We learned a few things we wanted to share to make your job a little easier.
BUDGET
You need to budget with an expectation of an increase. Expect 10%-20% increase.
Protection protocols and safety measures cost time and money.
A safe shoot is a safe crew, plus crews are risking their well-being for your company.
TIME
Speaking of time. It’s going to take a little more time. Crews work fast but when there are several departments working on your shoot, they need to adhere to social distancing standards. Which means, you need to plan for more time to get the shots you want. Patience is key.
PROTECTION
Mask-Up (wipe down, wash hands, take breaks). It’s important that your team have all of the proper PPE, sanitizing wipes, hand-sanitizer, access to hand-washing stations and a safe place to unmask. Schedule staggered breaks for the cast and crew to ensure that everyone has time to reset.
COMMUNICATION
It’s important that you set guidelines with your client, agencies and crew. More than ever establishing protocols and ensuring your crew feels safe is essential to establishing a baseline on your shoot. It’s natural to have additional stress or anxiety, clear boundaries and guidelines help mitigate additional tension.
SCOOTER NOTE: We provided all of the sanitizing accoutrements for our team and worked with them to ensure they had what they needed as well as additional masks and hand-sanitizer.
Filming on location? We did protocol checks with our hotels and food service options.
We opted to cut craft services and instead gave sanitized production bags to our crew. (individual water bottles, individually wrapped snacks, hand sanitizer, back up masks, etc.)
Prior to the shoot, our entire crew took safety procedure tests and were C19.
And if the crew had an issue, we knew about it. Clear communication is imperative to keeping your crew healthy and happy (relatively speaking). ☺
It’s important that the industry keep working but not at the expense of everyone’s safety and definitely not at the expense of cutting corners to make budget.