There are numerous articles discussing how the entertainment industry can get back to work. Most of them talk about bigger budget shows, things like PPE and crew quarantine and the like. Others, like this one, discuss "digital doubles", extolling the hygenic virtues of virtual environments and extensive CG imaging.
This is all well and good for the high end, but a majority of work in TV, film, commercial production, etc doesn't operate anywhere near that level.
Essentially, there's low, middle, and high. Low is super small, sub-10 member crews; middle is non-union commercial production and independant union films; high is stuff like Marvel movies.
My world is mostly middle: lots of corporate and some commercial work, and then some union TV and film work. The problem is that this medium section doesn't have the budget to properly implement thorough social distancing and PPE for crew.
For example: you have a two day infomercial on location in an upscale house. Under normal circumstances, we can barely fit a crew of about 50 along with the client holding, village, and all the gear. This is before we even take bathrooms and catering into account. Trying to produce the same spot for the same rate, while providing for distancing, PPE, etc, becomes unfeasible.
So what happens? The middle evaporates. In its place: the high end pivots slightly, leaning into a more virtualized workflow. The higher budgets allow for smaller crews with proper distance, along with PPE and all the other considerations.
And the low end will likely take a bad turn. We'll see bottom feeders come out of the shadows to exploit crew, offering low rates in front of people they know are desperate to make that next mortgage payment, car payment, braces for their kids, etc. It's a rotten carrot and the end of a short stick.
I have no solutions. The only real way out of this is a vaccine. Assuming one can be developed, it likely won't be available at scale until at least 2023. The world continues to spin in the meantime.
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