First if all I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, X-man, Hanukkah, or if you celebrate anything else!

Because of covid restrictions, I was advised to re-storyboard my script so only actor is acting in the room at a time. Right now the current restrictions are no more than five people in a room and if I am directing, that leaves me, the camera operator/DP, and boom op at least, besides one actor being allowed.

And I don't want to wait until the restrictions become even more harsh of course.
But I am worried that the actors may not be able to play off each other naturally, if they are not seeing each others performances.

Also, I am worried about trying to establish geography or that the movie will look really cheesy.
For example, there is a scene where two characters kiss, but if I have to shoot the actors seperate, then I have to shoot the actors moving towards the camera lens to kiss, and I am worried about it looking really corny.

There is also a fight scene between multiple characters, that cannot be rewritten without causing plot holes. So I have to show the actors fighting towards the camera trying to make it look like they are fighting each other.

But I am worried this is going to be very difficult to establish geography and where everyone is in relation to each other.
Has anyone storyboarded any projects during covid, where only one actor could be in the room at a time? Or maybe as long as the acting is good then it will not be obvious that the choices of shots and blocking are very strange to work around covid restrictions?

Thank you very much for any advice! I really appreciate it!

I hope you had a good Christmas Ryan.

The film and TV industries are managing to shoot complex productions using the Covid 19 guidelines. However, given that your cast and crew may not be able to follow them because they're not full time professionals and your lack of resources, it may be worth waiting until they are vaccinated.

Thanks for the Christmas wishes.

I don't know if a vaccine is even going to come out soon. Plus so many people in conversation don't even want to get vaccinated. So will casting and crew be too limited, if I can only choose from a vaccinated crew and cast? But even so I don't think we will be seeing a vaccine available for everyone anytime soon and the restrictions could be even worse by then.

Right now it's five people allowed in a building where I live. If I wait longer, it could be less than that. But it also doesn't say in the restrictions where I live that vaccinated people are immune to the restrictions and don't have to follow them though. So are vaccinations legally useless then, if vaccinated people still have to follow the guidelines?

Hope everyone had a a good time.

I’d leave it ryan, and wait. Two reasons, your timescales have no deadline, so the second reason comes into play. I have not seen ANY Covid productions, live, tv or movie that have been better than old ones.

If you have a contractual deadline or it’s a soap then wait. Bigger audiences, no restrictions and critically no artificiality. You either build in the Covid as a plot feature, which dates it, or you make it look very un-natural.

Me personally, I hate these restriction compliant productions. They always appear so amateurish even when pro actors are in them.

Given the nature of pandemics, there's no logical reason not to get vaccinated (unless advised by your doctor), plus I suspect that if anyone has any serious aspirations to work in the film and TV industry, they will need to be vaccinated.

As the number of vaccinated people gets to herd immunity levels, the risks of catching it will be greatly reduced.

Given that vaccination has only just started, you shouldn't expect regulations to suddenly change, since they're starting with the most as risk people.

Oh okay, it's just I didn't think things would be different for a vaccinated person. I want to get vaccinated but I didn't think that would be me and the cast and crew to have a free pass over restrictions if we are all vaccinated. I will still get vaccinated of course, I just didn't think it would help get me legally past the restrictions though, after I do.

If movies are being made though in spite of the restrictions, and the reason they are is because the cast and crew are recognized as a professional production, is there a way I can get recogized as a professional production, in the government's eyes then?

Given your budget, it's unlikely you could follow the regulations, I've heard the figure of 10% being added to the budget of productions to cover the cost of Covid19 shooting. .

What would that 10% go towards specifically?

Mostly time... the schedules are longer with Covid restrictions, Also, various protection measures. Examples being transparent screens between actors. real life partners being stand ins for kissing scenes, the cast living in their own separate bubble during the production. In post production, remote editing.

I was supposed to have been involved with a live theatre event - my own in Belfast got cancelled of course, but I was due to do some work on one that was going on for the same production company, but they managed one show that then got scrapped. The changes made were severe, but would have been similar in a movie production.

