Hollywood Goes for Take Two
A view of the stages 27 and 28 Paramount Pictures Stages from the Gower entrance in Los Angeles, Calif. on Oct. 01, 2020 (Jorge Devotto/The Corsair)
Just off of North Gower Street in the heart of Hollywood, two production crew members wearing masks walked briskly between sound stages and trailers on the Paramount Pictures Studios backlot.
Paramount is one of several giant studios in Los Angeles where movies and TV shows are brought to life on elaborate sets and outdoor locations. It is adjusting to the changes seen in production with the onslaught of COVID-19.
On June 12, the state of California approved the resumption of TV, music, and movie production, including big-budget studio, independent, and student films.
Filming has resumed in part thanks to a COVID-19 safety proposal submitted by major players in the entertainment industry to the state governments of California and New York on June 1. The safety proposal was created by a new task force consisting of some of the industry’s major guilds and unions, including The Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America.
The state of California allowed film production to resume, utilizing existing safety guidelines for office regulations on June 12. In addition, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health simultaneously approved new film production with the release of a COVID-19 safety order detailing rules specifically tailored to production.
Entertainment productions must now comply with guidelines issued by production management in addition to the protocols of the safety order. This has allowed the entertainment industry to expand on L.A. County guidelines and utilize the proposal they submitted to the state government.
The entertainment industry calls their new guidelines "The Safe Way Forward." The protocol includes periodic testing during production of all cast and crew, as an extra safety precaution for those shooting without a mask or protective gear for long periods of time. It also requires a medical professional up to date with all COVID-19 safety protocols to be on set during production.
On Friday, Oct. 2, “The Goldbergs” television show was filming at a park near the Sony Pictures Studios lot which positively reflected the new safety regulations. Anthony Watson, an on-site security guard, spoke about his experience working for the production.
“Now that there’s COVID, obviously things are different. Like our food, we can no longer service ourselves, they have to serve it to us. We have to have our temperature checked, we have to have testing twice weekly before we go [to] set. They have more washing stations, more everything,” said Watson.
It was clear that the new rules were being followed as crew members wore masks and appropriately distanced from each other as they waited in line at a catering truck.
The crew wore yellow tags with the zone they belonged to. This regulation specific to “The Safe Way Forward” groups workers together based on their role in production. For example, actors who must remove their protective gear during a shoot are grouped in “Zone A,” and are forbidden to come into physical contact with anyone outside of that zone.
Traffic at Paramount Pictures Melrose Gate in Los Angeles, Calif. on Oct. 01, 2020 (Jorge Devotto/The Corsair)
Student film production at Santa Monica College (SMC) was also approved by the state of California and L.A. County, nevertheless SMC has utilized alternative filming methods to avoid putting students at risk.
When SMC moved classes online in the spring during the initial lockdown they halted any production that required students to meet in person.
The Film Department managed to overcome this challenge by shooting with Zoom software. SMC Professor Simone Bartesaghi, who teaches several courses in film production and development, explained how students in the Film 33 class were able to make films remotely.
“We actually shot a few scenes and they’re seamless. Two actresses were in Italy. Two were here in the United States. Another was in another country, and we shot them through Zoom and then all the material was edited together in a normal format. So you can watch the scene and it seems like all of them are in the same room,” said Bartesaghi.
One of the films made this Spring in the course, “Leaving the Factory,” won the Next Generation Indie Film Awards in Canada. In addition to the monetary prize, the award proves that short films can be shot successfully over Zoom.
Although students are eager to get back on-set, Bartesaghi emphasized that safety is the SMC staff’s first priority. With social distancing a priority, the Zoom platform offers an educational and safe environment for filmmaking.
“I’m glad that we have that tool because we can really stay in touch and still work together. Something that six or seven years ago, we couldn’t have done,” said Bartesaghi.
Yet, as proven by Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Batman,” shooting during the pandemic comes with it's own set of challenges. Production on the highly anticipated, tentpole movie came to a screeching halt in early September due to the lead actor, Robert Pattinson, contracting the COVID-19 virus.
Pattinson made a full recovery and production continued, however, this was the industry’s first example of a big-budget film resuming production amid the pandemic, only to be put on hold yet again due to infection.
Lost money and time are the typical casualties when productions are put on hold, but with COVID-19, a dangerous virus also potentially threatens the cast and crew. Major motion pictures are insured, but the policies are unclear during these times. Insurance companies may not be able to cover the cost of multiple big-budget production lockdowns due to a high risk of COVID-19.
According to Vulture, a few highly anticipated TV shows and movies have come to a halt due to infections including HBO’s “Euphoria” and “Succession," Walt Disney Studios’ “The Little Mermaid,” and Warner Bros. Studios’ “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3.”
In spite of the danger, a few TV shows and movies have continued to shoot during the pandemic such as NBC’s “The Voice," ABC’s “The Bachelorette," Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World: Dominion,” and 20th Century Studios’ “Avatar 2."
These unaffected productions are proof that filming can safely resume despite the dangers of COVID-19. The show must go on, whether virtually or on set.
