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After the pandemic lockdown hit in March 2020, MarVista Entertainment shut down for more than four months.<\/p>\n
But as Jennifer Westin, senior vice president and head of production for the studio put it, \u201cChristmas stops for no one.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September, as the holiday season approached, MarVista restarted production in the United States. It went on to produce 25 films for the year and had returned to its pre-pandemic rate of production by the end of 2020.<\/p>\n
MarVista had many films in post-production phases prior to the pandemic. Westin said that made the studio one of the lucky ones.<\/p>\n
Film and television production hit record lows in 2020, according to FilmLA, the partner film office for Los Angeles city and county.<\/p>\n
But production has started to pick up as Covid-19 cases fall and the vaccination rate climbs in Los Angeles County. FilmLA said applications to shoot TV shows, films and commercials increased in February after declining between October and January, when Covid-19 cases peaked locally.<\/p>\n
In February, FilmLA received 777 film permit applications, an increase of 43.1% month over month.<\/p>\n
In another sign of progress, FilmLA President Paul Audley said the number of film permit applications was down 40% in February compared to the same month in 2020. That\u2019s a substantial improvement from January\u2019s 80% year-over-year drop.<\/p>\n
Returning production to pre-pandemic levels will be key to L.A.\u2019s broader economic recovery.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s entertainment and digital media industry employed more than 271,000 people in 2019, according to a report from Otis College of Art and Design. The sector lost 90,000 jobs during 2020.<\/p>\n
Today, productions involving outdoor audiences can have a capacity of 33%, or 67% if all are vaccinated or tested. Productions involving indoor audiences still have a capacity limit of 50 hired, masked and tested audience members.<\/p>\n
Even with limits loosened on the numbers of people allowed to be involved in a production, state mandated rules for testing, mask wearing and social distancing on set remain in place.<\/p>\n
Polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, testing is required prior to employment for all productions. And all cast, talent, performers and crew members must produce negative PCR test results weekly, at minimum, for productions lasting more than a week.<\/p>\n
Shira Shafir, an associate professor of epidemiology and community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said the entertainment industry\u2019s strict protocols are necessary because of the close nature of production sets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s challenging on a film or television set where you\u2019ve got actors who have to go to hair and makeup, and you have the grips and all the different people who are sort of mixing and in the same physical space,\u201d Shafir said.<\/p>\n
She estimates that protocols will loosen for the industry even further by mid-summer as vaccination rates increase.<\/p>\n
Despite the precarious nature of production sets, the state\u2019s protocols have thus far worked in preventing Covid-19 outbreaks, said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief operating officer and general counsel for the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.<\/p>\n
Of the thousands of Covid-19 tests production employees need to take to return to work, the test positivity rate has been \u201cconsistently much lower\u201d than that of the general public, he said. SAG-AFTRA didn\u2019t give specific numbers.<\/p>\n
While vaccine eligibility has been expanded, Los Angeles still has a long way to go. As of April 16, around 6.3 million who live in L.A. County have received their first dose of the vaccine, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n
Audley said he doesn\u2019t expect to see permit requests for film shooting return to pre-pandemic rates until the end of August or start of September at the earliest.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil vaccinations really take hold in our region, I don\u2019t believe we\u2019re going to see a whole lot more (than 60% of normal),\u201d he said, comparing the number of film permits the city sees in a normal year.<\/p>\n
And Crabtree-Ireland said that despite the \u201csubstantial resumption\u201d of production, on-set safety protocols will not be reduced for \u201ca number of months.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really encouraging people to get vaccinated as quickly as they can,\u201d Crabtree-Ireland said. \u201cIt\u2019s essential that there not be outbreaks, that we not have people getting sick on set as a result of Covid. The protocols that we put in place have been very successful in preventing widespread outbreaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the state\u2019s requirements, Mar-Vista has adopted additional safety protocols.<\/p>\n
The studio hired a Covid-19 health and safety team and conducted tests three times a week for actors and anyone within 6 feet of an actor.<\/p>\n
One obstacle MarVista faced was how to safely shoot kissing scenes, Westin said. For one film, the studio had two actors kiss through a piece of plexiglass. For another, it cast two actors who were dating in real life.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everyone on set can wear PPE,\u201d Westin said. \u201cYou need actors to take off their PPE in front of the camera. It created really interesting obstacles I think that our industry faced that a lot of others didn\u2019t necessarily have to wrestle with.\u201d<\/p>\n