About us
Safe Sets Intimacy Coordinators was founded in 2020 by Sara Blecher and Kate Lush.
Dr. Èmil Haarhoff joined the company in the same year and together they pioneered Intimacy Coordination on South African sets.
While supporting intimate scenes they became aware that a lot of South African story telling features scenes where young characters are often either witness or perpetrators of violence or other scenes that may cause then harm in the making. They soon recognised the need for specialised training and support when working with minors on set.
As the industry began to pay more attention to the importance of safeguarding children and ensuring well-being on set, Safe Sets stepped in to fill the gap. Combining existing global safe guarding protocols and best practice, in addition to concepts penned in Dr. Èmil's Haarhoff's academic paper: The use of embodied imagination and empathy to bridge actor-character dissonance; Safe Sets began to develop safe working protocols and strategies for supporting minors when working with content that may cause harm.
In 2023, Dr. Èmil first collaborated with the acting coach Tamryn Spiers. Tamryn had been hired to work with a very young actor during the production of the film Snake, directed by Meg Rickards. Snake featured Lamiyah Barnard, who was 9 years old while filming, in the lead role. Lamiyah's character was witness to many scenes of violence and sexual violence throughout the film.
Tamryn Speirs is a Young Performer Support Specialist and child advocate, ensuring that minors are safe and supported on screen, particularly in sensitive or potentially harmful content. With over 20 years of experience as an acting coach, she co-authored A Filmmaker's Guide to Working with Children for Screen (Routledge, UK), endorsed by leading international directors, and has worked on productions including One Piece, The Wheel of Time, and Unseen S2.
Together Èmil and Tamryn looked at strategies to combine Safe Sets' methodology, with Tamryn's methodology of acting coaching and supporting minors when working with difficult content and the specific role of the YPS was born!