SAG-AFTRA, the Producers Guild of America and the Joint Policy Committee jointly recommend amid increasing COVID-19 cases in Southern California after the holidays a temporary hold on production in Southern California. Together, the organizations represent thousands of actors, producers, commercial advertisers, and advertising agencies.
“Southern California hospitals are facing a crisis like we have never seen before,” SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris said in the joint statement. ‘Patients die in ambulances waiting for treatment because hospital’s emergency rooms are overwhelmed. This is not currently a safe environment for personal production. ”
The organizations are encouraging a production strike until more hospital beds are available. As Variety previously reported most major TV studios, including CBS TV studios, Warner Bros. TV, Universal TV and the 20th TV and ABC Signature owned by Walt Disney last week extended their holiday production to mid-January.
SAG-AFTRA members living in Southern California are urged, according to the joint statement, to stay home and “refrain from accepting appointment for the next few weeks.” Any actors who are expected to go to work in the next few weeks and have safe problems are encouraged to contact SAG-AFTRA.
“If you put aside the risk of getting COVID on set – a risk we have done a lot to reduce through our safety protocols – it always carries a risk of injury due to a wrong stunt,” a failure of the equipment or a garden collapse, ”said David White, national executive director of SAG-AFTRA. “At the moment, with few or no hospital beds available, it is difficult to understand how a worker injured on the set should receive treatment.”
White also showed appreciation for the studios and producers who have already put production on hold for the time being.
In Los Angeles alone, 12,488 new COVID-19 cases were reported Sunday, with a seven-day daily average of 77,520, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The current positive testing rate is 18.4%. As of Sunday night, 7,544 people in LA are currently being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19.
In a separate statement from the PGA, Presidents Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher also urged to halt projects being shot in the region, acknowledging that these are ‘difficult times and this is a difficult decision’, but said: that producers serve as leaders. both on productions and in the entertainment community.
“Independent producers can help keep the line in this crisis by taking the difficult but responsible step of postponing production for the time being,” they said. “We can and will do what is necessary to protect our team, and our community.”
The comprehensive recommendation has an impact on commercial production as well as film and TV. Stacy Marcus, chief negotiator at JPC, said it was’ simply too much of a risk for artists, crews and staff in the industry to continue with the science that hospitals are in crisis and that the number of cases is still rising. ‘