How to make a TV show during a pandemic

Morgana O’Reilly stars in a new local series that was written and filmed during lockdown.

Trying to film a TV show in the middle of a pandemic is a little complicated – even more so when you are in need of a babysitter, as Morgana O’Reilly found.

‘‘We started shooting on the first day of level 2, I think – which was a big relief because we were like, ‘We really need some childcare. Are we going to be able to do this?’’’ laughs O’Reilly, who stars in the new local series INSiDE. Fortunately for O’Reilly (Mean Mums,

Neighbours) and her director husband Peter Salmon, they had ‘‘lots of very wonderful support from parents and friends’’ when it came to taking care of their two kids while the couple focused on filming the comedy thriller at their home in Sandringham, Auckland.

Funded by NZ On Air as part of its Covid-19 response, INSiDE follows Rose (O’Reilly), a woman who rediscovers a connection from her past while selfisolating during a second wave of the coronavirus. Rose works for a videoconferencing company and while responding to customer queries, she also secretly accesses private conversations.

Using her technical skills, she begins to taunt an old high-school nemesis – with unexpected results.

Given how such technology has quickly become part of many people’s lives, it’s a timely narrative.

‘‘It’s funny to think that three months ago you wouldn’t have known what Zoom was,’’ says O’Reilly. ‘‘But then there was all that controversy around whether the calls were private or not. I think that probably gave some inspiration.’’

Zoom is also the same technology that enabled the creators to produce

INSiDE.

The series was created and written by Salmon and a team of Kiwi writers and comedians including Kura Forrester

(Shortland Street) and Tom Sainsbury (Sextortion).

They developed INSiDE over Zoom in just two weeks and Salmon directed the series in his slippers.

‘‘I think he was very proud of that,’’ says O’Reilly.

‘‘By the end of it I think he made a point of never putting shoes on.

‘‘We did one exterior scene which is right at the opening sequence. That was the only exterior shot that we did.

‘‘We all got a bit of a buzz being able to go outside the house and shoot something.’’

The couple and their children moved into the house, that would become the set for INSiDE, on the day lockdown started.

‘‘We bought that house and made this move back from Melbourne, and obviously not knowing that any of this stuff was going to happen.’’

Each of the 15-minute episodes of

INSiDE unfolds like a mystery as viewers learn a little more about introverted Rose’s past and what her future might bring.

She is too afraid to leave the house but the walls of her lonely childhood home seem to be closing in on her.

‘‘Humans have an innate need to connect to each other. And through Covid, the kind of weird irony of it is that in a time of high anxiety and fear and worry, you’re not allowed to touch each other,’’ says O’Reilly.

‘‘And then you’ve got Rose, who is a social reject anyway. She doesn’t like people and doesn’t feel comfortable with them.

‘‘And this is a time where she finds that she does need to connect to people and it gives her an insight. It gives her a way to do it – whether it’s a particularly ethical way to do it,’’ O’Reilly laughs, questioning Rose’s sneaky spy habit.

‘‘She finds that she really does want to see people, wants to be close to people.’’

Much of the INSiDE story is told through Zoom conversations which meant that O’Reilly was often acting alone as even the scenes where she is communicating through the computer were filmed separately.

The exception was her co-star Josh Thomson (The New Legends Of

Monkey), who stars as Adrian, Rose’s flatmate who she is desperate to avoid.

‘‘It was actually really nice to watch him work because my character is very different from me,’’ says O’Reilly.

‘‘She’s very, very restricted and quiet and tortured.

‘‘And then having Josh on set is wonderful because he’s so funny. He brightened our day.’’ While lockdown is over now, O’Reilly says she can ‘‘absolutely’’ imagine filming in the same way again – despite the limitations.

‘‘There were plenty of times where we were going, ‘Oh we wish we had somebody from this department’ and then there were other times where it was like, ‘Oh, actually, this is so nice just to have three cooks in this kitchen’.’’

INSiDE is scheduled to debut on Prime at 8.30pm on Thursday.