Corona Virus, Covid 19, the pandemic or whatever you want to call it has altered the way the entertainment industry works in 2020 and beyond. Every production with in person talent has skyrocketed in price with the extra expenses of Covid tests, Covid delays, certified Covid professionals and extended hotel stays. Everyone wants to be safe and protected, yet with a population that is not on board with vaccinations, all people must continue to be cautious.
How do we make a production in a pandemic? Answer: Very carefully. At Impressive Talent, our talent have gone through the ringer with a bunch of new ways to be on set safely. Some of our print actors are isolated in a large room where everyone but the camera operator are watching through glass windows or tv screens. Many of our actors were required to stay for a month or longer in hotels funded by the production to make sure they quarantined and tested each week (or more) to prep for being on set for 2-4 days. Then there are some productions who do not see that we are in a pandemic. These productions requested talent to be within close contact with each other in the heat of the pandemic without any testing or masks. That’s where this agency had to decline the project to protect our talent.
There is an area where the pandemic touched less, the voice over industry. At Impressive Talent, once Covid hit full blast, we implemented a rule that all of our voice talent must all purchase Source Connect for their home studios so we could be ready to record from home and not rely on a studio that could be temporarily or permanently closed due to the pandemic. Most talent took this recommendation seriously. Those who didn’t knew they were likely to be removed from the roster, after all, part of a voice talent’s expenses should be to have up to date software that client’s request in house.
As time goes on, we have noticed an increase in on camera jobs, but we are no where back to what used to be. Then again, this is the new now, we may never be back to what used to be. Please protect yourselves, protect others and know we’re all riding the same wave of uncertainty.