Firstly, savage cast and crew cuts to reduce numbers, so that distancing is possible. This doesn't mean just on set. For every person you need toilets, washing and catering facilities. You cannot stagger lunch and tea breaks - so how do you feed everyone at the same time and maintain separation? It means in practice a ten minute break, often a union rule becomes 30 mins - this extends the day making extra calls a possibility if you want the same production rate. Where do people go between their on set time? They cannot congregate. I'm now in Tier 4, which is the strictest lockdown - but TV and movie production is allowed to continue subject to separation and professional actors and rehearsals can continue - but at a huge cost.

My cancelled show would have been in trouble anyway, because a friend of mine - a key person in the production died yesterday. Not expected at all. The one that cancelled on me closed because they were down to minimums - people wise. Just enough to get by. One sound, not three. A production manager covering 3 separate job roles, no live musicians, no ensemble at all, and every component stand alone, so every scene had minimum people and maximum space. Everyone doing their own dressing and makeup. Minimal props and no washing of costumes daily. Two people tested positive, no fallback to understudies, so it died instantly.

Ryan - your quest for perfection and all your attention to minute detail would be scrapped. You resist changes, you've made that very clear on the forum, and you want to plan the plan in such silly ways how would you cope with working totally winging it, where you as director would have to dream up plans instantly and put them into action, with no time to come on here and get advice? For you, based on what we know - this would be agony for you.

The question about vaccinations is pointless. Idiots are talking about not having them, but the idiots have a right to be stupid, and frankly dangerous to others. Do you have a pool of sensible people who when offered, will accept? And then have the time delay before second dose? It seems to me that getting people to turn up normally is a big problem for your people - if people are terrified of dying, will they risk your project? They might say they will, but they normally let you down anyway, with the real risk of dying, I cannot see them doing it. Here, amateur actors and small non-essential productions would not be allowed to do it anyway. In my areas two days ago they could have, today, they cannot. Who knows next week?


Knock it on the head and delay it. What kind of production would it be with everyone thinking they'll perhaps die! On the great scheme of things, the risk of going forward is foolish. Its a leisure project isn't it? Not something to pay the mortgage of your cast and crew.

Ryan do you ever get tired spending your entire adult life trying to produce this movie? I get you enjoy being in charge but to us it sounds an endless series of intractable problems. Do you remember in the other thread someone cautioned you not to record the sound track before you film because the scenes could change? The easiest solution to all your problems would be not to make this movie.

Mostly time... the schedules are longer with Covid restrictions, Also, various protection measures. Examples being transparent screens between actors. real life partners being stand ins for kissing scenes, the cast living in their own separate bubble during the production. In post production, remote editing.

Oh okay. The law didn't say anything about more people being allowed in a location if they are partners to the other people though. Perhaps I should consult an entertainment lawyer, but it didn't say anything about that being an exception to the law.

Mostly time... the schedules are longer with Covid restrictions, Also, various protection measures. Examples being transparent screens between actors. real life partners being stand ins for kissing scenes, the cast living in their own separate bubble during the production. In post production, remote editing.

I was supposed to have been involved with a live theatre event - my own in Belfast got cancelled of course, but I was due to do some work on one that was going on for the same production company, but they managed one show that then got scrapped. The changes made were severe, but would have been similar in a movie production.

Firstly, savage cast and crew cuts to reduce numbers, so that distancing is possible. This doesn't mean just on set. For every person you need toilets, washing and catering facilities. You cannot stagger lunch and tea breaks - so how do you feed everyone at the same time and maintain separation? It means in practice a ten minute break, often a union rule becomes 30 mins - this extends the day making extra calls a possibility if you want the same production rate. Where do people go between their on set time? They cannot congregate. I'm now in Tier 4, which is the strictest lockdown - but TV and movie production is allowed to continue subject to separation and professional actors and rehearsals can continue - but at a huge cost.

My cancelled show would have been in trouble anyway, because a friend of mine - a key person in the production died yesterday. Not expected at all. The one that cancelled on me closed because they were down to minimums - people wise. Just enough to get by. One sound, not three. A production manager covering 3 separate job roles, no live musicians, no ensemble at all, and every component stand alone, so every scene had minimum people and maximum space. Everyone doing their own dressing and makeup. Minimal props and no washing of costumes daily. Two people tested positive, no fallback to understudies, so it died instantly.

