An Australian TV drama may serve as an example of how Hollywood can go back to work.
The soap opera “Neighbours” will start filming again next week after a month-long shutdown. According to Deadline, these are the safety guidelines that will be implemented by the show:
The area for shooting will be separated into four quadrants; three production teams will be isolated from each other; only three actors will be permitted to cross the boundaries. This if someone gets sick in one quadrant, the other quadrants can continue. Fremantle Australia boss Chris Oliver-Taylor told Australia’s ABC, “There will be no more than 100 people a day in any area, we’ll implement the four-square-meter rule and the one-and-a-half-meter social distancing rule.”
Male actors will not wear make-up; actresses will “not be touched up.” The set will have a nurse, and anyone entering will have to take their temperature; if someone gets sick, only the area where someone is affected will be suspended and the shoot can continue with the other two groups.
Actors will not make physical contact; in fact, they will socially distance from each other, with cameras making them look as if they are together. No outside extras will be permitted.
Deadline reported on Tuesday of the Hollywood shutdown:
There have been isolated moves — ViacomCBS last week let go of contract workers, indie production companies like Blumhouse and Annapurna laid off a handful of executives and support stuff, while Disney’s Marvel terminated a pair of overall deals. The trickle is soon expected to turn into a flood, as major studios start imposing layoffs and begin suspending or terminating a significant portion of their term deals.
Bloomberg News noted on April 6:
The Hollywood shutdown hit just as media giants like Comcast Corp. and Walt Disney Co. are getting their streaming products off the ground, each looking to spend billions of dollars on new content. Disney+ and Apple TV+ both launched in November, while Comcast’s NBCUniversal is introducing its Peacock service April 15 … With everyone home and glued to their TVs and devices, these companies will have a chance to attract more subscribers, while viewers gain more options for passing the time.
Deadline reported last week:
Most likely, everyone on a film or TV production will be required to sign a rider, similar to ones they sign covering behavior codes in areas like sexual harassment, to indemnify the productions. “You acknowledge you are going into a high-density area, and while we will do our best effort to protect you, nothing is failsafe and if you contract COVID-19, we are not liable,” said a source involved drawing up these guidelines. “There is no other way we can think of to address this. If you don’t want to sign, don’t take the job.”
The Hollywood Reporter noted on Tuesday that Canada stood to lose almost $2 billion from the shutdown because Hollywood was shutting down:
The Canadian Media Producers Association on Tuesday released a COVID-19 impact report that estimates $1.757 billion (US$1.23 billion) in Hollywood production spending in Canada will be lost if the North American industry shutdown lasts until June 30. And that lost production volume from major studios and streamers like Netflix and Disney not shooting locally during the busy spring and summer months has put at risk the jobs of about 81,000 local cast and crew, says the report by Nordicity for the CMPA, representing indie producers.