Hollywood, USA – Mission Impossible, Jurassic World 3, and many other movies have hit a wall as the COVID-19 pandemic has halted the entire industry with so many restrictions and precautions that the whole process of trying to make a movie with the many who work on it quite “mission impossible”.
A new role was created to try and push movies out which is the Producer in charge of Coronavirus Preparedness, in an effort to try and push for movies to work according to a carefully planned schedule in accordance with the COVID-19 social distancing rules, wearing masks and tests.
The role however, back fired as the usual set up for doing tests during a shooting schedule is to squeeze in a sequence of two or three per 30 minutes to get tested and resume their roles in the shooting day, however, with the tests being at $150 per test, the studio would have to test around 200 people rotating in and out to do the tests. They proposed for one whole day of pure testing as day zero.
In theory it would work but in reality, actors and everyone else, go home after the test, possibly visit groceries or eat outside or meet people – which puts the test in moot point as the test would have to be redone all over again. A work at home solution was decided as most production and designers could work from home but it put the shooting crew and the gaffers who are on-site employees out of work.
The strain the COVID-19 pandemic put on Hollywood had been tremendous as no profit nor sales would even come of movies as they sit, shelved, waiting for when cinemas can be declared open again.
There is the other psychological factor that would affect the movie industry in that people would be too reluctant to gather together after COVID-19 ends as the stigma of 4-5 months of lockdown has already impeded their feeling of security to sit in a cinema with other people sitting so close to them.
Many anticipate when COVID-19 might end so they could beat the clock and release their blockbuster that would have been sitting still for nearly 4 months with summer long past and the studios seeing no profit from a little after February.
Only time will tell when the world can watch movies in the cinema again.
