COMMUNICATION, TRANSPARENCY & VISITORS

• Publish protocols: All COVID-19 protocols used by the production must be published and distributed to all crew, cast and other personnel.
• Anonymous reporting: Production/Producers should establish an anonymous reporting mechanism (via email, phone or online form) that enables all personnel to report concerns about COVID protocols or other safety issues.
• No visitors: Only essential cast and crew are allowed on production sites. No non-essential personnel permitted on sets, production offices, stage, or construction mills.

IF YOU FEEL SICK OR HAVE SYMPTOMS

• At home: If you’re feeling sick with fever, cough, muscle pain, sore throat or difficulty breathing, stay home and immediately inform your supervisor. Consider seeking immediate medical care. Before going to a doctor’s office or emergency room, call and inform them of symptoms. If the symptoms persist, please do not report to work until the Production office clears you to be job-ready.
• On the job: Personnel who begin feeling sick with fever, cough or difficulty breathing while at work, should immediately inform their supervisor and the COVID-19 Coordinator, and leave the premises if possible. If unable to leave, the sick person should keep wearing their face mask and find an isolated place to wait/rest until the production can arrange transportation. Immediately send home any employee with COVID-19 like symptoms (cough, fever, shortness of breath, etc.) and not allow the employee to return to work until at least 72 hours after fever and other symptoms have resolved without medication.

SCREENING & TESTING

• Screening: All crew members will be screened prior to access to set, trucks, load-in or off-set work. If the answer is YES to any of the questions below, they will be ineligible to work and MUST STAY HOME:
• Are you experiencing any flu like symptoms such as fever, cough, muscle pain, sore throat or difficulty breathing?
• Have you been exposed to anyone with COVID-19?
• Do you feel sick in any way?
• Future testing: Production will make testing available to all crew and cast when/if/how that’s possible.

SOCIAL DISTANCING & PERSONAL HYGIENE

• Six-foot rule: Crew and cast will remain six feet away from other people at all times until social distancing restrictions have been lifted.
• Work ‘pods’ of small numbers: Crews should be minimal in size, function as department cohorts or ‘pods’ and maintain continuity of personnel whenever possible.
• Workflow: For camera or lighting resets, ‘working pods’ should alternate onset work and not crossover.
• Protect cast members: Increase physical space between CAST and other personnel. Only personnel designated by Production should work in close proximity with cast members (i.e. Hair and Make-up). All personnel who work near cast should be masked and wear gloves.
• Physical Contact: Avoid any unnecessary physical contact and touching your face.
• Shared equipment: Avoid using other people’s phones or personal work tools. Any shared tools must be sanitized prior to their hand off to another crew member.
• Viewing monitors: Multiple monitors should be made available to allow people to review footage while maintaining a safe distance.

PPE AND EQUIPMENT & MATERIALS SANITIZING

• Protective gear: Crew will wear protective gear provided by the employer, including face covering, with preference to N95 face masks as long as supplies last. Training and fitting of masks/respiratory devices and all PPE must be provided for proper use per OSHA standards.
• PPE reserves: Extra gloves & masks (at least x3 per crew member), hand sanitizer and sani-wipes will be provided by production and on-hand at all times.
• Audio gear: Use boom microphones instead of neck/Lav microphones in order to maintain social distancing requirements. Lav mics can be used if sanitized prior to hand off, and talent mic’s themselves.
• Sanitize equipment: All equipment will be sanitized before and after each individual use. Only department members should handle their own gear.
• Sanitize props: All props, set dressing and set pieces will be sanitized if they have or will come in physical contact with the cast.
• Off-set editing: Any editing and post-production will be done remotely in order to limit number of personnel on production sites.
• Catering & Craft Services: Food must be provided as single serve meals with individual utensils, brought to set from Crafts Services or Catering by designated individuals, and delivered to individuals for their own consumption and not shared with others.

REQUIREMENTS SPECIFIC TO LOCATION

• Disinfect interiors: Disinfect locations prior to shoot day and let sit sealed and empty proscribed period of time before occupation and then again after shooting prior to returning to the owner.
• Limit access: Limit personnel access inside all locations (i.e. maintain “closed sets” at all times); let crew work in shifts on set and then completely disinfect all areas of locations after completion of photography and before handing over the location to the owners/site representative.
• Limit personnel on location: Based on available space inside a location, put a limit on the number of crew members allowed inside the location at any given time to protect adequate social distancing areas.

1. Production will provide appropriate PPE:

• Gloves and Masks to be made available to all persons at all times.
• All crew are required to wear appropriate PPE, whenever in studio or on location.

