: making sure there is a harness, that the emergency exits are not covered, locating fire extinguishers… She knows that sometimes she has to be the “bad” one, but be strict in her work saves lives… And he loves it.