After a brief hiatus following the County Health Department’s recommendations, the largest studios in Hollywood are putting cameras back on track.
While Los Angeles’ public health officials call the current COVID-19 boom in the city – in which ten people test positive for the virus every minute – the “worst disaster our country has experienced in decades”, top Hollywood studios have begun their return to production in LA
The industry halted much of the filming in Los Angeles during the holidays and in early January, when it became clear that a boom was underway, following the Los Angeles Department of Health and several unions, including SAG-AFTRA and the Producers Guild. Disney, Warner Bros. Universal, CBS and Netflix all pushed back their filming schedules after the holidays, with the goal of resuming shooting in mid-January (some were targeted on January 11, while others on January 18 as a return.)
It is said that a handful of these projects are up and running again this week. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that many of the titles that planned to return after the filming do so. Productions starting include CBS’s Everyone stands up and Bob Hearts Abishola, Showtime’s Shameless and Netflix’s You, all by Warner Bros. be manufactured. ABCs also resume The Goldbergs and Netflix’s Atipies, both produced by Sony, as well as five text series from CBS Studios: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Why Women Kill, SEAL Team and Diary of a future president.
Universal TV is launching 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’s Never have I ever had and NBC shows Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Good girls – they will only start shooting again on January 18th. It is said that Disney and Netflix will also wait until next week to start their main photography on their Los Angeles-based projects (at least the projects they show). According to FilmLA, Amazon’s Goliath is also in line to film this week, along with a handful of reality series.
Not everyone in the industry supports the decision to move forward at the moment. Just yesterday, the province reported nearly 12,000 new cases, nearly 300 deaths and nearly 8,000 hospitalizations, and even recommended that essential workers wear their masks at home to further reduce the spread of the virus. “We continue to monitor the data and maintain the continuing strain on hospital capacity across the region,” said a SAG-AFTRA spokesman. “In light of this, it is difficult to understand how an increase in production in this environment makes much sense.” The guild was one of the groups calling for a production break earlier this month, with its president, Gabrielle Carteris, addressing the grim reality in the city. “Patients are dying in ambulances waiting for treatment because hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed,” she said at the time. “It is not currently a safe environment for personal production.”
The studios’ decision to continue filming is certainly controversial, but is it a blatant disregard for the Department of Health’s prescriptions? “The province’s recommendation to stand still does not take the form of an instruction,” said Philip Sokoloski, spokesman for FilmLA. ‘They were given the guidance that it would be an advantage for Los Angeles to strike as long as possible, but I think the department of health in the province also understands that there are business necessities and other logistics that deal with a decide as this comes into play. . “The production interruption,” he explained, “was a recommendation and a request, if at all possible. They understood that there would be exceptions and that the industry, where it needed the exceptions, would exercise it.” of public health did not respond to a request for comment.
Insiders and government officials in the industry, who strongly believe that productions should maintain their green light, claim that the strictly set of set safety protocols of the film community, COVID-19 – which is regularly tested, provides adequate personal protection and improved sanitation practices. Several point to data from the AMPTP indicating that the set transmission rates were significantly lower than the distribution of COVID-19 in the surrounding community. The report looked at positive rates in three major filming areas between September and November – New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles – and the national community’s distribution rate was 13 percent by the end of November, but the industry’s distribution rate was around 0.3. percent. In Los Angeles, when the community distribution rate was more than 14 percent at the end of November, the industry’s distribution rate was about 0.2 percent, according to data collected.
But that does not mean that there have not been positive tests on productions. According to publicly available provincial data, there were a total of 28 positive results in two Warner Bros. productions – Lucifer and Jong Sheldon – in December, as well as 12 on NBCs Mr Mayor. However, some warn that these numbers over a period of time represent positive results, not necessarily those that are identified simultaneously – and that most staff and crew members who contract the virus do so in the community and do not set it up. Luciferfor example, never stop production following the positive results, as it is said to be isolated and not part of a larger outbreak.
The commercial industry, meanwhile, has taken its own seemingly delayed approach to the province and guild recommendations. According to FilmLA’s database, dozens of advertisements went through with their plans to film in early January, something Sokoloski says was expected due to the timing of the announcement and the operation of the advertising industry. He says he has been told to expect them to see a backlink this week. At least one commercial recording last week in Los Angeles – a FritoLays Super Bowl spot directed by Hollywood director Peter Berg – tested two crew members positively on the set. Film 47, Berg’s commercial production company responsible for the recording, confirms the cases and notes that production, which they use strict COVID-19 protocols and contact tracing, has resumed after the individuals were removed from the set. They declined to comment further.
Regarding traditional film and TV production, Sokoloski says the province’s health authorities were generally ‘impressed to see the industry being so conscientious in the way it approached the threat of COVID-19’, pointing out note that the studios are willing to stop production in recent weeks. “I believe that is part of the reason they have the confidence that they are doing it to make the industry work right now,” he says. But now that productions are being filmed again, some are wondering whether public officials might not ask nicely next time, but rather a strike in the industry. “They have so far refused to do so, preferring to use requests for voluntary closures,” Sokoloski said, adding: “But they do have the option to change the filming recommendations at any time, as it is. match the efforts to control COVID’s boom. “