The concept design for the film set at Les Mills Auckland City. Photo / The Bakery Collective
The concept design for the film set at Les Mills Auckland City. Photo / The Bakery Collective
WorkSafe issued a prohibition notice for a towering Egyptian-themed temporary film set built on a gym car park because an inspector found the site broke safety rules, a spokesman said today.
The ban was against the film stage on the roof of the 333-space multi-level Wellesley St carpark next door to Les Mills Auckland City fronting Victoria St West in the city’s western precinct.
That ban was lifted once compliance occurred, the WorkSafe spokesman said.
WorkSafe said someone concerned about safety precautions for people working at height made contact.
“An inspector carried out an assessment and issued a prohibition notice preventing work from being carried out until appropriate edge protection was installed.
Whether it could be used, or had to be dismantled once WorkSafe became involved, was unknown.
Phillip Mills, managing director of the global fitness business, said today: “We had a backup plan of filming in studios one and two at the gym in case of bad weather and that went really well so everything was OK in the end.”
WorkSafe said edge protection helped prevent people, tools and materials from falling around the perimeters of a work area, around openings or where brittle material could not safely support the weight of a person.
It had a “working safely at height toolkit” which told people how edge protection should be installed.
“Working at height means working in a place where a person could be injured if they fell from one level to another.
“Rather than thinking about how high the fall will be, consider how someone could fall and what they might land on,” WorkSafe said.
Peter Klein, of New York, designed the set in collaboration with Auckland-based set designers and art directors Studio RA. Steve Baker’s The Bakery Collective worked to co-ordinate the set construction and filming.
Filming is due to start this month on the set above the Les Mills International carpark. Photo / Michael Craig
Attempts to reach Baker and Klein today to discuss the WorkSafe action were unsuccessful.
On May 1, the Herald reported Mills saying the multi-level stage structure was a movie set for a film to showcase the company’s BodyCombat classes online to millions of people.
BodyCombat is a high-energy martial arts-inspired workout based partly on tae kwon do and kung fu.
This temporary film set structure is on the carpark of Les Mills International in Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig
“These films are used by 100,000 instructors in 22,000 gyms around the world,” Mills said previously, referring to Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.
“We are filming our quarterly classes, which this time include the 100th release of BodyCombat. We have 100 of the world’s best instructors in town to film this class.”
Those 100 instructors were to sprint up flights of stairs and be positioned on every level of the film set instructing about 200 people on both sides of the carpark.
Building of the gym’s carpark is by Leighs Construction, which in 2018 began work on the 333-vehicle block beside the existing Les Mills’ Auckland City at 186 Victoria St, opposite Spark and above Victoria Park.
The multi-level Les Mills Auckland City carpark on Wellesley St beside the company's main city gym fronting Victoria St West. Photo / Google Streetview
