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Coronavirus: How will productions change how they shoot during the near/mid term future?


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34 minutes ago, David Peterson said:


Bingo, that's exactly right. 
(except I don't think it is the parents who would prosecute you, the government would do that for them)

The logic does seem weird. If they climbed over one fence to get into your property... what's stopping them climbing over your pool's fence??

But if they had a nice swim and stole my garden gome collection .. without drowning themselves .. they would be the law breakers ..  and open to prosecution .. the law is an ass.. 

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In the meantime, very interesting to see case studies like this soap opera Neighbors going back into production in Australia with strict guidelines, Netflix is in production in Korea and Iceland (where they seem to have a very good handle on the virus), Tyler Perry has given to Deadline his whole set of guidelines that he's currently using as he shoots 22 episode seasons in 2 WEEKS AND A HALF (no typo) at his studio, which includes quarantining his cast and crew before and after shooting on his studio lot (where there are tons of houses), with really a very thorough plan.

The UK has their guidelines in place for TV and big film productions, including Warner Bros Leavesden, they hope to get back into production in the summer, everything of course is being monitored by the government, health institutes, etc, and depending on the lockdowns in place. And there's also this Mickey Rourke film that shot during the outbreak in Russia and just finished shooting ? they had strict guidelines, and were allowed to keep shooting, and the director has been given the go ahead to shoot other things.

So very interesting, and it seems like it's totally doable, not without some amount of risk of course. What's going to be interesting is anything to do with two characters or more in a shot, as obviously, films, especially big ones can't just have two characters 6 feet away (more is preferable) from each other in every scene or it's just going to be so creatively compromising. Although that's where a lot of creativity and ingenuity and VFX work will do wonders I guess. 

I'm imagining films like Fantastic Beasts 3 or Killers Of The Flower Moon, especially the latter where there will probably or would have been a LOT of extras, maybe they really can only have a few real extras and with LIDAR, and other tech, fill in the rest of the crowds with CG. 

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What's promising is countries like Australia where there are now very very few new cases, but that doesn't mean you're just loosening up everything and dropping social distancing, etc. New Zealand is miraculous, only 17 deaths, 1,450+ infections, very well contained, I guess production on the Lord Of The Rings series might resume sooner than expected there.

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56 minutes ago, Manu Delpech said:

New Zealand is miraculous, only 17 deaths, 1,450+ infections, very well contained, I guess production on the Lord Of The Rings series might resume sooner than expected there.

I'm not sure I'd call it miraculous. I'd call it a geographically isolated country that isn't a major tourist destination with a very low population density and a high overall standard of living. No surprise whatsoever.

I don't want to speak for the New Zealand population but they also seem to have popular, decisive leadership. I hesitate to speak up for any professional politician but Ardern probably has greater latitude to act decisively than, say, much of western Europe, where political decisionmaking seems to begin and end with maximising short-term popularity.

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1 hour ago, Manu Delpech said:

I guess production on the Lord Of The Rings series might resume sooner than expected there.

We already had production of Lord of the Rings suspended before our lockdown was even announced!

I expect because the hassle of anybody coming into NZ was becoming too much. 

So even if we technically "can" still film again in NZ at some point in the future, if any overseas cast / key crew need to be put into a two week plus quarantine (and even then, they still might not be available! If they don't get the clean bill of health), that could be too much of a risk / hassle / cost for the production to put up with. And they'll just suspend production rather than carry on with that burden. 

  

53 minutes ago, Phil Rhodes said:

I'm not sure I'd call it miraculous. I'd call it a geographically isolated country that isn't a major tourist destination

Tourism is a major major part of NZ, it is a biggest foreign dollar export earner in NZ. Towns like Queenstown exclusively exist thanks to Tourism dollars.  

55 minutes ago, Phil Rhodes said:

Ardern probably has greater latitude to act decisively than, say, much of western Europe, where political decisionmaking seems to begin and end with maximising short-term popularity.

Being a kiwi political geek who has for many many years perhaps too obsessively followed our local politics, I'd strongly disagree with that assessment. Jacinda has absolutely been seeking short term political gains, at the expense of the long term costs to New Zealand. 

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13 hours ago, David Peterson said:

Oh dear, I wonder what implications this has for us who have a lot of personal gear for work when we need to renew our insurance contracts?

Personal gear contracts should be unaffected. It's the bigger show bonds which are the issue. The issue is that they won't be able to bond a film, which means the big actors can't be associated. 

