After a brief pause following the recommendations of the county’s Department of Health, the main Hollywood studios are making the cameras roll again.
While Los Angeles public health officials are calling the city’s current outbreak of COVID-19 – in which 10 people test positive for the virus every minute – the “worst disaster our county has experienced in decades,” the best studios of Hollywood began their return to production in Los Angeles
The industry had paused many of its filming in Los Angeles around the holiday and in early January, when it became clear that a wave was underway, following the recommendations of the Los Angeles County Department of Health and several unions, including SAG-AFTRA and the Producers Guild. Disney, Warner Bros. Universal, CBS and Netflix postponed their post-holiday shooting schedules, with the goal of starting shooting again in mid-January (some aimed at January 11, while others were and are still looking at January 18 as a return.)
Now, some of these projects are returning to work this week. Sources count The Hollywood Reporter that many of the titles that planned a return to filming are doing so. Early productions include CBS ‘ Everyone gets up and Bob Hearts Abishola, Showtime’s Shameless and Netflix You, which are all produced by Warner Bros. Also resuming is ABC The Goldbergs and Netflix Atypical, both produced by Sony, as well as five series scripted by CBS Studios: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Why Women Kill, SEAL Team and Diary of a future president.
Universal TV is putting three of its projects into operation, including two NBC series, Mister Perfect and Kenanand an untitled comedy Jean Smart for HBO Max. Meanwhile, at least three of the studio’s other productions – Netflix’s I never and NBC programs Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Good girls – are not scheduled to start shooting again until January 18. Disney and Netflix are also waiting until next week to restart main photography in their Los Angeles-based projects (at least the ones they run on). According to FilmLA, Amazon’s Goliath is also in line to film this week, along with a handful of reality shows.
Not everyone in the industry supports the decision to move forward at this point. Just yesterday, the county reported nearly 12,000 new cases, nearly 300 deaths and nearly 8,000 hospitalizations, and even recommended that essential workers use their masks at home to further reduce the spread of the virus. “We continue to monitor data and the ongoing pressure on hospital capacity across the region,” said a SAG-AFTRA spokesman. “Given that, it is difficult to understand how an increase in production in this environment makes a lot of sense.” The guild, which classified the industry’s return to work protocols as “notable success”, was one of the groups that called for a pause in production earlier this month, with its president Gabrielle Carteris calling attention to the harsh reality of the city. “Patients are dying in ambulances waiting for treatment because the hospital’s emergency rooms are full,” she said at the time. “This is not a safe environment for personal production at the moment.”
The studios’ decision to proceed with filming will certainly be controversial, but does it represent a flagrant disregard for county health department directives? “The county’s recommendation to take a break does not take the form of an instruction,” said FilmLA spokesman Philip Sokoloski. “They received guidance that it would be an advantage for Los Angeles to take a break as long as possible, but I think the county health department also understands that there are business and other logistics imperatives that come into play with a decision like this.” The pause in production, he explains, “has been a recommendation and a request, if possible. They understood that there would be exceptions and that the industry, when it needs those exceptions, will exercise them.” The Department of Public Health did not respond to a request for comment.
Industry insiders and government officials who strongly believe that productions should keep their green light say the strict COVID-19 security protocols on the film community set – which involve frequent testing, extensive PPE and improved sanitation practices – are effective. Several point to AMPTP data that suggest that initial transmission rates have been considerably lower than the spread of COVID-19 in the surrounding community. The report analyzed positivity rates at three key filming locations – New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles – between September and November and found that, although the spread rate of the national community exceeded 13% at the end of November, the rate of industry spread was about 0.3%. In Los Angeles, when the community’s spread rate was over 14% in late November, the industry’s spread rate was around 0.2%, according to the data collected.
But that does not mean that there are no positive tests recorded in the productions. According to publicly available county data, there were a total of 28 positives in two Warner Bros. productions. – Lucifer and Young sheldon – in December, as well as 12 at NBC’s Mister Perfect. Some, however, warn that these numbers represent positive results over a period of time, not necessarily those identified at once – and that the majority of the cast and crew who are contracting the virus are doing so in the community and not on set. Lucifer, for example, never turn production off in the wake of positive results, because they were considered isolated and are not part of a larger initial outbreak.
The commercial industry, meanwhile, has taken its own seemingly lengthy approach to county and guild recommendations. According to the FilmLA database, dozens of commercials followed through with their plans to shoot in early January, something Sokoloski said was expected due to the timing of the announcement and how the advertising industry operates. He said he was told he should expect a call back this week. In at least one commercial shot last week in Los Angeles – a Super Bowl ad by FritoLays directed by Hollywood director Peter Berg – two members of the team tested positive on the set. Film 47, Berg’s commercial producer responsible for the filming, confirms the cases and notes that production, which they say used strict COVID-19 protocols and contact tracking, was resumed after the individuals were removed from the set. They declined to comment further.
As for traditional film and TV production, Sokoloski says that, in general, county health officials were “impressed to see that the industry is being so careful in how it addresses the COVID-19 threat”, pointing to the studios’ willingness to pause production in recent weeks. “I believe this is part of the reason why they have the confidence they have to allow the sector to operate at this time,” he says. But now that the productions are being filmed again, some wonder if public officials will not ask nicely the next time and will instead order an industry-wide suspension. “They have so far refused to do so, preferring to use requests for voluntary shutdowns,” said Sokoloski, adding: “But they have the option of changing recommendations on how filming can be done at any time, in line with efforts to control the peak of COVID. “