Spokane firm adds movie credit

Chalk up another movie credit to the Spokane Research Laboratory.

“The Sky is Falling,” a safety training film for miners, is the 10th movie released by the lab, which is part of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The films star real miners talking about safety. They’ve been translated into Spanish, French and Russian, and shown all over the world.

Elaine Cullen, the lab’s communication chief, is the force behind the films. When mine safety managers complained about how boring and out-of-date their training materials were, Cullen figured she could liven them up by using miners as actors.

“The Sky is Falling” was shot at three locations — the Coeur Rochester Mine in Nevada, a Wyoming coal mine and an Arizona gravel mine.

The film is about staying safe around high walls, the earthen and rock walls that surround open-pit mines. “These things are not designed to be permanent structures, and they can become unstable over time,” Cullen said. “Storms blowing through, rainfall and freezes really affect them. Any time people are working around them, they’re in a potential hazard zone.”

Her plot line follows a bumbling investigative TV news reporter broadcasting a series on the mining industry. “His foil is an anchorwoman back in the studio, who realizes that this guy is a total joke,” Cullen said.

Over the five days, the reporter learns a great deal about the industry, including a number of safety tips about high walls.

Cullen writes the scripts and edits the videos. A Spokane production company does the filming.

Cullen’s work has won several awards, including the Alice Hamilton Award in 2001.