Edited by Tyler Purcell
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2 hours ago, Phil Rhodes said:

I'm not sure I'd call it miraculous. I'd call it a geographically isolated country that isn't a major tourist destination with a very low population density and a high overall standard of living. No surprise whatsoever.

I don't want to speak for the New Zealand population but they also seem to have popular, decisive leadership. I hesitate to speak up for any professional politician but Ardern probably has greater latitude to act decisively than, say, much of western Europe, where political decisionmaking seems to begin and end with maximising short-term popularity.

They still reacted early and were proactive, I say miraculous because of how quickly they acted and the results speak for themselves.

 

About LOTR, this is a billion dollar show, they can without a doubt afford to quarantine for 14 days people if needed. And all the guidelines flying around include quarantining and the idea of quarantined sets is also being floated (which is a great idea, that is if people are willing to stay in the vicinity in a hotel for months). 

Edited by Manu Delpech
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8 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said:

Personal gear contracts should be unaffected. It's the bigger show bonds which are the issue. The issue is that they won't be able to bond a film, which means the big actors can't be associated. 

My point was if insurance companies become less liquid and their balance books are strained, then we could see insurance hikes across the board.
  

7 hours ago, Manu Delpech said:

They still reacted early and were proactive, I say miraculous because of how quickly they acted and the results speak for themselves.

Nope, NZ screwed up heaps. Went too soft, and then when we did go hard went waaay over the top. 

Not only am I here living in NZ, but I'm following it closely too, watching live the Epidemic Response Committee for instance every time they're meeting.

Our Minister of Health is woefully incompetent, for instance just today he's in the news that he was moving house during the lvl4 lockdown! (let's ignore the issues around him breaking the laws here, but what Minister of Health even has time to move house during a 1 in a 100 year health crisis??) This is the third time, he's been in the news during lvl4 too for ignoring his own ministry's advice! He's also driven (his campaigning van!! What an idiot, where is his common sense political skills?? If you're going to break the law, at least don't do it while driving a big vehicle with your face splashed over it!!) to go MTB-ing, and he drove his family to visit a beach a half hour away (again, breaking the law). And yet, our PM doesn't sack him! At this point, I'm half wondering if he is trying to get fired?? She simply can't keep her caucus in line, and I expect she'll once again do nothing about this just like all the other times (a few days ago another Labour MP, who is on the Epidemic Response Committee, blamed small business that it is their fault if they're suffering during lockdown!! Did our PM demand an apology from her key MP? Nope!)


The major reason we managed to be "miraculous", is because we're the most remote nation in the world. (ignoring a few micro nations which are even more remote than us) To give an idea of just how remote: Auckland's nearest city (i.e. a place also with a million plus population) is Sydney, that's similar to the distance from London to Moscow across all of Europe! We however just have empty sea spanning that distance. Auckland is the most remote city in the world. (defined as the longest distance from one city to its nearest city, city defined as million plus population)
  

7 hours ago, Manu Delpech said:

About LOTR, this is a billion dollar show, they can without a doubt afford to quarantine for 14 days people if needed.  

I'm just saying the facts of what happened.
Lord of the Rings suspended shooting well before our countrywide lockdown was announced in New Zealand. 
Clearly just simply the international travel restrictions already in place had a big enough impact they decided to suspend shooting. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Richard Boddington said:

I just got some really bad news from my insurance company, it doesn't affect my current shoot as we shut down in October.  But going forward, all film policies will have a "communicable disease" exclusion.  This means, no independent producer will be able to shoot or get any bank financing, as the insurance company says any future shut down costs would need to be covered by the producer!!

This is very very bad news for us all.  Guess what, all the precautions in the world are now a moot point on set.  Because if the government orders film sets shut down again, the producer will be on the hook. And no independent producer in his right mind will take that kind of risk.


In 2010 and 2011 (& again in 2016) Christchurch (is where I was born, and is our second biggest city. After Auckland of course) suffered multiple major earthquake. Up until 2020, those were undoubtedly the biggest impacting events in NZ history during my life time (and I don't even live in Christchurch any longer! I left decades ago).

That had hugely major impacts NZ across society. One of the changes was that most commercial lease agreements now have a clause that if the tenant can't access their property then they don't have to pay all their rent. As no company now wants to lease somewhere and risk having to pay their rent for months (maybe even years!) on end while neither they or their customers can access the premises. As this is the current situation in New Zealand, LOTS of people are not paying rent to their landlords while this gets figured out. 