2. Limit general interactions between people on set.

• Essential interaction between people on set should follow safe distancing guidelines as set out by the government, currently six feet.

3. Designated Areas for each Department

• Each department will be allocated a designated area on the studio floor or location for
  1. All equipment not being used on set and
  2. As standby area for department crew members.
• Required areas include (but not limited to): Director/1st AD/Script Supervisor; Electric; Camera; Grip; Set Design; Playback/DIT; Hair/ Makeup Standby etc.
• Any department which can remain on standby outside the studio/location, should do so. This could include any cast holding areas, DIT, Standby Riggers and Construction.

4. Use of Radios and other comms.

• Use of radio communication to be employed to limit close personal contact.
• Clear line of communication to be established from Director or 1st AD > Dept. Head > Department members.
• Dept. Heads or nominated persons to be supplied with open comms style headsets to enable quiet, detailed conversation without the need for close contact or a huddle. Onward instructions to be carried out by walkie-talkie.

5. Limited access to communal work areas.

• Strictly one department “pod” at a time working within the physical constraints of a set — e,g. Camera establishes positions after rehearsal then exits; Grip & Lighting department light the set, then exit; followed by Set Dressing & Property department, etc.). All work to be directed/supervised by relevant Dept. Heads with support from 1st AD.
• If dressing/lighting to camera, time will be allowed to set camera, and for camera team to move away to a safe distance before the next department moves in.
• When not working on the set, crew from other departments should move back to their demarcated areas until required.
• Look for opportunities to move more tasks away from set (i.e., stepping off actor to have a mic repositioned)
• Note: These protocols will slow down prep time on set and mean more time will need to be allotted to allow for this safe workflow.

6. Build, Prep and Pre-light days.

• Where prep requires a wider use of the working space within a studio/location, production should endeavor to schedule enough days for departments to work alone and to hand over the set between departments when necessary.
• Time should be allowed to physically mark out the stage for each departmental area prior to the shoot day. Posts/Tape can be used to mark out areas.
• If standby support is required between departments, minimal standby crew to remain on set but must observe guidelines for distancing between departments.

7. Keeping crew off set where possible.

• Wherever possible any member of the crew should stay away from the on-set working environment.
• Production office department to remain off set, in production office at all times. Contact with the shooting crew should be by radio, text, phone and email. Production should determine protocols for all call sheets, reports, and time sheets, etc. to go digital to eliminate the need for paper to be sent between the offices and set.
• H/MU/Costume to allocate dedicated on-set standby artists who remain on set in order to limit movements of crew between off-set areas and the stage.

Remote monitoring for Producers/Execs/Writers (TV/Film) and Agency/Client (Commercials), Standby and Departments.

• Producers/Execs/Writers and Agency/Client stakeholders are encouraged NOT to travel to studio and to make use of remote video conferencing technology if possible.
• If their travel to the studio is unavoidable, Production should provide a room or area, off stage and isolated from the rest of the crew. A production team representative should, in this case, be dedicated to them, and follow the same isolation arrangement.
• Set up a wireless monitoring server on the studio floor to allow all departments to individually monitor the playback on their own devices. Consider allowing closed-network streaming to iPads, iPhones and android devices.
• Set up a secure remote server to provide the same playback footage to stakeholders in a remote locations that have internet access. Log-in codes can be provided.
• Sync on set software can be used to enable remote working for some crew who would normally need to be on set.

Access routes and Fire Lanes within a stage to be kept clear and widened to 6’ width wherever possible. One-way system to be put in place where possible.

10. Hand sanitizer available to each department/crew member, as well as hand washing facilities.

11. Where minivan or shared transport is required to set, vehicles should be allocated and engineered to provide social distancing.

12. Where certain crew are required to move regularly between set and the outside world for the purpose of buying/hiring items for set.

• Observe all distancing measures at other places of business visited.
• PPE to be worn when moving between different areas.
• Establish clear single point of contact with the crew on their return.
• Follow disinfection procedures for anything coming onto set.
• Here is a list from the EPA of disinfectants to use against C-19: www.epa.gov/ pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2

1. Identify areas likely for cross-contamination

• Any areas which have interaction with multiple and cross departmental members to be identified. Examples of such areas are door handles, table areas, bathrooms.

2. Establish measures for disinfecting areas of likely cross contamination

• Regular cleaning of such areas to be scheduled by the cleaning crew.
• Set Services or other crew to be allocated to maintain topical on-demand cleaning.
• Cleaning materials (wipes/antibacterial spray, etc) to be made available for any crew member to clean surfaces on demand.
• Hand sanitizer to be made available to all crew or at designated stations for regular hand-cleaning.
• All crew to be encouraged to wash hands regularly.
• Disposable gloves to be made available to all crew.