Ryan - your quest for perfection and all your attention to minute detail would be scrapped. You resist changes, you've made that very clear on the forum, and you want to plan the plan in such silly ways how would you cope with working totally winging it, where you as director would have to dream up plans instantly and put them into action, with no time to come on here and get advice? For you, based on what we know - this would be agony for you.

The question about vaccinations is pointless. Idiots are talking about not having them, but the idiots have a right to be stupid, and frankly dangerous to others. Do you have a pool of sensible people who when offered, will accept? And then have the time delay before second dose? It seems to me that getting people to turn up normally is a big problem for your people - if people are terrified of dying, will they risk your project? They might say they will, but they normally let you down anyway, with the real risk of dying, I cannot see them doing it. Here, amateur actors and small non-essential productions would not be allowed to do it anyway. In my areas two days ago they could have, today, they cannot. Who knows next week?


Knock it on the head and delay it. What kind of production would it be with everyone thinking they'll perhaps die! On the great scheme of things, the risk of going forward is foolish. Its a leisure project isn't it? Not something to pay the mortgage of your cast and crew.

When you say will they delay before second dose, can't they just get all their vaccinations before production starts? But I don't think the laws care about if people have had vaccinations or not, when it comes to how many people can be in a building at a time.

There are two hurdles. The first is a moral obligation to insure the safety of your cast and crew by either following an approved procedure or waiting until everyone is vaccinated. If you can't satisfy this then you won't be able to find anyone to produce your movie. The second is less important, it's satisfying the legal rules. These rules are constantly evolving, and are targeted for larger scale professional productions (which yours isn't). The worst case scenario you would be asked to stop production. I doubt the police would knock on your door to arrest you. The more likely problem you're going to face is that your lead actors could drop out at any time, causing the production to come to stop. You've said you have had this type of problem under normal conditions, just imagine what would happen at the height of a pandemic. It's odd you've spend decades on this movie with very little progress and all of sudden you need to film it during the worst conditions imaginable.

Oh I wouldn't say I have spent decades on the movie, just the last four years more so.

I think I can satisfy the safety part, if get everyone tested but do I need to do more?

It's the legal rules I was worried about a lot more. Is there anything I can do to be recognized as a professional production to get more latitude? As for people possibly leaving, I guess I will have to deal with that on a case by case basis rather than trying to plan an over solution to it?

You're always more concerned with the least important aspect in this case the legal. The health and safety of your cast and crew are more important than whether you meet the letter of the current regulations. If you exceed the maximum people by one or two, no one is going to care. This isn't union or corporate job, this is an amateur production. I'm not trying to encourage you to flaunt the law and put your crew in danger, but the legality is the least of your worries. All the production problems you had before are going to be that much more difficult. How are you going to film in public or secure locations? It seems like the only way for you grasp these issues is to experience them first hand.

Oh okay but I thought that the law would care since they only want certain numbers of people at a time, wouldn't they?

How do you expect them to enforce these regulations? Are the police sending out an officer to do a head count of all your shoots? Of course you film out in a public space like in front of City Hall and a squad car drives by and sees what you're doing. But they'd more likely stop you for filming without a permit. Like I said before who is going to allow you to use their interior space to shoot a film with a bunch of people?

Well it's the outdoor scenes that concern me more because they more visible to police. Plus let's say I manage to make the whole movie successfully. If it gets put there, then the evidence of me breaking the covid laws, is all in the movie.

I don't suppose you even know how to do risk assessments? If you were a proper production company you would, and they would make it very obvious that you should stop.

Forget legal stuff, that's just what the judge uses to penalise you when you kill somebody.

These people are working for you, probably unpaid. people are already very, very worried, and only idiots are not. As their boss, YOU are responsible for their health. Has the Tom Cruise UK rant got to Canada - he went berserk when the crew threatened the production by not being safe enough. He was spot on. It's serious and being shut down is very likely when people get it wrong.

You struggle when everyone is on your side - if you try to go ahead during the Covid times, your people could just vanish leaving you with costs and no movie. Is now the right time to make a movie that is low budget? Is it the right time when you'll have to spoil it to make it.

Sometimes Ryan - you just don't understand even the really basics. Why have you suddenly created a production deadline in the worst possible time to make a movie?

Oh okay. Well I am trying to do the best I can under the circumstances and make things work.

