Originally Posted by
757690
It's funny, because Bernie and I were in agreement after he provided more information about his first situation. I am not sure why our bickering continued, lol.
I generally don't like to talk about my work on forums likes this, but since you asked, I will provide a some details. First, it is very different from most other situations, I am producing a movie. We actually started way before Covid was even a thing, had shooting dates in May, but in March postponed them when this all happened. When LA County allowed film shoots again, we scheduled the shoot to start the second week of July. We worked with the LA County health department and the Screen Actors Guild to develop a comprehensive plan to deal with Covid on a set.
The first step was to rent a gigantic house in the middle of nowhere to be the set. This way we were the only ones there the entire time, and we could keep out anyone else. We had to deal with everything Bernie has been talking about, square footage, air flow, etc.. This meant no more than ten people in the house at any one time. It's a character based indie with a small cast, no more than 4 actors on set at any time (we re-wrote scenes to eliminate the need for background actors) so that meant a 6 person crew, which is tinier than than the tiniest skeleton crew I have ever worked with. This meant adding more days, since we would be working more slowly due to the size of the crew.
Everyone on set had to be tested both with a standard test a few days before and a rapid test the day before. Everyone had to provide a negative result from both tests in order to be on set. Everyone had to quarantine themselves after taking the first test. We had a health safety supervisor with medical and infectious disease training on set at all times, who would check everyone before the came into the house for the negative tests, took the temperature and asked them basic questions about where they had been in the last week. She also would monitor all of our actions and be there in case anyone wanted to report anything.
Every actor would be living at the house until their final day on set. The crew would live there full time. Everyone had their own room. Once you were in the house, you could not leave. No exceptions. No one else was allowed in the house during the entire shoot. The house did have a large backyard and patio, so people could hang out there, again providing they stayed six feet apart. Otherwise, everyone was isolated except when they were shooting.
Mask wearing was mandatory for everyone when inside, except for actors who were shooting. We had plenty of hand sanitizer, wipes, gloves, disenfectic on set at all time. We would wipe down the hot set after every take.
We had many other protocols, like no paper scripts, everything electronic, no hair and makeup person, video village had it's own room away from wherever the shooting was happening, personal water bottles, personal pens, only single serving food, individual meals, no catering, and so many more.
Of course, the actors on set could not stay six feet apart, but with all the other measures, especially the testing, that was allowed, and all the actors and SAG agreed to this. There were a few kissing scenes that we had to cut.
Unfortunately, that second week of July was when the testing went out of whack and results were delayed. When we realized this was happening, a few days before the shoot, we postponed it again, and are shooting, fingers crossed, the last week of August. Testing running better now, and the results for the standard test are taking around 36 hours.
If anyone is interested, I will provide an update when we start shooting.
