SOCIALLY DISTANCED FILMMAKING?
Is it possible to make movies under such conditions?
All workers who cannot work from home should travel to work if their workplace is open,” announced the government in May, and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport immediately confirmed that this directive applied to film and television production too, as long as employees maintained a two-metre distance. Given all production had been suspended since 23 March, the news was welcome. Whether or not it is actionable is another matter.
Think about it: no crowd scenes, no love scenes, no fights. That rules out most movies, and even a film as sparsely populated and remotely located as Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse – the ultimate lockdown story, you might say – would now not be possible. Well, not unless Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson just yelled at each other over lobster from opposite ends of the table, without ever spraying spittle into each other’s faces or drunkenly dancing or falling to the floor in a furious skirmish. Shakespearean monologues aside, a huge part of acting is, after all, reacting.
“A film exploring the fraught relationship between two town criers who live in a quarry,” was the spoof pitch by The Thick Of It writer Simon Blackwell. And it’s not just those you see on screen. Go on a film set and there are bodies huddled everywhere, just out of shot. Locations are often cramped. Are the hair and makeup team to work their magic using a two-metre pole?
And yet CBS drama The Bold And The Beautiful is already back in action, with all cast and crew tested for Covid-19 at least once a week, Plexiglass screens dividing the director, the AD, etc., and the actors kept at least eight feet apart at all times. An illusion of proximity will be created through editing (other industry figures have suggested camera tricks and CGI to do the same), and even love scenes are being fudged by drafting in the actors’ real-life partners for skin-on-skin contact. As TF went to press, it was announced that, in the UK at least, some big projects like Mission: Impossible 7 and Jurassic World: Dominion would be able to resume thanks to relaxed rules.
“Life, uh, finds a way,” said Dr. Ian Malcolm, and so do filmmakers. But it looks like being some time yet until movies, as we know and love them, are back to normal. JG