 

Edited by David Peterson
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3 hours ago, Richard Boddington said:

I just got some really bad news from my insurance company, it doesn't affect my current shoot as we shut down in October.  But going forward, all film policies will have a "communicable disease" exclusion.  This means, no independent producer will be able to shoot or get any bank financing, as the insurance company says any future shut down costs would need to be covered by the producer!!

This is very very bad news for us all.  Guess what, all the precautions in the world are now a moot point on set.  Because if the government orders film sets shut down again, the producer will be on the hook. And no independent producer in his right mind will take that kind of risk.

Also, one major insurer has announced they are leaving film insurance entirely.  Also, bad news.

The unemployment levels in the film industry are going to stay above pre pandemic ere levels for years to come.  Netflix and the studios will start again, but they can't hire everyone.  The big studio films are going to have an enormous problem as they rely on global theatrical sales, and theatrical sales are going to take 2-3 years to recover.  Even once the theatres re-open, people will voluntarily stay away.

R,

 

I would think a pandemic would fall under a force majeur clause like any other disaster.  But yeah.  This doesn't bode well.

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19 hours ago, Richard Boddington said:

If it's an exclusion in the policy, we are *bleeped* pure and simple.  And I mean really.....*bleeped*.

R,

Spain is going back to shoot commercials, tv series (including Netflix ones), features and etc in May, 11th if the conditions don't get worse. 

Yeah!!!

https://variety.com/2020/film/global/film-shoots-cinema-theater-restarts-spain-gets-tentative-dates-1234593442/

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9 hours ago, Richard Boddington said:

Commercials have the advantage of a 1-2 day shoot.  Netflix can self insure, NP, they have enough money.  Independent feature films and big studio block busters those are the two big question marks.  The first needs insurance, the latter needs a global theatrical audience, which may take 2-3 years to recover.

R,

 

You're right, maybe Europe works differently than Canada / States in terms of insurance?  
Perhaps you will have to come back to the UK Richard!  ?

Two of my friends will start a feature film in Spain in June 1st, the budget is under 5 Million, which is pretty independent in terms of Canada / States / Uk budgets. 

Valhalla (Vikings spinoff) might start shooting in August in Ireland. 

There is a "Spanish Netflix" called Movistar+ which will start shooting in June too. 

And news programs haven't stopped! 

If there is not another wave I think that we will see people returning to cinemas as soon as they open, I can't wait to watch Mulan with a bag of popcorn! ? 

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LA County is now offering free COVID testing to any resident now, regardless of symptoms. My wife and I are scheduled to get our test on Sunday. Testing and contract tracing are the next steps to reopening the economy and I'm hoping the availability of free tests can eventually lead to some productions starting again.

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On 4/27/2020 at 5:37 PM, Richard Boddington said:

I can tell you one thing I won't be wearing a mask on set, and if that's a condition of re starting production I will simply not start work again until such a ridiculous rule is removed. 

https://deadline.com/2020/04/film-florida-recommendations-safe-sets-covid-19-no-directors-chairs-no-trailers-clear-barriers-for-actors-mics-hairbrushes-1202923124/

Edited by Ben Ericson
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Ireland - 20th July according to the latest roadmap from the government, which can vary as the exit from the lockdown will be done in 5 stages with a 3 weeks difference between each. 

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A lot of promising developments here, Variety or THR have made comprehensive articles listing all the countries where productions are ongoing or starting up soon. Seems to me that quarantining the cast and crew the way BBC is proposing around the sound stages is the best way to be able to get going with big productions (some big movies are supposed to shoot for example in the UK or start: The Batman, Fantastic Beasts 3, The Little Mermaid, several Star Wars shows too later) and allowing actors in a scene to interact normally.

The whole rewriting scenes (that some shows are doing right now) in order for actors to be able to stand 1.5 meters away from each other (which by the way is not enough, studies have shown that the 6 ft distance is bogus as droplets can travel up to 6-7 meters from shouting, or coughing or whatever) is ridiculous and too constricting creatively. 

On those big productions shooting for several months, as long as everyone agrees, it's a darn good idea, no strays wandering off set going god knows where ? Temperature checks are not enough though as asymptomatic carriers don't necessarily display a fever, same with some regular carriers. A daily test is a good way to go, with really reliable tests, as some have a margin of error. 

By the way, Oxford is saying they will know by June, July if their vaccine works, if all goes well, there could be hundreds of millions of doses produced by late 2020, they are building new facilities to boost the production. 

 

@Miguel Angel I see movie theaters are set to reopen in early August in Ireland too. I think Nolan can kiss his Tenet July release goodbye. 

