TV shoots set to resume
Producers, actors must respect province’s social distancing rules while filming
The Quebec government has given the green light for film and TV shoots to resume as of Monday, June 8, but screenwriters may have to cut out any scenes involving kissing or fighting. Culture Minister Nathalie Roy made it clear when making the announcement Monday that producers will have to respect the province’s rules regarding social distancing, which means actors will have to remain at least two metres apart at all times.
The cop drama District 31 shut down production on March 16 when cast and crew became worried because they were shooting in a small, cramped Montreal restaurant. When they shut down production, the producers had eight episodes to shoot for the fourth season.
On Wednesday, District 31 producer Fabienne Larouche said filming will resume July 13. She admitted that love scenes will be problematic, but suggested one novel way in which an onscreen kiss could be shown.
“Take the love story between Patrick and Noélie,” said Larouche. “Patrick is played by the actor Vincent-guillaume Otis. His girlfriend in real life is Éveline Gélinas. They live together, so they don’t have to observe social distancing. If push comes to shove, we could hire Éveline, put a wig on her head and have her kiss Patrick, and we can shoot the scene from behind her and it will look like it’s Noélie who is kissing Patrick.”
Catherine St-laurent plays Noélie in the series, which runs nightly on Radio-canada and garnered an average audience of 1.8 million viewers this past season.
Larouche will take every precaution on the set of District 31 to make sure cast and crew are safe. Technicians will wear face shields, masks and gloves, and the majority of them will be gone from the set when the actors arrive. Not even the director will be on set. There will be one full-time person on staff there to make sure all COVID-19 regulations are followed.
“What we want is that when you watch the series, it doesn’t look different from before,” said Larouche. “We don’t want to change the fundamental nature of the series.”
Larouche normally produces several TV shows at the same time, but she is not going ahead with any of the other projects until the COVID -19 rules are relaxed. Her series Sans rendez-vous, set in a sexual-health clinic, would be difficult to shoot while respecting social-distancing rules.
One prominent local industry representative believes it’s dangerous to bring back film and TV shoots next week. Christian Lemay, business manager for the local branch of the International Cinematographers Guild, said they are not even shooting films and TV shows in Hollywood. Montreal remains one of the hardest-hit cities in the world by COVID-19.
“I’m not crazy about this idea,” said Lemay. “It’s not about knowing when we restart — it’s how. And more importantly, we need to do it the right way. Let’s make sure that we don’t shut down production again — even one production. Because if we do, it means we’ve failed in our back-to-work protocol, and if we fail, this might impact negatively re: future productions coming to the province. That’s my main concern. They’ll say, ‘They tried. It didn’t work. Let’s go elsewhere.’ ”