In film and television, the work of a safety officer hides in plain sight. When a stunt lands, when a bear shuffles into frame without incident, when a helicopter arcs across a mountain valley and no one flinches, what you are witnessing is the quiet architecture of risk managed well. Few people understand this better than Frith O’Hagan of GFS Risk and an early advocate for embedding safety into the everyday life of a production.

From Nursing to Production Risk: The Instincts That Transfer

O’Hagan began her career not on set, but on the wards. Having trained as a nurse, she worked in emergency rooms, fracture clinics, and oncology units. “You use your nursing skills every day in production risk,” she says. The habits of calm assessment, of treating crises without drama, have never left her. When she transitioned into production services in the early 2000s, she found herself carrying those instincts into new terrain.

The Moment That Changed Everything

O’Hagan recalls working on a tropical island, where a young crew member suffered a significant medical event the day after arriving on location. She knew the ambulances didn’t reach that far, so the safety team bundled her into a vehicle and drove to the local hospital where it became clear she would need to be transferred to a larger facility. O’Hagan turned to the producer and said it was time to activate their production insurance. He admitted he didn’t have the policy details with him.

Drawing on her nurse’s training, she kept her focus, before pulling out her phone and calling GFS’s insurer. Within minutes, a medevac jet was on standby. The experience crystallised something for her: even the best-prepared productions can be tested by pressure, and when they are, the ability to access critical details instantly, in one place, and on any device, can be life-saving. It is this realisation that underpins her advocacy for systems like SetConnect.

“The true test of any system is whether it holds under pressure.”

Risk Management as Culture, Not Compliance

That moment became a turning point. What began as a career in healthcare evolved into a vocation in risk assessment and safety services for screen production, where the same principles of preparation and calm intervention could mean the difference between disruption and continuity, between a near miss and a tragedy.

Today, O’Hagan describes her work as a matter of presence and trust. “A safe set,” she says, “is one where the responsible person ensures everyone comes to work and goes home safe at night,” and that responsibility scales with the size of the show. On a small production, the responsible person may be the director or producer. On large productions, specialist safety officers, including riggers, climbers, or medics, must be woven into the crew without creating an “us and them” divide. Universal access to the same information is key. With a centralized system like SetConnect, the safety lead, the producer, and the grip on the ground are all working from the same page. 

Trust, in her view, is built not through authority but through competence, and shared access ensures that competence is visible to everyone. The rigging expert calmly checking a cameraman’s harness, the animal handler explaining how a hot-wire enclosure will function, the understated safety consultant who has quietly spent decades keeping people safe and focussed, when they’re on your sets, “You can see the crew relax. Faces soften. They can focus on their jobs because they know someone has their back.”

Why Systems Like SetConnect Matter

It’s why O’Hagan is a champion of systems like SetConnect, which consolidate the chaos of paper, WhatsApp threads, and scattered files into a single operating picture.

“With SetConnect, everyone has the briefing in their hand,” she explains. “You know who has read it. You know who is on set. Communication doesn’t vanish into a chat history.”

The result is not simply efficiency but equality: a shared baseline of information that makes crew feel informed, respected, and responsible.

The Rhythm of Safe Sets

O’Hagan’s philosophy is disarmingly simple: “Be professional, be kind, make sure everyone goes home safe.”

Yet in practice, it requires orchestration: the morning briefings targeted enough to matter, the contingency plans layered without fuss, the quiet vigilance of safety consultants who scan for hazards while blending into the crew. She likens it to habit-building. Productions that normalise consistent reporting and communication create not only safer sets but smoother ones.

“It’s not about adding a system. It’s about removing friction.”

The Fastest Wins Are Often the Simplest

In an industry that measures success in days saved and reputations protected, O’Hagan’s presence is both pragmatic and philosophical. She has seen grumpy crews, old-school cultures, and the accidents that follow from neglect. But she has also seen how quickly attitudes shift when safety is delivered with clarity and care.

“The fastest win,” she insists, “is often the simplest: keep the essentials effortless, keep the oversight live.”

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