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After a brief hiatus following recommendations from the county health department, major Hollywood studios are rolling the cameras again.
As Los Angeles public health officials call the city’s current COVID-19 surge – in which 10 people test positive for the virus every minute – the “worst disaster our county has seen in decades” , Hollywood’s top studios have started their return to production. to the
The industry had suspended much of its filming in Los Angeles over the holidays and in early January, when it became clear that a surge was underway, following recommendations from the County Health Department. Los Angeles and several unions, including SAG-AFTRA and the Producers Guild. Disney, Warner Bros. Universal, CBS and Netflix have all pushed back their filming schedules after the holidays, with the goal of resuming filming in mid-January (some were targeting January 11, while others were watching and still watching the January 18 as a comeback.)
Today, a few of these projects are said to be resuming and working this week. Sources say The Hollywood Reporter that many titles that had planned a return to filming do. Start-up productions include CBS ‘ All stand up and Bob Hearts Abishola, Showtime’s Shameless and Netflix You, which are all produced by Warner Bros. The Goldbergs and Netflix Atypical, both produced by Sony, as well as five scripted series from CBS Studios: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Why Women Kill, Team SEAL and Diary of a future president.
Universal TV launches three of its projects, including two NBC series, Mr. Mayor and Kenan, and an untitled Jean Smart comedy for HBO Max. Meanwhile, at least three of the studio’s other productions – Netflix I have never and NBC shows Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Good girls – are not supposed to restart filming until January 18. Disney and Netflix are also reportedly waiting until next week to reboot principal photography for their Los Angeles-based projects (at least the ones they’re directing). According to FilmLA, Amazon Goliath is also in the queue to film this week, along with a handful of reality TV series.
Not everyone in the industry supports the decision to go ahead at this time. Just yesterday, the county reported nearly 12,000 new cases, nearly 300 deaths and nearly 8,000 hospitalizations, and even recommended that essential workers put on their home masks to further reduce the spread of the virus. “We continue to monitor the data and the continued pressure on hospital capacity across the region,” said a spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA. “In light of this, it’s hard to understand how an increase in production in this environment makes a lot of sense.” The guild was one of the groups that called for a production hiatus earlier in the month, with chairman Gabrielle Carteris drawing attention to the city’s grim reality. “Patients are dying in ambulances awaiting treatment because hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed,” she said at the time. “It’s not a safe environment for in-person production at this time.”
The studios’ decision to go ahead with filming will certainly be controversial, but does it represent a blatant disregard for the county’s health department guidelines? “The county’s recommendation to take a break does not take the form of an instruction,” FilmLA spokesperson Philip Sokoloski said. “They have been told it would be an advantage for Los Angeles to take a break for as long as possible, but I think the county health department also understands that there are business and other logistical imperatives that come in. at stake with a decision like this. “The production hiatus, he explains,” was a recommendation and a request, if possible. They understood that there would be exceptions to this and that the industry, where it needs these exceptions, will exercise them. ” The Department of Public Health did not respond to a request for comment.
Industry insiders and government officials who firmly believe productions should keep the green light argue that the COVID-19 film community’s strict safety protocols on set – which involve frequent testing, plenty of PPE and improved sanitation practices – are effective. Several point to data from AMPTP which suggests transmission rates on the plateau have been significantly lower than the spread of COVID-19 in the surrounding community. The report looked at positivity rates at three key filming locations – New York, Atlanta, and Los Angeles – between September and November and found that while the national community’s spread rate exceeded 13% at the end of November, the rate of spread of the industry was about 0.3%. In Los Angeles, when the community’s spread rate was over 14% at the end of November, the industry’s spread rate was around 0.2%, according to data collected.
But that does not mean that there have not been positive tests recorded on the productions. According to publicly available data on the counties, there were a total of 28 positives in two Warner Bros. productions. – Lucifer and Young Sheldon – in December, as well as 12 on NBC’s Mr. Mayor. Some, however, warn that these numbers represent positive results over a period of time, not necessarily those identified at the same time – and that the majority of actors and team who contract the virus do so in the community and not on the community. tray. Lucifer, for example, never stop production following positive results, as they would have been isolated and not part of a larger outbreak on the set.
The commercial industry, meanwhile, has taken its own seemingly delayed approach to county and guild recommendations. According to FilmLA’s database, dozens of commercials aired with their filming plan in early January, which Sokoloski says is expected due to the timing of the announcement and how the advertising industry works. He says he’s been told they should expect to see a recall as early as this week. On at least one commercial last week in Los Angeles – a FritoLays Super Bowl spot directed by Hollywood director Peter Berg – two crew members tested positive on set. Film 47, Berg’s commercial production company responsible for the filming, confirms the cases and notes that production, which they said used strict COVID-19 protocols and contact tracing, resumed after the individuals were removed of the plateau. They declined to comment further.
Regarding traditional film and television production, Sokoloski says that, overall, county health officials have been “impressed that the industry is so conscientious in its approach to the threat of COVID-19. », Underlining the studios’ desire to stop production in recent weeks. “I think that’s part of the reason they have the confidence they make to allow the industry to function right now,” he says. But now that the productions are running again, some are wondering if the officials will not ask nicely next time and impose a shutdown of the industry instead. “They have refused to do this so far, preferring to use voluntary shutdown requests,” Sokoloski says, adding, “But they have the option of changing the recommendations on how the shoot can be done at any time, by depending on efforts. to control the COVID surge. “
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