With the arrival of the current COVID-19 Pandemic, much of the world has ground to a halt.
While it’s always advisable to rethink the necessity of productions or shoots as this crisis unfolds, they are often time critical and need to go ahead pandemic or not. I have worked in quarantine situations before and in an effort to minimise contagion and increase safety for myself and others, there are several procedures I have implemented.
Social isolation: what works in the streets, works on a shoot. A 2 meter separation between myself, client and other crew.
Minimizing transmission: Porous and other textured surfaces allow viruses to live longer away from the human body. Minimising objects like material gear bags, textiles, open cell foam, material straps etc etc give far less opportunity for viral transmission and lower the timeline for possible infection. Plus it makes it far easier to clean.
Cleaning/Sanitation: Isopropyl alcohol on set for continual cleaning of all equipment and everything extensively cleaned with Hospital Grade ammonium based disinfectant pre and post shoot.
PPE: Latex Gloves and Masks to be worn when interacting physically with other crew or clients
Extended Timeline: Where possible 48hrs between gear usage and filming means there is less chance the virus will live on equipment surfaces.
Minimizing interaction: It’s pretty common to touch other departments equipment in setup. Getting everyone to take a step back and not handle equipment/gear that others will touch or bump in/out is essential to halting transmission.
Filming in this environment is a new and difficult experience for everyone involved. So basically these procedures are a work in progress, what works on paper is often difficult to implement in real life. Currently they appear to be working well BUT they do extend the time required for filming and require a lot more effort. Please add 20-30% more time to a regular shooting schedule to compensate for this.
The more everyone can do to limit infection, the quicker life will return to normal.
