Randall Miller, blamed for Sarah Jones’ death, still directs

In February, Richard and Elizabeth Jones marked a grim anniversary: It experienced been six a long time since their daughter was killed on a movie set.

In 2014, 27-year-previous Sarah Jones was operating on the film “Midnight Rider,” about rock star Gregg Allman. On the initially day of capturing, a scene set up on a historic railroad trestle exterior Savannah, Ga., went awry. Crew members have been left only seconds to get off the tracks as a freight coach barreled towards them, killing the youthful camera assistant and injuring several many others.

Authorities mentioned they did not have permission to be on the tracks. The film’s director, Randall Miller, served half of a two-year jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter and was introduced in 2016. The tragedy sparked an intercontinental campaign, led by the Jones relatives, to boost better security on sets.

So the Joneses and many others have been shocked to study not long ago that Miller experienced made a further film, signed off by the Administrators Guild of The united states and SAG-AFTRA. “Higher Grounds,” which Miller, directed, cowrote and coproduced with his spouse, Jody Savin, is a comedy about a vegan barista fighting to contend in the Entire world Barista Championships. The movie, which has nonetheless to obtain a distributor, was shot final year in the U.K., Colombia and Serbia but only not long ago grew to become publicly recognised.

“It does make me indignant,” Richard Jones mentioned final week. “I’m just in disbelief that he would be so bold.”

Authorities in Georgia, a important hub for filming, contend that Miller violated the conditions of his probation and are seeking a warrant for his arrest. In 2015, a decide stipulated that Miller was prohibited from serving as a director, initially assistant director or supervisor with duty for security in any movie output throughout the ten-year probation period of time. A hearing day has not been set.

Miller’s return to do the job has revived debate about Hollywood’s commitment to movie set security and raised inquiries about no matter whether those people liable for accidents are held accountable.

“It truly breaks my heart that he was capable to do this beneath the radar,” mentioned Joyce Gilliard, a hairstylist who labored with Jones and who was also wounded in the 2014 incident. She was left with submit-traumatic worry disorder and ache immediately after reconstructive medical procedures needed to fix her broken arm.

“We missing Sarah Jones. There are other crew members that are out below also who have to are living with this tragedy.”

Los Angeles-dependent Miller mentioned in an job interview that he thought he was allowed to do the job as a director.

“I was recommended by my counsel that I was allowed to direct as lengthy as I was not the a single in demand of security. That was the plea that I agreed to,” Miller mentioned. He added that he did not keep the output beneath wraps.

“Everywhere I go, I say who I am, I talk about the tragedy and how I want to do things otherwise and aid make movie sets safer all over the sector,” Miller mentioned. “I can’t change the previous. I are not able to carry Sarah Jones back, but I am fully commited to building beneficial change in the earth.”

The DGA did not answer to a request for remark, although SAG-AFTRA declined to remark. Miller mentioned that in wake of the incident, the DGA experienced place him on depart for a year immediately after he served his jail sentence. He added that the union was totally knowledgeable of Miller’s history with regards to “Midnight Rider” and that it agreed to be a signatory as lengthy as the initially assistant director on the job was in demand of security and provided particulars of their security programs.

“I would like to see this be the norm on all film sets,” Miller mentioned. “This must be held up as the gold standard of set security.”

But quite a few in Hollywood have been indignant to study that Miller was back at do the job, which was initially documented by Deadline.

Lots of members of the IATSE community 600, which represents camera specialists and cinematographers, “expressed issue and outrage,” Neighborhood 600 President John Lindley mentioned in a modern notice to members.

“There are some conclusions that are so egregious that those people who make them and express insufficient remorse, forfeit their proper to a second opportunity,” Lindley mentioned in his letter, which was attained by The Situations. “Randall Miller made this kind of a decision when he broke the law and put Sarah in harm’s way basically to entire his film. It is disappointing to say the least that his new job, Greater Grounds, acquired support from our sector.”

Customers of the DGA also experienced raised concerns about the decision on a modern Zoom call attended by extra than one hundred members.

Through the call, Jason Allen, a DGA member who oversaw security on “Higher Grounds,” was grilled about his function on the movie.

“It was not an straightforward decision to do the job on this film,” Allen mentioned in an job interview. “But considering the conditions of my employment granted by the DGA to have entire, undisputed authority in excess of the production’s security… I determined to choose on this endeavor.” He mentioned he has since acquired “overwhelmingly beneficial support” from his colleagues.

In 2017, Jones’ relatives was awarded $11.two million in damages by a Georgia jury. Richard and Elizabeth Jones have been campaigning since their daughter’s demise to make improvements to security on sets. They released a nonprofit named Protection for Sarah, to raise recognition and present grant funding to movie studios about security.

“I come to feel extremely strongly that the DGA must expel Mr. Miller from its membership,” mentioned Richard Jones. “They truly have to have to ship this message to the sector that this is not what we are about. Protection must be an integral section of who they are.”

Major injuries and fatalities on movie productions keep on to happen in the sector, usually mainly because filmmakers find to minimize fees or seize remarkable photographs.

In December, an Atlanta jury awarded $8.6 million in damages to the relatives of stuntman John Bernecker, who was killed in 2017 on the set of the Television sequence “The Walking Lifeless.”

Stuntwoman Olivia Jackson missing her arm in an incident on set throughout the filming of an installment of “Resident Evil” in 2015. Two crew members of the Tom Cruise film “American Made” died in a airplane crash throughout output in Colombia in 2015. And in 2018, stuntwoman Joi “S.J.” Harris died immediately after performing a motorcycle stunt for the superhero sequel “Deadpool 2” in Vancouver, Canada.

Jeff Harris, an lawyer for the Jones relatives in its wrongful demise suit as very well as the suit brought by the Bernecker relatives, mentioned that Miller could have on operating highlights a deficiency of progress in set security.

“It’s essential to us that this not just be about Randall Miller,” mentioned Harris, of the Georgia-dependent law business Harris Lowry Manton LLP. “The DGA aided him do this, so they apparently aren’t studying the message of the Jones and Bernecker scenarios. Which is the larger concern.”

In the meantime, the Jones relatives has been pushing to create new protocols for filming to make improvements to security.

“If we preserve a solitary everyday living, even if we by no means know it, that is Alright,” mentioned Richard Jones. “It will have been well worth it all.”