It's not about the law, it's about you acting as a responsible film maker in the middle of a pandemic Plus, you don't have the excuse that you need to earn you living as a freelance worker.

Also, people may report you to the police, which is what happens in the UK.

Yeah I thought I would be reported likely. I want to keep everyone safe as well of course. But perhaps I should treat it like a business rather than freelance then if that would help get the movie made?

You treat your movie as the Sun which everything revolves around. Brian point was this movie isn't essential, you're not earning a living from it, so it doesn't make sense to put others at risk for your selfish reasons. You're turning Brian's comment on it's head, oh so I need to figure out a way to make this movie essential. This is like Lloyd saying "So you're telling me there's a chance. YEAH!"

You should already be viewing your production as a business - to be honest, we thought you were? If you're just a hobbiest, why on earth are you getting into all the crazy complexities you persistently live in? If it's a fun project and your people think like this - then all the rubbish your composers, Directors of Photographys, Colourists etc have been telling you make sense. If you are all amateurs just with stickers with this week's job titles on them, why do you constantly pretend everyone is professional? It explains everything. A passion project for one, fun for the rest - explains so much.

Oh yes I am treating it as a business. Sorry, I didn't mean to give the impression that I wasn't. Or at least I intend to. That is why I think of it as important.

Ryan - you said
But perhaps I should treat it like a business rather than freelance then if that would help get the movie made?
Then
Oh yes I am treating it as a business. Sorry, I didn't mean to give the impression that I wasn't.
You really cannot be both of these - how can you say the absolute opposite in two posts one apart in the topic?

He's stated before his intent is to make the movie and then see what happens/pray/hope for festivals, distro, etc.

Ryan - you said

Then

You really cannot be both of these - how can you say the absolute opposite in two posts one apart in the topic?

Oh well it was pointed out on here that I am treating it as a freelance worker, so I was only responding to someone pointing that I was. Unless I misunderstood the response. I thought I was treating it like a business.

You're not paying the crew or cast and the enterprise appears to be more a training exercise, which is fine, however, you don't seem to be aware of that reality. .

Ryan - you said

Then

You really cannot be both of these - how can you say the absolute opposite in two posts one apart in the topic?

I was planning on paying them since I thought that would help.

And that explains it how? It’s ok Ryan, I think we’ve sussed what is happening.

Oh well I am just trying to find ways to get the movie made, but it's difficult because I feel a lot of the shots, if I compromise them because of covid, are going to come off as compromised or weird.

I may have already brought this up in another discussion, but I do find it hilarious/depressing how we TALK about being ultra safe if working right now, even get the pre-shoot email about social distancing, etc. etc., but I've lost count of the number of shoots/sets I've been on since mid August where people are hanging out 2-3 feet from each other all day, in a small conference room/studio, masks often under noses, completely down during lunch while they sit at the same table. Had one large commercial shoot in a house where there were so many people and pieces of equipment that people were lined up around the walls in each room...nowhere to "spread out".

I could use Tom Cruise on my most of my shoots.

Well I helped out on a shoot about a month ago that had a fight scene, so of course the actors had to fight. I don't know how they did it. They got us to take covid tests, but they didn't even ask to see the test results, just asked us if we did. But not sure if they were able to find ways around the laws, or if they broke them.

Probably the latter unless the results were automatically forwarded to whoever was in charge. What good are the tests you don't have to prove you're in the clear?

Anyway if it was the rapid tests they are apparently very unreliable anyway...high rate of false positives AND false negatives.

Yes maybe they were forwarded to them. Which ones are the rapid ones, or how fast does the test have to be done to be considered rapid? I was told that the cast and crew should be tested every day, so does that count as rapid?

Im talkin the tests where you get the results back in 15-30 minutes.

Oh okay. Well if you do the tests everyday, how long should everyone wait for it to come back then for it to be accurate?

Couldnt say. Ive just been told repeatedly that the rapid tests are unreliable

Oh okay. Well I want to storyboard the project but should I storyboard with the shots and blocking that I think will be best? Or should I with the ones that I think will abide with the laws the best, even if that means only one actor on camera at a time?

Given the length of time you've invested and it's your own funds, which don't have a time limit, it would be better to wait until later in the year before thinking about filming. You can then see how things are panning out.

