Indie film Corner Office beat pandemic challenges
Corner Office cast member, producers talk about the challenges of pandemic filmmaking
COVID-19 has made the idea of a crowd scene in a TV show or film about as popular as a cough.
A project with a small cast and limited locations makes a lot of sense during these pandemic times.
The recently wrapped indie film Corner Office fit that bill. Shot in Vancouver and Burnaby in 22 days, the Jon Hamm-starring dark comedy is set mostly in an office with a handful of characters.
“We decided to make this particular film because we decided it was something we felt we could do safely in COVID times,” producer Matthew Clarke of Vancouver's Tilt9 Entertainment said in a recent phone call. “It is mainly one cohesive cast in largely one location. It was something we could control. We didn't have to have a ton of new people coming to set constantly. It's the same set number of actors for most of the time, even the extras, the background, were all part of the collective.
“It's scary, especially if you're an independent. If we shut down for COVID, if we had an outbreak or something, it would probably mean that the movie ends.”
The movie ends because the money dries up. Indie films don't have the backstop of studio cash that could cover delays.
“There was definitely a level of stress that was beyond making anything previously,” Clarke said about working during the pandemic.
A true indie film, the budget for Corner Office was just over $3.1 million, with about 10 per cent of that spent on COVID-19 safety protocol costs, including having to quarantine Hamm and a handful of others for two weeks here before shooting. Another big part of that COVID-19 expense is the testing for the virus.
“We were testing two times a week. That alone is expensive. We were somewhere between 60 and 80 people at all times. So testing those people twice a week at $200 a test for an independent production, it is very costly,” said Dylan Collingwood, Clarke's fellow producer from Tilt9.
Collingwood, who is also a talent manager, said he noticed the safety rules had a surprising benefit to the production.
“I didn't find it more time-consuming. I feel like, actually, people are more efficient this way,” Collingwood said on the phone. “One department goes in, sets, comes out. Another department goes in, sets, comes out. Sometimes it is chaotic because it always is on film sets, but overall everyone is very considerate and conscientious about what we have to do in this time. So it didn't hurt us time-wise, but it definitely hurt us budget-wise.”
Hamm's co-star, Toronto's Sarah Gadon, knows what a COVID-19 delay can mean, as a production she was set to shoot last fall completely fell through the cracks.
“I was going to start shooting a miniseries for USA (USA TV Network) about Evel Knievel,” Gadon said.
“I got here to Toronto and then my visa came in and I was waiting for the green light to go to New Mexico to shoot this project. Then it just shut right down and completely disappeared. It never got made, and I don't think it is going to get made.”
When Corner Office started shooting in February, the B.C. film/ TV business was back in a big way, after the $3-billion-plus industry shut down for about five months beginning in mid-march of last year.
“I think it was busier now than it ever was. So we were kind of battling the competition to find good people and finding locations and gear, and all those things, but we were just quite fortunate people got behind this film,” Clarke said.
“It's not the kind of movie that gets made in Vancouver a lot. It's kind of left of centre. It's a true independent, privately funded.
“It is kind of an off-kilter story. It's not a studio film. It's not a big series. It's certainly not a Hallmark movie, by any stretch.”
What it is, according to Gadon, is “an absurdist comedy about a man who discovers a private office in his building, and it awakens his imagination and his intellect and his life in the face of a mundane, grey bleak reality that he is currently facing at work.”
Gadon plays Alyssa, a charming receptionist at the office who gets invited into the secret room by Orson (Hamm).
Gadon says the movie, including a big dance scene with Hamm — who she says is a very long way from Mad Men's Don Draper character in this film — was a great experience but, due to COVID-19, things could feel quite a bit different on-set.
“There is a loss of intimacy when people are wearing face masks in the workplace. You don't get a real sense of who they are or have the same kind of camaraderie,” Gadon said. “The tone I think is much more serious and that's important because we're in a pandemic.”
Corner Office is Gadon's second pandemic movie. In the fall of 2020, in North Bay, Ont., she shot the film adaptation of the Miriam Toews novel All My Puny Sorrows.
Gadon credits the can-do attitude of the film business for the safe and enjoyable filming experiences she has had during these challenging times.
“I think what is so amazing about the film industry as an industry in and of itself is that it is extremely adaptable. The crews, the casts and the people that work in the film industry are extremely resilient,” Gadon said.
“I was actually really impressed, but not totally surprised, when I went back to work for the first time on All My Puny Sorrows that everyone had really adapted and I felt really safe on-set and I felt like our crews were treated properly. Everyone was following protocol and everyone was just kind of keeping on.”
Currently in post-production, Corner Office will be finished in late June and ready for “a big bidding war,” a laughing and hopeful Clarke said when asked about distribution.
Corner Office also stars Danny Pudi and B.c.-born Christopher Heyerdahl, and is helmed by Oscar-winning director Joachim Black and written by Mr. Robot's Ted Kupper. The film is adapted from Swedish author Jonas Karlsson's hit cult novel The Room.
It's kind of left of centre. It's a true independent, privately funded. It is kind of an off-kilter story . ... It's certainly not a Hallmark movie.