This is how the film and TV industry are approaching the new normal.<\/p>\n
Article by<\/strong> Kate Whiting | World Economic Forum*<\/p>\n As\u00a0countries begin to ease lockdown measures<\/a>\u00a0put in place to flatten the COVID-19 curve, film and TV studios are working out\u00a0how to get back to the business of show<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Australia,\u00a0production is resuming on long-running soap opera\u00a0Neighbours\u00a0<\/em><\/a>\u2013 with the cast social distancing on set and special camera angles to make characters appear closer together.<\/p>\n The \u2018new normal\u2019 will include having no more than 100 people in any area of filming per day; no intimate scenes; the male actors won\u2019t wear make-up, and there will be a nurse on set, Chris Oliver-Taylor, the chief executive of the show\u2019s production company Fremantle Australia, told\u00a0ABC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to assume if someone does get sick we don\u2019t need to shut the entire shoot \u2013 we just close that group and carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n Neighbours, which shut down production two weeks before Easter as cases of coronavirus grew, is thought to be the first English-language TV drama to resume filming.<\/p>\n The cost of the industry-wide shutdown in Australia is estimated to exceed $325 million, according to\u00a0Screen Producers Australia<\/a>, as work on more than 100 TV shows and films ground to a halt, including a biopic of Elvis that was shooting on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n One of its stars,\u00a0Tom Hanks<\/a>, confirmed that he and his wife Ruth Wilson had coronavirus symptoms and were in quarantine for more than two weeks before flying back to the United States.<\/p>\n The impact of coronavirus on lives and livelihoods is being felt around the globe. As of April 29, Australia had just over 6,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19. In the US, the figure was\u00a0over 1 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n With California still under strict lockdown restrictions, filming in Hollywood has also stopped and release dates of\u00a0major films have been pushed back<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 including\u00a0No Time To Die<\/em><\/a>, the fifth James Bond film to star Daniel Craig \u2013 as the doors of cinemas remain closed.<\/p>\n In an unprecedented step,\u00a0next year\u2019s Oscars<\/a>\u00a0will see films that have not been able to have a theatrical release, but have been streamed, qualify for Best Picture and other categories.<\/p>\n Normal rules around eligibility require a film to have been shown in a cinema in Los Angeles County at least three times a day for seven consecutive days.<\/p>\n Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said: \u201cThere is no greater way to experience the magic of movies than to see them in a theatre. Our commitment to that is unchanged and unwavering. Nonetheless, the historically tragic COVID-19 pandemic necessitates this temporary exception to our awards eligibility rules.\u201d<\/p>\n In mid-March, the\u00a0global loss in box office revenue<\/a>\u00a0stood at around $7 billion, according to the Hollywood Reporter, in part due to the 70,000 cinemas that were closed in China. As the virus spread, that estimate has grown and by the end of May, could be as high as $17 billion.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a similar picture in India, where Bollywood has also come to a standstill with lockdown measures in place until 3 May.<\/p>\n Some of the country\u2019s stars, including\u00a0Deepika Padukone<\/a>, whose latest film,\u00a083\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 the tale of India\u2019s cricket World Cup victory \u2013 was due to premiere on 10 April, have refocused their efforts on raising money for the millions now out of work.<\/p>\n As\u00a0media analysts struggle to gauge the true economic impact<\/a>\u00a0of COVID-19 on box office and TV advertising, some countries have been weighing up the cost of lost production spending.<\/p>\n In Canada, an estimated CAD $2.5 billion (USD $1.8 billion) could be lost from a shutdown that lasts until the end of June, with an impact on more than 172,000 jobs, the\u00a0Canadian Media Producers Association<\/a>\u00a0(CMPA) said on 21 April.<\/p>\n \u201cCOVID-19 has brought media production in Canada to a screeching halt,\u201d said Reynolds Mastin, President and CEO of CMPA. \u201cThese numbers should serve as a wake-up call for what\u2019s at stake, and motivate us all to work together to ensure the industry can get back on its feet as quickly as possible once this crisis ends.