Nearly three months ago, the Coronavirus outbreak became recognized by the United States, putting many businesses and lives on hold while social distancing protocols were put in place. The film industry was a business severally impacted by the outbreak, with several movies being delayed significantly and putting their ongoing production cycle on halt, as well as movie theaters being closed down across the country (AMC is likely to go out of business due to their extended closure). While Hollywood is trying to plan ways to resume film productions, it looks like a lot of restrictions will be in place to ensure the safety of everyone on set.
According to Decider, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee Task Force will be placing measures that put “special considerations” for actors working in close-quarter environments, whether that be a hand-to-hand action scene or an intimate sex scene. In order to create these moments, it looks like CGI could be used in order to bring these moments to life. Here’s the Safety Committee Task Force’s statement on the matter:
“Consider measures to minimize scenes with close contact between performers, such as amending scripts or use of digital effects.”
While I understand the film industry’s eagerness to return to everyday business, there is still a lot of hurdles to leap before this can actually be accomplished. Recent Coronavirus figures have gone up in certain places, with LA reporting that they had their highest death total this past weekend. From that news, it’s clear that film productions may not be entirely safe at this time.
There is a lot of restrictions in place, but it also leaves an opportunity for directors and producers to get creative with future projects. Expect a lot of smaller budget movies with a tighter story scope to come from this.