The Impacts of Covid-19 on Entertainment
The immense effects of Covid-19, the resulting quarantine and lasting lockdown have all been felt by individuals and workplaces in many different industries all across the world; these effects have had a substantial impact on those working in the media and entertainment industry, where the implementation of social distancing restrictions has seen filming of many TV series, films and documentaries postponed. A great uncertainty now clouds significant aspects of its future.
In a recent interview with freelance filmmaker, director and cameraman Mikey Trotter (http://www.mikeytrotter.com/), I gained an insight into the real impacts of Covid-19 on the media and entertainment industry. Mikey has produced and worked on a range of shows and documentaries including Genderquake, Masterchef, Me and My Mental Illness and Pineapple Dance Studios, to name a few.
Mikey has also produced a variety of branded content in collaboration with some of the world’s top brands, including Sony, Topshop, Nestle, Loreal, McDonalds, Subaru and Harry Potter, and won awards for Best Documentary MIND media Awards 2017, Cinematography Production Silver Award & BADC Bronze 2013, Winner: Best Features – Royal Television Awards 2011 and many more.
Media and entertainment has had a particularly challenging time with lockdown due to the very nature of crews having to be in extremely close proximity to each other at all times (from hair and makeup to the processes of filming itself) and it being a near-impossible feat for actors to work together when socially-distanced. This has all lead to those working within media and entertainment facing real hardships and even fear over work, money, family and their futures in general.
Do you think that-following lockdown-the media industry will quickly return to normal or take a while to build back up to the point it was at earlier this year?
“It doesn’t really seem likely that it will return to normal any time soon. Things are just very uncertain at this point [as it isn’t something that any of us, as people or as an industry, have had to go through before]. Some programmes that have been filmed recently have actually found ways to work around filming difficulties [in terms of distance restrictions and how close the crew members can be to each other]. There have even been cases where crews have purposefully quarantined themselves together, such as in a hotel/large house, in order to film together without breaking any of the rules [as they can isolate together prior to filming]!”
Back in May earlier this year, the team working on Australian MasterChef were one of the few groups able to continue filming and releasing content during lockdown. Armed with gloves and standing a safe distance apart from each other at all times, contestants were not allowed to come into direct contact with each other, and the judges ate food from individual plates. All of these decisions and rules being made quickly allowed for the filming of the show to carry on mostly unscathed, even if the result is a show that has now turned from physical support and hugs to a much greater emphasis on words and communicating their support for each other in different ways.
With many enormously influential and large-scale events which had been scheduled for 2020 (including the Olympic Games in Tokyo) and shows no longer currently being filmed, many of the people working in this industry have suddenly found themselves out of work or, at the very least, with much less than before.
“I know so many people within television who are really struggling and concerned. For many of us, it has become a matter of finding any work we can get, whether within TV and media or something completely different.”
BBC’s Race Around the World and Peaky Blinders (alongside many other popular shows and highly-anticipated documentaries across BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc.) have seen their filming postponed for the foreseeable future due to the current uncertainties surrounding the world ‘opening up’ once again.
How are some TV channels dealing with the fact they no longer have their pre-planned content to air?
“In the case of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games not going ahead this year, it has become likely that those months will now see those channels using a lot of filler content or reruns [otherwise there would be a lot of empty space where these shows and events would have been].”
In some cases, filming of entertainment shows without studio audiences took place, even at the beginning of lockdown, as a way to keep audiences across the world occupied during such unsettling and disorientating times.
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway even managed to broadcast live back in March, however, their script meetings and sketch rehearsals were all held via video conferencing. Some aspects of the show have had to be cancelled altogether, including the climactic episode (which was due to take place at Disneyland Florida prior to its closure). The only ‘audience’ involved in their live show were the rest of the crew that were still able to be on set and, although this resulted in a quieter and slightly less-involved atmosphere than usual, they still managed to successfully put out an enjoyable and familiar show for all the people at home.
It is times like these in particular which reveal just how incredibly important media and entertainment is not only in daily life, but in bringing people from all walks of life together and to bring joy into peoples lives (and, now more than ever, homes), and it will be a huge relief for all when media and entertainment return back to relative normality.