3. Specific departmental considerations to be taken into account separately – see links below for more details.

4. List from the EPA of disinfectants to use against C-19

www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2

1. Disinfect all equipment before delivery to the stage/location.

• Rental companies should ensure that any equipment delivered to a shoot should be fully disinfected before loading, and that all staff handling the equipment should wear gloves at all times when handling equipment.
• Upon arrival to studio/location, all equipment to be loaded directly to its designated department area.
• Production should establish additional protocols if rental equipment is to be further disinfected by allocated personnel before being moved onto set.
• Gloves and suitable disinfection materials to be provided.

2. To avoid any potential cross-contamination, equipment should be handled ONLY by department members responsible for that equipment.

• In practice this means that no one may assist in carrying any equipment unless they are allocated directly to that department. Where this is unavoidable, production is to provide gloves, masks and hand sanitizer as needed to any temporary help.

3. Production protocols should be established for any equipment or materials which by necessity must cross between departments.

4. Hand sanitizer must be made available to each department/crew member, as well as hand washing facilities.

5. Crew must not touch, move, lean against, sit on, pick up or otherwise disturb any piece of equipment which is not directly under their purview.

6. Consider using UV light cleaners where possible and where they can be safely operated.

7. List from the EPA of disinfectants to use against C-19

www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2

8. CDC General Business FAQs

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/general-business-faq.html

1. Base Camp to be situated within walking distance of location, whenever possible.

2. Safe distancing during transit

When equipment and personnel transportation is required, additional vehicles to be provided to ensure safe distancing is not compromised in transit.

3. Sanitizing during transit

Production will provide cleaning of communal areas in transport. Consider providing a cleaning unit to be on hand at all times to constantly sanitize, as well as dedicated “cleaning valet” at honey wagon or other portable bathrooms to clean each bathroom between uses.

4. Masks and Gloves to be worn whenever using communal transport.

Training should be provided to all crew members in how to use and remove gloves, masks and other PPE and calculating measured social distancing

5. Individual private vehicles to be used ONLY where safe and practicable.

6. Dining areas to be expanded in size to allow for adequate distancing measures.

Building-based dining areas (halls, gyms, etc.) offer much safer environments to ensure safe distancing. Sterilization of dining areas should be performed at least 1 day ahead of use and at least one day ahead of returning to owners.

7. Toilet facilities to be increased on a per-person ratio.

Due to their restricted size, a limit to the number of people using a mobile toilet facility at any one time should be considered, depending on the size/design of the facility. A cleaning valet should be assigned to clean after each use.

8. Ventilation of spaces

The risk of spreading the virus that causes COVID-19 through ventilation systems has not been fully studied, but is likely low. Routine HVAC maintenance is recommended. Although it is never the first line of prevention, consider general ventilation adjustments in your workplace, such as increasing ventilation and increasing the amount of outdoor air used by the system. Maintain the indoor air temperature and humidity at comfortable levels for building occupants. Research the use of fans – airflow can help with dispersal of micro-droplets while it can also be shown to spread the micro-droplets. Consider the effects within buildings with enclosed air systems like hotels, restaurants, church halls, etc. The key seems to be ventilation with filtration:
○ https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/resources
○ https://www.achrnews.com/articles/143102-hvac-systems-should-be-checked-before-buildings-reopen-due-to-covid-19

9. Cast holding areas should be expanded in size to allow for adequate distancing measures.

Sterilization of holding areas should be performed at least 1 day ahead of use and at least one day ahead of returning to owners. Ventilation (see above).

10. Where dressing rooms are provided, these rooms shall be offered on a strict single-occupancy basis, unless to members of the same household.

11. Makeup/Hair/Costume facilities will need to be expanded to allow for adequate distancing measures.

Additional trailers may be needed or supplementary large, open plan interior spaces where available

12. Where possible, production parking areas at location should be isolated from any access by members of the public, or persons not on the shoot.

13. Add. consideration should be given to space between working vehicles to allow for safe distancing guidelines to be observed during loading/unloading/working processes.

14. Appropriate PPE, as determined by the job hazards assessment, is to be used where more than one person is required to unload/carry equipment and 6’ distancing is not possible.

15. Where possible, access routes should not be shared by members of the public, or persons not engaged on the shoot. Try to arrange exclusive use of access points for cast and crew to all locations to minimize third party contact.

16. Where it is possible, attempt to create one-way access routes into and out of locations should be arranged, to avoid crew crossing in confined spaces/corridors.

17. List from the EPA of disinfectants to use against C-19

www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2

18. CDC General Business FAQs

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/general-business-faq.html