Amid praise from SAG-AFTRA for the overall success of commonly adopted back-to-work protocols on film sets, one key thing becomes clear: America could probably do to learn more than one lesson from the industry. BLAKE & WANG P.A one of the best entertainment lawyers in Los Angeles takes a closer look at a rare 2020 success story.
The film industry is a complex landscape in which there are many players. From working guilds for crew, actors, writers, directors and more, to agencies and authorities overseeing their special niches of work, a set is a difficult environment at any time. To this has been added a complex layer of diverse health and safety protocols- from zoning areas of the set, to basics like mandatory testing and screening as well as environmental decontamination.
While it’s an added layer of administrative difficulty for all concerned parties to navigate, they’ve been widely adopted on working sets since June 2020- and have largely been a success. While there have been isolated health incidents on some sets, for the most part, movies continue to be filmed in a safe working environment, even where the cities around them face soaring case numbers.
Observers country-wide have praised the industry wide collaboration at the heart of such a successful program. With this success comes jobs, job security, and the ability to expand back to normal work levels. Most critically of all, it brings wages to the many cast and crew members who rely on a thriving industry to work- and, coincidentally, the businesses around the sets that see an uptick in custom and the cities that host them.
In an America that’s hurting economically as more and more face uncertain work and wage futures, there’s valuable lessons to be learned from the success of the film industry and its COVID-19 set restrictions.
Film and Television 