Moves being made to restart B.C.’S film industry
As more TV and film productions resume in Phase 3 of the B.C. Government’s Restart Plan, one thing is for sure: it is going to be a totally different reality for those in the business of make believe.
“Twenty-five people standing shoulder-to-shoulder watching the cast rehearse won’t happen anymore,” said Shawn Williamson, CEO of Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures, who expects his marquee series — ABC’S The Good Doctor — to be up and running in a few weeks.
Earlier this month, major Hollywood studios and unions managed to iron out a white paper (The Safe Way Forward) on enhanced safety protocols that included protective face masks for all off-camera people, limited mobility on set, frequent testing, and the creation of new health and safety monitoring jobs.
In B.C., close to 50 productions were closed down in early March due to the COVID-19 crisis. Now though, there seems to be a spotlight at the end of the shutdown tunnel as productions are cautiously beginning to set return dates.
Some, like the prolific Hallmark, are already rolling.
“We are excited to resume production in Canada. On June 22 we started principal photography in Vancouver on a new Hallmark Channel original movie, Wedding Every Weekend,” said Michelle
Vicary, executive vicepresident of programming and network program publicity for Crown Media Family Networks.
“This marks our first new Canadian production since the industry-wide pause in mid-march. We look forward to kicking off production on several additional projects in the coming weeks.”
“I think the pace at which they (film and TV production companies) will return is entirely up to them. We certainly green lit the industry,” said Premier John Horgan on June 24.
“The production teams will be looking at how quickly they can move and what’s the availability of the front of camera personnel that are required to get this productions up and running.”
Horgan went on to joke that he has a personal desire for the industry to bounce back quickly.
“I know I am running out of things to watch on Netflix, some new content would be good,” said Horgan a sci-fi fan.
“I also know that the jobs that are connected to the industry are critically important to British Columbia, not just in the Lower Mainland and the south Island, but indeed across the province, so we certainly want to get those jobs back as quickly as possible but we’re only going to do it if it is safe to do so.”
For major productions with American talent that needs to cross the border and then quarantine, the bestcase re-tart scenario right now seems to be a mid-tolate July and August return to work.
Of course, that all depends on the COVID-19 cases staying, in the words of B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, “low and slow.”
“There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get it to a place where we can start prepping and start shooting. I have to say the collaboration is incredible on both sides of the border,” said veteran Vancouver-based producer Grace Gilroy, who has two major US TV network dramas waiting to get started.
On-set safety aside, a big part of the equation for the $3 billion-plus per year industry is pending reopening of the U.s.-canada border, now closed until July 21.
That means people coming here to work will have to quarantine for 14 days.
Williamson said he was encouraged by the government’s okaying of the NHL’S cohort-quarantine plan where the Canucks and essential staff are allowed to return to Vancouver for training camp. Under that plan they would be housed together, travel to the rink together, and fulfil training needs in a group of 50 or less.
“We’re really hopeful based on the NHL stuff,” said Williamson.
“That message was great. That they created a unique protocol that is still safe that does alter the current rules. We are hopeful we can find a similar thing to work with government to maybe mitigate the quarantine, but until such time as that we are quarantining people.”
Horgan said during his briefing this week that he was not aware of any requests from the film industry “to compare themselves to any other sector.”
Henry added that her office would ,”look at everything as it comes across but the overriding importance is the safety factor.”