Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1316563
8 P E R S P E C T I V E | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0 N E W S COVID-19 Protocols and Their Impact on Art Departments B Y D A V I D M O R O N G , E D I T O R A. COVID SIGNAGE OUTSIDE STAGE ENTRANCE. PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE ARNOLD, PRODUCTION DESIGNER OF MIDNIGHT MASS. Production is ramping up in North America, with over 100 productions currently is progress and working under COVID protocols. The prevailing health and safety requirements impact both the process and the implementation of the work done in the Art Department. There are variations in how productions are adapting to these new reuirements, and the specifics of the protocols may have been developed by the unions, production companies, networks, local health officials or some combination of those groups, but there are certain trends and commonalities that have emerged as the battle plans have been put into action. One adaptation from the first day of preproduction is distance working. Any element of the design process that can be done remotely is moved off-site. Set Designers and Graphic Artists almost always fall into this category, and most Production Designers and Art Directors limit their presence in the office, on stage and in the mill as much as possible. Production meetings and design presentations are done over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts or other group video conferencing applications. New digital solutions have been embraced to solve this separation of collaborators. The Art Department on the CBS sit- com SuperStore has been using Trello, an online organizer, to streamline the workflow within the department, and find Marco Polo, a video texting app, to be very useful to quickly send messages back-and-forth. Art Director Elliot LaPlante credits both these apps with being key to keeping things running smoothly. For crew that cannot work exclusively off-site, testing is the core of the safely protocols. All crew members need to be tested and cleared before they are allowed on site, and most productions have implemented two levels of testing, crew who do not need to work directly in the presence of the actors are tested once a week, and those who need to work on set and close to talent get tested 2- times a week. Every day on site reuires first going through a health screening checklist, hand (and sometimes cellphone) sanitization and a temperature check, with colored wristbands often issued to those who pass muster. There have been numerous other adjustments and accommodations required. The greater control of working on stage has led to many sets being built that might have previously been shot on location. Victoria Paul, the Production Designer of NCIS: New Orleans, notes that that production will only consider exterior locations that allow the needed distance for safety, and all A