Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1335010
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 65 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 65 That's all fi ne and good until those multiple test swabs in a week start to reveal how leaky a set of a hundred people can be. Now there was no way to take solace in the fact that it didn't really feel much different from the before time. This was my fi rst production experience since the spring 2020 economic shutdown, but it was not the fi rst experience for many of my colleagues who warned me of the lackadaisical environment. It should have felt so much different. DEAR DIARY: We Have Some Bumps In The Road. As always in production, the days start to go by fast as you build good momentum. Before we knew it, we were almost a month into fi lming! That's when the tension hit. It starts with rumors, then producers on set showing texts to specifi c department heads, crews starting to clean their high-touch gear, and worry on everyone's faces. That awful feeling where you know something is up. Then memos came out that revealed a couple positive cases on the show. They stated that they were unrelated, isolated, and contact tracing had been performed. If you were still there, then you were not in close contact with the positive individuals. The producers called this "bumps in the road." Production commenced. Fair enough, but many people on the cast and crew started to get very weary. A couple of days went by and it was quiet and normal. Then, suddenly, there was an announcement of three positive cases. Because of the ambiguity demanded by HIPAA laws, it starts to become really unclear as to the number of cases. Is it just one more on top of the original two? Or is it three more in addition to the original two? The confusion and ambiguity added to the tension among the cast, crew, and production. Privacy with individuals' health is important and should be respected—not to mention it's the law. But here it created a space where the perception of it all felt like covering up. Even if this wasn't the case, it shouldn't feel that way. Customized standards could be put in place where things are communicated, threading that needle between responsible privacy and transparency. DEAR DIARY: We'll Press On. We had several positives. We pressed on. We saw new faces on the crew. Were they gone as a precaution because of contact tracing? Are they sick? Are they OK? This is all such uncharted territory that it's hard to even know how to feel. I was concerned for my missing colleagues, but was also trying to trust that they are being looked after and fully taken care of by production. I was also trying to remain calm and brave. You don't want to just listen to rumors of who is sick, who's positive but asymptomatic, or who's out for other reasons. We would rather just trust that production is doing the right thing through and through. You also don't want to panic and, especially when in a leadership role, contribute to the potential panic of anyone else. Still, we pressed on. DEAR DIARY: We Have To Shut Down. Then came the day when we returned from lunch excited to fi nish the day's work, which was also the completion of the week's work. After about a half-hour of wondering what we were waiting for, we were told to remove any equipment that may be inside the set we were fi lming in prior to going to lunch. I walked in to grab my boom operator's stand setup to see a crew of Health & Safety (H&S) assistants fogging the entire set with some sort of disinfecting agent. I had never seen anything like it before. The producers came down to make an announcement that "out of an abundance of caution" we were going to wrap for the day. A cast member who was administered a rapid test at lunch had tested positive. It could be a false positive since the rapid tests are often less accurate than a PCR type test, but that was unlikely. It was all new information and