How Hollywood Makes Movies During a Pandemic

Every day at Pinewood Studios in London, where “Jurassic World: Dominion” just wrapped up a month-long shoot that was rocked by a pandemic that changed the world, a voice echoes over the sound system five hours after filming. to remind the cast and crew to change their masks.

“It doesn’t happen all at once, it’s not like a factory,” laughs Alexandra Derbyshire, executive producer of Universal Studios. “It’s just a reminder.”

The push to replace face covers may be mild, but it illustrates how seriously films are working to prevent their sets from becoming coronavirus hotspots. As the pandemic approaches the year, those who make films are accepting that movie sets, large and small, will be very different for the foreseeable future. Pfizer’s recent announcement that its coronavirus vaccine was showing promising results has raised hopes around the industry that business could eventually return to normal, but most doubt this is a quick fix. Filming movies has become more expensive and takes longer, and that is unlikely to change.

And the rise in coronavirus cases also means that despite the great strides film sets have made in developing rigorous safety protocols, the pandemic is a force that cannot be contained. This could lead to another round of widespread shutdowns, which could soon halt filming in places like London and Georgia.

In any environment, making successful films is an extremely tedious and laborious process that requires hundreds and hundreds of hands: from actors, directors and extras to hairdressers and makeup artists and catering staff. In other words, these are nightmares of a deadly airborne virus circulating. Derbyshire compared the post-pandemic ensemble to “a glamorous war.” “Jurassic World: Dominion” was the first major production to resume filming after coronavirus forced film sets to close. And in many ways, the successful franchise wrote the rulebook for pandemic productions, consisting of intense and scrupulous measures – like electronic temperature checks, routine swab tests, daily safety briefings and color-coded areas to organize cast and crew – likely to become de rigueur for movie sets around the world.

Masks and physical distancing are rife everywhere these days. But to protect against a flare, the sets are divided into different “zones” to keep the crew away accordingly. Once each person arrives on the set and goes through a temperature testing station, they are given bracelets that match the color zone they are assigned to that day. The “Green Zone,” at least on “Dominion,” is home to the main cast, director, and producers, and is able to function as a normal movie unit (or as normal as it gets during a pandemic) because it takes the most precautions. Anyone working in the Green Zone is tested for the coronavirus three times a week, a necessary practice that Derbyshire calls “phenomenally expensive”. Instead of crowding around the monitors, each has their own iPad to individually monitor what’s happening on the camera.

“Social distancing is the hardest part because the nature of filmmaking is so collaborative,” Derbyshire says. “It’s quite difficult to talk to someone two meters away.” The production therefore hired additional people on the set, responsible for keeping others at a greater distance. “It’s not a fun job,” she says. “It’s really annoying.”

Perhaps the most necessary – and expensive – expense aside from the coronavirus testing has been renting space for key cast and crew members to limit their exposure to the outside world. Despite being locked in one of London’s best hotels for the shoot, Derbyshire celebrated the opportunity to finally sleep in her own bed after 19 long weeks of isolation.

Actress Vinessa Shaw, who recently wrapped filming on the indie thriller ‘We Need To Do Something’, predicts ‘fixed bubbles will be the norm’. Of course, the average movie won’t require isolation measures as elaborate and expensive as a major blockbuster.

“It’s great,” Shaw says, “because we shot this in 18 days. You can [still] manage your life. For TV shows or mini-series, this might be more difficult because the seasons are shot over a longer period of time. “People may not always be willing to go into lockdown or quarantine every time for longer periods of time. Ten days are manageable. But six or seven months is different.

There is no doubt that studios need to take drastic measures to ensure that movie sets remain free from coronavirus. Still, that means there has been at least one topic that is constant conversation (yes, even more than usual) during the pandemic: money. Strict procedures, like routine testing, precise ventilation, additional signage, and on-set hygiene (sinks, sanitizing stations, and face masks are always readily available) have driven prices up. But for the most part, Hollywood didn’t smile.