Edited by Manu Delpech
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What a mess.

It seems that testing everyone at the start of the day and then sealing off the set is the way to go. Nobody in or out unless they have been tested. If you leave the set you would need to be retested before being readmitted. Apparently the new blood tests can be turned around in 5-15 min. Maybe we have a rule that if you test positive you get tested immediately again, right there on the spot to eliminate errors. Two out of three strikes and you're out. 

Maybe the talent lives isolated for the duration of the shoot. 

Wipe down of phones, tablets, laptops and any touch screens with disinfectant before entering sets. Those screens are germ factories.

 

Meanwhile on set....

- Increased cleaning procedures including phones, tablets and laptops. Every department wipes down their equipment as much as they can at the start of the day to reduce contamination coming onto set.

- Store as much gear on set as possible, no in and out. 

- Reduced crew around camera and talent (like when nude or other delicate scenes are shot)

- No more crowds around the video village, which may be the only good thing to come out of this. LOL

- Talent resides in a clean tent in-between takes.

- Everyone but the talent wears masks and gloves

- Makeup / hair uses separate brushes etc for each actor and everything is sterilized on a regular basis.

- Lav mics get disinfected with alcohol wipes etc.

- The crew spreads out as much as possible.

- Compartmentalize by department. There is no need for someone to visit wardrobe, unless they work there or are getting dressed.

- Boxed lunches, everyone spreads out as much as possible 

- No outside visitors. Just the cast and crew.

etc.

That's about all you can do. There are no 100% guarantees in life.

And yes, the cure can't be worse than the disease. If we don't go back to shooting in a few weeks most of post production, production support and crews are going to go under, including the theaters. All that will be left are people above the line and the studios and they will join us on the breadline a short time after that.

 

But I do agree that the biggest obstacle is production insurance. Maybe the state or federal government needs to step in and lend a financial hand. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Feli di Giorgio
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34 minutes ago, Richard Boddington said:

Nothing else matters until the insurance problem can be solved. 

And I have no idea how it can be?  It's an opportunity for jurisdictions to use this as a way to lure production to their state or country.  If North Dakota is willing to insure against pandemic related losses to the producer, watch as a steady stream of trucks heads from LA to North Dakota.

Why would an insurance company in ND feel safe to insure a production, over an agency in LA? Wouldn't they just be taking a huge risk for very little reward, that is unless the state was giving them some sort of write off or kick back.

 

On 5/1/2020 at 8:12 PM, Richard Boddington said:

It's completely unworkable and ridiculous.  For me, I'll simply not shoot again for 2-3 years until we can run a normal set.  Fortunately, I have that option.  That's the key benefit of being the producer.

Hey, I thought here everybody needs to "get back to work," and life goes on.

If the state required you to wear a mask, you're literally going to sit out for 3 years? I don't understand the logic. It is a minor inconvenience that will potentially save lives and at the very least prevent illness between the cast and crew. They might even let you have your director's chair back!

Edited by Ben Ericson
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Directors, maybe come to a country like Australia to make your film. Self-isolate in a hotel for 2 weeks, assuming you can get into the country, and you're good to go. Hire Aussie crew, they're great. Great locations, studios, talent, good looks, infrastructure, post production, the works. We have a very, very low rate of transmission of the virus (here's praying it stays that way). Government is telling us we are all legends for how well we've contained it with our stringent observing of the regulations.

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9 minutes ago, Jon O'Brien said:

Directors, maybe come to a country like Australia to make your film. Self-isolate in a hotel for 2 weeks, assuming you can get into the country, and you're good to go. Hire Aussie crew, they're great. Great locations, studios, talent, good looks, infrastructure, post production, the works. We have a very, very low rate of transmission of the virus (here's praying it stays that way). Government is telling us we are all legends for how well we've contained it with our stringent observing of the regulations.

First, get a work permit for Australia.

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11 hours ago, Feli di Giorgio said:

- Compartmentalize by department. There is no need for someone to visit wardrobe, unless they work there or are getting dressed.

What about departments that need to work together, such as wardrobe and sound?

8 hours ago, Richard Boddington said:

Not an insurance company, a state or provincial government would step in here.  I expect that at some point it will happen.


Yup, I bet the first governor/PM/president that promises to not lockdown their state/country in the future will see a lot of productions flock to there. (welllll.... if insurance and production companies feel like they can trust a politician's word! Ha! Which of course nobody should do)

Edited by David Peterson
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