\u201d<\/p>\n In the UK, the\u00a0British Film Institute (BFI) has launched targeted relief programmes<\/a>\u00a0worth \u00a34.6 million ($5.7m); including \u00a32 million to help independent productions resume filming when measures are lifted, and a \u00a3500,000 contribution to a \u00a32.5 million fund to help the industry\u2019s self-employed and freelancers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are working with colleagues across the industry to support those who have been hardest hit, and ensuring that we thrive as we recover,\u201d said BFI Chief Executive Ben Roberts.<\/p>\n In France, the\u00a0Cannes Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 due to take place in May \u2013 was originally postponed until June, but organizers have now abandoned that idea while vowing to explore \u201call contingencies\u201d to enable the festival and the lucrative Cannes Film Market to go ahead in some form.<\/p>\n The strict stay-at-home rules have benefitted some entertainment streaming services, with\u00a0Netflix more than doubling its target for subscribers<\/a>\u00a0in the first quarter of 2020 and seeing its shares soar to record highs.<\/p>\n There may be some\u00a0disruption to its programming schedule later in the year<\/a>, however, as filming on its original shows, including\u00a0The Witcher\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Stranger Things<\/em>, has come to a halt.<\/p>\n When WarnerMedia launches its streaming service, HBO Max, in the US in May, it\u2019s\u00a0unlikely to feature its highly anticipated Friends reunion episode<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 another COVID-19 production casualty.<\/p>\n Some in the entertainment industry have been quick to react to the \u2018new normal\u2019, with\u00a0visual effects houses moving to work remotely<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the UK, long-running satirical panel show\u00a0Have I Got News For You\u00a0<\/em>returned for a 59th series \u2013 with no studio audience and no studio. The host, two presenters and two panelists were all linked up via video.<\/p>\n YouTube has unveiled new originals<\/a>\u00a0designed for the staying-at-home audience, including\u00a0Celebrity Substitute<\/em>, where stars and teachers collaborate to engage children in homeschooling.<\/p>\n In a groundbreaking move, DreamWorks Animation\u2019s\u00a0Trolls: World Tour\u00a0<\/em>premiered straight onto digital. The sequel to 2016\u2019s\u00a0Trolls\u00a0<\/em>has\u00a0made more money for Universal Pictures<\/a>\u00a0in the three weeks it\u2019s been available to stream than the original made in five months in cinemas, according to the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n Cinemas could reopen as early as July<\/a>, according to the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), but it depends on each country\u2019s measures to ease lockdown restrictions.<\/p>\n When cinemas do open their doors again, it might be a very different experience from what we\u2019re used to.<\/p>\n British theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber<\/a>, whose musical version of\u00a0Cinderella\u00a0<\/em>is currently stalled, told New York\u2019s Page Six that he doesn\u2019t think theatres on Broadway and in London\u2019s West End will reopen until the end of September.<\/p>\n And when they do, social distancing and greater hygiene measures will need to be in place, just as they will in cinemas. In turn, this may have a knock-on effect on box-office revenue, depending how many people can attend one performance or one screening.<\/p>\n Lloyd Webber said: \u201cIn South Korea, they take everyone\u2019s temperature. We\u2019ll self-clean handles, wipe doors, utilize every safety measure. People won\u2019t wish to crowd into small clustered seats again. But we must reopen. Some, with leftover money to spend, need the theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n This is how the film and TV industry are approaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1069,45],"tags":[99,1385,3177,3357,286,1328],"class_list":["post-26866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-choice","category-industry","tag-ceo","tag-ceo-northam","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-film","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26866"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26904,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26866\/revisions\/26904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bollywood and beyond<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Counting the cost<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Seizing opportunities<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Towards a new normal<\/strong><\/h1>\n
*Kate Whiting<\/em><\/a> is Senior Writer of Formative Content for the World Economic Forum. <\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"