I'm sure people will make Covid 19 dramas because there are some great stories in the middle of it, but your story isn't one of them, you need more than people wearing masks.

Here's an item on making documentaries in 2020

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-55404163

Oh okay, but I don't really like making documenatries and want to stick with fiction though, as I feel I will do better there though. I can look at that though.

He didn’t mean make documentaries Ryan. The difficulties in the video are common. Please try not to take everything so literally. I know it’s hard, but we talk about something, then you totally miss the point.

You care about your movie. You have no fixed timescale, so rather than spoil it and produce something everyone will always label a COVID production, just wait. Make it properly, with a happy cast and crew.

This COVID thing is not a joke, and it’s not something that only happens to other I’ll and frail people. The people ignoring the common sense rules because they don’t think it applies to them. They are idiots. I’ve lost two people in nine months who should not be dead. I really understand how Tom Cruise lost it. Good for him!

Oh okay thanks. I guess I take things literally because when it comes to filmmaking I am literal about it. I don't take things as jokes in that area. But is that bad of me? Yes I don't want to loose anyone for sure. I just thought that testing everyone per day would be good, but maybe not?

Best not work on a professional film if you take things too literally, because there's often a lot of humour and power games going on. If you take things literally you''ll end up getting lost.

I think I take things humorously a lot better in person, when shooting for sure. It's just if I am asking for advice and someone tells me something or send me something I assume they may be serious. But good point. But I guess having people be tested doesn't do a lot of good then on productions now, or will it help? I don't want to put people at risk any more than other productions of course.

The problem is that testing is designed to show the presence or absence of the virus at the time of testing.

It's useless to tell you how healthy the cast and crew are, just that at the test time, they were OK, but an hour later, if tested again, they might pass the threshold and fail. The danger has not been reduced. If you did a risk assessment, the test would hardly change the risk level. With any illness where you are infectious before you have symptoms, the test really solve nothing. My wife works in a hospital. She has not been tested once. It was decided that most staff probably had had it early on, and their healthy status is evidenced by the fact they don't feel ill. Testing somebody positive or negative would do what? For new staff there may be a point, but for existing staff - being tested positive would mean going into isolation, when they may well have been infectious six months ago, and just have antibodies. This is why employers have such a hard time. Young people in particular have an invulnerable attitude but the people they may well infect could die? Forget the legal stuff - morally - how would you feel if your production killed somebody - maybe your DoP caught it by the lighting guy sneezing, and he took it home to his elderly mum who has asthma? It would be your fault morally - possibly also legally? If you do not NEED to make the movie now, why do it.

You'd also come on here and say you have a live scene so how do you rewrite it so the two people can get close without being less than a certain distance apart? We'd say don't do it. You'd ignore this and ask if it could be done with a split screen, and how best to do that. We'd say don't do it, you'd then ask about green screening, and we'd say don't do it and you'd ask that as you are going to green screen it and put them closer together in post, would this impact on the realism of the scene - and so on? We know your way of thinking pretty well now.

We have a pandemic. People are dying. Making a movie in your spare time, with an amateur cast, no moment and few resources can wait till it is over. If you did make it, are cinemas in your area actually open for people to watch it?

I think we’re partly to blame. In the previous thread we advised to him not to compose a sound track before filming. While that’s the logical order of production we weren’t suggesting he rush into filming in the height of a pandemic.It’s really funny he seemingly never takes our advice and on the rare occasion he does, he doesn't acknowledge it, instead he draws the wrong conclusion and jumps off into another tangent. He really has knack for getting himself into impossible situations.

Ryan before you replan to death a new approach, maybe you should contact your cast and crew to see if they want to film in a pandemic. If they don’t then that will quickly put this whole idea to bed.

We get it you’re bored, but just find something else to do.

Well I guess I am just worried it will get worse if I wait. Right now it's only five people allowed on a shoot, if it's not a professional production company. Where as in a year from now it could be zero people allowed for all I know. I don't mean to sound insensitive, I mean for jobs in general and feel we might well make business investments now while we can.

As for if theaters will be open to watch the movie, I thought that if I made a feature it didn't have a chance of going to theaters, and thought it would go straight to streaming anyway at best.