Feb 24, 2023
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Corona’s Impact on the Film Industry
by Debbie Brubaker
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OBVIOUSLY, THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
has devastated movie theaters, perhaps providing the last nail in the coffin long being hammered by streaming. Indeed, box offices world-wide lost billions of dollars in the last two months, while film releases have been pushed back or cancelled, as have festivals.
But fear not. It’s more than likely that the theater attendance collapse will be temporary. Richard Janes had some insight that is probably pretty spot on (go here).
With everyone stuck at home, naturally streaming has achieved an all-time high. Indeed, Netflix, which fortuitously raised its prices in January, saw its stock soar, even on days the Dow dropped. Hulu and Amazon as well as all the new services, like the Disney Channel, have also been banking record profits. But now the beast must be fed.
According to LightShed Partners, a research firm based in New York City, Netflix is “in a unique position to offer fresh content to a global audience that is hungry for in-home entertainment,” (see more here).
And there’s the rub: who is going to produce all that content?
Unfortunately, I can say with some certainty, after following closely various online reports and webinars: Movies and television will be one of the last businesses to "go back" from pandemic.
On May 12th, more than 5,000 SAG-AFTRA and IATSE members tuned in for a virtual town hall with US Representative Adam Schiff of the 28th District, which includes West Hollywood.
Hosted by SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris and IATSE International President Matt Loeb, they discussed the impact of the pandemic, future government relief efforts and the process of getting the entertainment and media industry back to work.
The gist of it was: Carteris and the SAG leaders had no intention of letting their members return to work until there's both robust testing and almost immediate results, or a vaccine.
Matt Loeb concurred. Indeed, they both felt that the different ideas flying around about how to use on set social distancing simply weren't practical, nor would they adequately protect our industry’s workers.
Five days earlier, I sat in on “Viral: A Film Industry Conversation”, with panelists John Sloss, Christine Vachon, John Ridley and Tim League. Interestingly enough, the consensus there was that the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, HBO, Showtime and FX, as well as the networks, were about to run out of content. Indeed, there would be a crisis if we didn’t get back to work ASAP!
All I could do was laugh. As much as they honestly think that the normal pipeline of projects, which is sometimes years-long, had run dry, the reality is: it would take years to watch all the stuff out there. And that's just what might interest you. If you were to get into shows outside your "wheel house," it might take decades.
But no one wants that to be the case because then there would be no work on the far side of the pandemic. So I'm fine with the fantasy that all the streaming companies and broadcast networks are in danger of running out of content.
What beast do they think they're feeding anyway? Perhaps the reset that the pandemic has forced on pollution, consumerism and working from home should be applied to media. Indeed, it should, if we want the nose of our cultural camel to wriggle under the tent of established precepts and ideologies.
Regardless, the point is that at the end of this thing, while we don't want to be stuck on the inside looking out, it's highly likely we will be. The muscle memory of the work we do and the way we do it is going to be a monster to overcome by cast and crew.
The actors hold the keys to the kingdom, I think. They must feel comfortable doing what actors do—physical contact with other actors on set—although perhaps virus transmission concerns could be mollified in the manner of the porn industry, with rigorous, timely and fully documented testing.
I also read a piece put out by the Florida Film Commission in Florida (go here). It listed the protocols that, if we put them all into place, we could go back to work.
It, too, was laughable.
Essentially, by the time you enacted all the procedures required of the cast and crew, there'd be precious little time to do any work. Rather unreal, it was written by someone who obviously knew enough about the business to be dangerous but not enough to know what the heck they were talking about.
So we're at an impasse here.
Commercials will undoubtedly go back sooner because many of them can be done with reduced crews—some even without actors. Certainly that’s the case with car commercials. I'm sure people will get creative and think of shots, scenes and stuff they can do without cast and crew having to really engage. Animation, of course, can continue.
To be sure, extraordinary efforts can resurrect production. The Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur devised a system of armbands which allowed him to restart “Katla”, a science-fiction series from Netflix, after its mid-March shut down. Meanwhile producer Lucas Foster isolated his crew and cast in Australia to film “Children of the Corn”, from the Stephen King story (see more here)
Since both these steps were costly, it is independent filmmakers who will be the ones most likely take it in the shorts, so to speak.
They'll have to wait for SAG to get on board, if they expect to make a movie that anyone will want to buy, simply because it's all about casting usually. (I say “usually” because there have been some amazing movies with no recognizable talent, but that's the exception, not the norm).
Hence, we'd better be strapping on our seatbelts and biting down on something similar to bullets, cuz it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
But there's always something brewing, even with—maybe especially with—people stuck at home with plenty of time on their hands. This is when the writers amongst us should go to work.
Indeed, I've been hearing about plans being made for indies and other projects for "when we come back."
