How the TV industry has adapted to lockdown
By Harry Edwards
As we’re all too aware, since lockdown began many businesses have been put on hold in order to maintain the safety of their employees and the public at large. This has been no different for the TV industry, whose inherent reliance on having a large number of crew members in the same (sometimes confined) space makes it impossible to continue production while the quarantine rules are in place.
Many upcoming releases have had their productions postponed until further notice which has led to producers taking matters into their own hands and looking into new ways of production. As a result, a number of socially distanced projects have emerged, filmed via everyone’s new favourite video conferencing software, Zoom, in order to keep the flow of new content running.
On TV, there’s BBC One’s Staged, reuniting Good Omens stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen playing larger-than-life versions of themselves as they try to navigate rehearsals for an upcoming play over Zoom. A meta approach is applied here through its use of Zoom as it’s not only the method used to create the show but serves as a plot device that adds a layer of realism in its presentation.
ITV’s Isolation Stories have taken a similar approach, having been cast, filmed, directed and edited remotely. This method leaves many of the technical elements in the hands of the actors themselves, reliant on their own footage whilst directed remotely over mobile phone, as can be seen on the Isolation Stories: Behind the Scenes companion show. While non-traditional, this approach forces cast and crew into new areas of production, proving to be an interesting experiment into new forms of media production when the traditional cast and crew setup is not possible.
Streaming online on PinpointPresents for a minimum donation of £1, there’s Little Room, an international production featuring names such as Succession’s Brian Cox and Dracula’s Claes Bang. Little Room is a murder mystery series with all proceeds going towards Covid-19 relief schemes.
Sheridan Smith as Mel in Isolation Stories. ITV Studios
Filmed from home, the series has been a large-scale production between a number of industry names in order to create a professional-level pilot despite the restrictions. Each actor had a tailored approach, using phones, laptops and apps in order to produce footage of the desired quality.
Despite the difficulties faced in large-scale productions that the TV industry requires, these examples prove that there are other ways to create content which is just as high quality as those produced under traditional production methods. Quarantine has created a need for creative solutions in order to adapt and keep moving forward - which these productions make the most of - using the technology available to them in order to overcome restrictions which have put a hold on many other productions that were scheduled for this year.
These new approaches to content production signal an exciting future in the way media is created, especially in the case of independent productions which would not otherwise have access to the same level of production as others in the industry.