The most expensive shoots are back, with fewer extras and without hugs or sex

Paco Plaza's grandmother is a horror movie. Its producer, Enrique López Lavigne, is convinced that it is more scary now. "Everything that has happened," he says, "requires rereading it from top to bottom. Perception is another. We are already others » . His comment, between enlightened and only cryptic, gives the measure of what can be considered the film of the pandemic. In your case (between interruptions and postponements), the Film Institute counts up to 40 films in total.The quarantine stopped filming in the middle (60% completed) and now, with the imminence of Phase 1, everything else remains to be completed. But how? Among the cloud of protocols that take charge of health regulations (the ICAA is working with the sector in a common one), the film is set to face the week and a half that is missing from the end of June onwards. We can't delay it any longer and roll sooner ... either. Too much uncertainty, "he says while counting measurements: that if you test , that if tight equipment, that if separation measures ..." The only clear thing is that without counting the dismantling and commissioning again, the the extra cost will be 5% or 7% ”, he affirms not with fear, but almost.

His case is somewhat different from that of television, the Diagonal production company announces that (phase change through) they will be the first. Under his responsibility, two daily series such as Amar es para siempre and Mercado central. “We have already tested the entire team and the dressing rooms have adapted. There are partitions in the hairdresser and makeup, and all the cars are individualized. What's more, there are some sanitary rugs at the entrance to the filming set ”, explains producer Jaume Banacolocha in detail regarding the first of the cited ones. «With Mercado we are more relaxed. There is reserve material and we will leave it for next month, "he adds. Theirs is a piece-rate production model in which the chapters fall at a daily rate. Non stop. He acknowledges that there has been some positive in the team, but not in any of the essentials. And what would happen if there were? Fear again. “It would not be the first time that due to pregnancy or illness, the script has been changed so that an actor or actress is replaced. In fact, we have already taken precautions and many scenes with hugs or kisses have been removed to limit the risks, "he confesses. There will be the same affection between the characters, but less evident, off the field.

Mariela Besuievsky , from the production company Tornasol, expresses herself in the same sense. She now returns to the Ana Tramel series that saw how the first day of filming coincided with the start of confinement. Everything will start at the end of June and will do so with the script duly revised. “A good part of the scenes with extras have been removed. The more people the more risk. And, of course, we are going to witness a strange wave of puritanism. Every hot scene , from now on you have to think about it a lot, "he says. The producer acknowledges that an outdoor sequence where there are fewer controllable elements can skyrocket the budget by up to 15% more. And, in their accounts, the fork at the bottom never drops, not even in small films, from 6%. "The original five million in the series are now five and a half million," he says .

Not far away, José Antonio Félez, from Tesela, prefers not to move. And so, the "complex" Alberto Rodríguez film that should have started in March is left for October and the series by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo is already left for next year. “The risk is great, and the coronavirus protocols, which basically consist of using common sense, lengthen the time frame greatly. We have read filming protocols for advertising that are not applicable to the cinema. It is not enough to test the actors at first. They must be repeated every 15 days. And what happens with the permits of the municipalities to shoot outdoors? And the catering? Is it really possible to individualize it? The uncertainty is too much ”, he concludes and, indeed, it is scary. Even more.

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