I guess, at the end of the day, it's a wait-and-see thing. I, for one, am hoping the revised worldview imposed by the virus will stimulate some great work
Debbie Brubaker is a Bay Area-based producer/unit production manager and member of the Directors Guild of America, who also teaches a class in the Cinema Dept. at City College of San Francisco, see her IMDb page or reach her .
Posted on May 23, 2020 - 05:06 AM
by Debbie Brubaker
Please support our stories by liking articles—thanks!
has devastated movie theaters, perhaps providing the last nail in the coffin long being hammered by streaming. Indeed, box offices world-wide lost billions of dollars in the last two months, while film releases have been pushed back or cancelled, as have festivals.
But fear not. It’s more than likely that the theater attendance collapse will be temporary. Richard Janes had some insight that is probably pretty spot on (go here).
With everyone stuck at home, naturally streaming has achieved an all-time high. Indeed, Netflix, which fortuitously raised its prices in January, saw its stock soar, even on days the Dow dropped. Hulu and Amazon as well as all the new services, like the Disney Channel, have also been banking record profits. But now the beast must be fed.
According to LightShed Partners, a research firm based in New York City, Netflix is “in a unique position to offer fresh content to a global audience that is hungry for in-home entertainment,” (see more here).
And there’s the rub: who is going to produce all that content?
Unfortunately, I can say with some certainty, after following closely various online reports and webinars: Movies and television will be one of the last businesses to "go back" from pandemic.
On May 12th, more than 5,000 SAG-AFTRA and IATSE members tuned in for a virtual town hall with US Representative Adam Schiff of the 28th District, which includes West Hollywood.
Hosted by SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris and IATSE International President Matt Loeb, they discussed the impact of the pandemic, future government relief efforts and the process of getting the entertainment and media industry back to work.
The gist of it was: Carteris and the SAG leaders had no intention of letting their members return to work until there's both robust testing and almost immediate results, or a vaccine.
Five days earlier, I sat in on “Viral: A Film Industry Conversation”, with panelists John Sloss, Christine Vachon, John Ridley and Tim League. Interestingly enough, the consensus there was that the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, HBO, Showtime and FX, as well as the networks, were about to run out of content. Indeed, there would be a crisis if we didn’t get back to work ASAP!
All I could do was laugh. As much as they honestly think that the normal pipeline of projects, which is sometimes years-long, had run dry, the reality is: it would take years to watch all the stuff out there. And that's just what might interest you. If you were to get into shows outside your "wheel house," it might take decades.
But no one wants that to be the case because then there would be no work on the far side of the pandemic. So I'm fine with the fantasy that all the streaming companies and broadcast networks are in danger of running out of content.
What beast do they think they're feeding anyway? Perhaps the reset that the pandemic has forced on pollution, consumerism and working from home should be applied to media. Indeed, it should, if we want the nose of our cultural camel to wriggle under the tent of established precepts and ideologies.
Regardless, the point is that at the end of this thing, while we don't want to be stuck on the inside looking out, it's highly likely we will be. The muscle memory of the work we do and the way we do it is going to be a monster to overcome by cast and crew.
I also read a piece put out by the Florida Film Commission in Florida (go here). It listed the protocols that, if we put them all into place, we could go back to work.
It, too, was laughable.
Essentially, by the time you enacted all the procedures required of the cast and crew, there'd be precious little time to do any work. Rather unreal, it was written by someone who obviously knew enough about the business to be dangerous but not enough to know what the heck they were talking about.
So we're at an impasse here.
Commercials will undoubtedly go back sooner because many of them can be done with reduced crews—some even without actors. Certainly that’s the case with car commercials. I'm sure people will get creative and think of shots, scenes and stuff they can do without cast and crew having to really engage. Animation, of course, can continue.
To be sure, extraordinary efforts can resurrect production. The Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur devised a system of armbands which allowed him to restart “Katla”, a science-fiction series from Netflix, after its mid-March shut down. Meanwhile producer Lucas Foster isolated his crew and cast in Australia to film “Children of the Corn”, from the Stephen King story (see more here)
Since both these steps were costly, it is independent filmmakers who will be the ones most likely take it in the shorts, so to speak.
They'll have to wait for SAG to get on board, if they expect to make a movie that anyone will want to buy, simply because it's all about casting usually. (I say “usually” because there have been some amazing movies with no recognizable talent, but that's the exception, not the norm).
But there's always something brewing, even with—maybe especially with—people stuck at home with plenty of time on their hands. This is when the writers amongst us should go to work.
Indeed, I've been hearing about plans being made for indies and other projects for "when we come back."
I guess, at the end of the day, it's a wait-and-see thing. I, for one, am hoping the revised worldview imposed by the virus will stimulate some great work
Debbie Brubaker is a Bay Area-based producer/unit production manager and member of the Directors Guild of America, who also teaches a class in the Cinema Dept. at City College of San Francisco, see her IMDb page or reach her .
Posted on May 23, 2020 - 05:06 AM