“[Universal] didn’t question any of that, ”says Derbyshire, who called the finance company“ extraordinary ”and estimates the additional spending to run into the millions. “Dominion,” which is a larger-scale production than most movies, had about 90 additional sinks, 200 hand sanitizer stations, and performed about 50,000 swab tests throughout filming. “It’s a huge investment.”

But not all productions are lucky enough to be backed by one of Hollywood’s biggest film studios. For the next “Rift” movie, producer Kevin G. Lee estimates that he must have allocated 10% to 15% of the budget for coronavirus-related expenses. “Each production must take into account how much you will have to prepare for it,” he warns.

Lee and the film’s production crew – Tammie Renee, Kendrick Foxx and Ty Donaldson of TLK Filmworks – assembled a crew of 70 to film their feature film in Atlanta. The team had planned to shoot a completely different project, but had to abandon their original plan once they failed to secure production insurance to cover pandemics. They had already reserved slots, so they reverse engineered the process to create a brand new movie, titled “Rift,” which used the spaces they had previously secured. This is where the real work started.

The film was shot at warp speeds, with just five days of filming. To achieve safe production, the team had to foot the bill for three rounds of testing (each test costs $ 150 per person), HEPA-filtered ventilation for the set, and hotel stays for the main cast and l team to create a pseudo-bubble. All of this was accomplished on a budget of less than $ 300,000.

“We’ve been very lucky in our planning and in our team to be able to accomplish this, but I don’t know how many people can continue to do it, especially at this cost,” Foxx says. He suggests that unions consider subsidizing costs. “Otherwise you’re going to hit yourself a brick wall with the lack of content or make people take risks and not be as safe.”

This particular problem can last a long time, predicts Foxx. “In Georgia, being a state with the right to work, I see a lot of my producer friends doing a lot of non-union projects – they still do their COVID tests but they don’t have to test us frequently,” he said. ‘said. “Right now, I think everyone is still trying to pull themselves together and understand this new world we’re in, and really need to understand that this is where we are. We cannot fantasize and romanticize about yesterday. Those days are over.

Operation under strict conditions has advantages. According to the Derbyshire of “Jurassic World,” the level of organization needed translates into more precise filmmaking and fewer decisions on the fly. Take the example of supporting actors. In a pre-pandemic period, if more background actors are needed, the team will need to find 10 to 20 people with one day’s notice. Now people are required to produce three negative tests before they get to Pinewood Studios. It takes at least an extra week of planning.

And even with heightened precautions, there have been significant setbacks. Netflix had to briefly stop “The Harder They Fall”, Robert Pattinson’s positive coronavirus test meant “The Batman” temporarily ceased production, and Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” ceased filming after team members contracted the virus.

With about three weeks of material to shoot, “Jurassic World: Dominion” had to stop filming after a string of positive coronavirus cases on set. “When you have a positive case, immediately that person and anyone around them should be taken out of the mix,” Derbyshire said.

“Someone central tested positive so part of our film had to stop,” said Derbyshire, who was not allowed to say who on set tested positive. “The person did not show any symptoms and immediately tested negative, but that does not change our protocol. You have to be careful. There is a risk there.

Director Sean King O’Grady suffered a similar fate on his new film “We Must Do Something”. As the owner of Atlas Industries, a Michigan film and television company, he had an advantage because he had a sound stage. But despite painstaking measures, including a health safety adviser on set, O’Grady learned that a crew member tested positive for the virus just two days after filming, demonstrating the complications of the shots most well. executed in the midst of a pandemic.

“The reality is that people live with other people,” he says. “They have children in school, spouses who have jobs and who are exposed to the outside world.”

As a small production, he notes, money was tight. “We can’t afford to stop and start over, stop and start over. We decided to create a real bubble and we moved all the actors and the team in the hotel, ”he says. After a week of quarantine, cast and crew needed three negative tests before they could restart production.

“Making movies in 2020 isn’t for the faint of heart,” says O’Grady. “But it is possible.”