In March of this year I was producing on “The World According To Jeff Goldblum”. We already had one episode of the second season in the can. And I was scouting for the upcoming episode.
While waiting in the departure lounge of Burbank Airport I remember how funny it was to see someone on the TV demonstrating how to wash your hands correctly and as I stepped on to my 10th flight of the year… it was suddenly the very first week of what we now know as a pandemic.
Onboard I was the only one wearing a mask and was receiving strange looks as I took out my disinfectant and wiped down the back side of the seat in front of me, the seat belt buckle, the screen and the drop down table, the arm-rests and the window and it’s shutter. “Isn’t that a little extreme ” laughed the elderly lady seated next to me. “You never can be too careful.” I replied and offered her a wipe. She refused. That was my last flight for awhile and sorry lady, who’s laughing now?
At the time of writing this we just crossed over 4 million cases and have lost 145,000 lives in the US alone. Let that sink in for a minute. Remember March. March 17 to be exact I took a screenshot of all the confirmed cases of coronavirus it stood at 4,476 with only 81 deceased. In just four months.
So during the last 18 weeks I decided to start to learn more, educate myself I took classes and courses and dived into medical websites, to absorb as much information as possible. I also realized if we in the entertainment industry were to get back to work anytime soon, we’d need to do it as carefully and safely as possible. The unions banded together and came out with a guide called “the safe way forward” and AMPTP came out with “The White Papers” and of course every state and county have their guidelines too on how to do this the best way possible. My good friend Liz Sterling a Brits in LA member and great Scottish lass is also in the biz and had started taking courses on Covid-19 compliance and so I asked her about it. I jumped on one called I-safe C19Co and it piqued my interest.
More courses followed and I came up with a system based upon the guidelines that I thought could work really well. And of course as we know this plan and the guidance are not foolproof as we have to rely upon the cast and crew to be competent, reliable and mindful, on and off set. I set out to let a few people know about my company plan and how I planned to implement it. I sought guidance from good people and partnered with Helena Brown to create Haven Set Solutions, a consultancy firm that represents health and safety personnel for sets. I needed to go out in the field to test my model to see how it could work. I set up a dummy set with a few filmmaker friends to test it out. I noticed some holes and went back to the drawing board. And came up with a better model. All the time talking with phlebotomists about testing and epidemiologists about the disease itself. I booked a few small jobs as a Covid-19 compliance officer to test out my new model and staying well within the guidelines, I was happy to report that it worked.
During this time I’ve had lots of enquiries from friends looking to get into this type of work. My response is that it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a lot of hard work, you have to have at least five years of onset experience, in my opinion, you need a producer’s mind, dealing with logistics, you have to have the respect of your peers, you have to be inspiring but steadfast, authoritative but caring. People are going to want you to be in ten different places at the same time. You are the first on set and the last on set.
I truly think people miss being on sets and everyone is eager to get back to work. But I have to tell you sets aren’t going to be a fun place for a while. There’s no chit-chatting at the craft service tables or high-five-ing your colleagues when you get “the shot”. And absolutely no martinis after wrap. The masks are very uncomfortable, itchy hot and tight. It’s very hard to communicate. The face shields constantly fog up. It’s not pretty.
We are so wired to work a certain way and now you have to learn it all anew with these added safety protocols. You are constantly thinking ‘did I sanitize that tool before handing it off?’ ‘Should I have handed it off?’ Wishing that one person wouldn’t keep standing so close to you. Needing to wash your hands but you’re too busy. Stressing, worrying, second guessing yourself….
Complacency is the biggest enemy. People tend to fall back into their old routine. It’s easy to do, trust me… but on my last job, a four day 75-person commercial for Chevy, we started out with a set full of nervous first-timers trying to navigate these “New Rules” and a few anti-maskers with some defiant people crossing social distancing zones. It was a challenge but over time it became a joyful and thankful set. The crew really started to listen and take it in and realize that they have a responsibility to each other. They learned that it’s better to have a conversation six feet apart than wind up six feet under. People could take a break to get some fresh air if they needed to. The crew would start musing about which hand-sanitizer smelled the best. The directors were respectful if someone felt uncomfortable. In the end people were non-combative and compliant. They had found their new rhythm. We all slowed down and took time to do it the safe way.
This is a new world, a crazy one at that. But we can all do our part in keeping ourselves, each other and our communities safe.
To that end I wish you all keep safe out there, keep wearing your masks, wash your hands regularly and if someone is your space it’s okay to tell them to keep their distance.
Stay healthy!
Craig Young
