SCRIPTED RETURNS
PRODUCTION
RED PLANET PICTURES’ GUADELOPE- SET DEATH IN PARADISE FOR BBC ONE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST BRITISH SINGLE CAMERA DRAMAS TO GET BACK INTO PRODUCTION AFTER LOCKDOWN. MD ALEX JONES AND EP TIM KEY EXPLAIN HOW IT WAS DONE
The 10th series of Red Planet’s BBC1 drama started shooting in July, one of the first British dramas to do so. Md Alex Jones and EP Tim Key explain how.
Have you created a bubble on set? We are in a bubble in one sense, in that we are on an island and most of our cast and crew are not mixing with anyone except their colleagues - the UK crew are not going home to their families nor are they using public transport. But it’s not a true bubble, in the sense that our local crew members are not isolating during their engagement with the show, which is why we continue to observe social distancing both behind and in front of the camera. We film outdoors a huge amount, which is definitely an advantage, but the key thing is social distancing, PPE and regular testing of everyone associated with the production, including suppliers. Has COVID forced script changes? We are luckier than many shows in that the nature of our programme suits a COVID world more than others might. We don’t tend to have big crowd scenes, there are rarely intimate scenes and we already film outdoors a lot to make the most of the
view, for example. So we were able to proceed with only minimal changes to our scripts. We’re taking everything on a case-by-case basis as every creative challenge is unique and the guidance also evolves, meaning that what wasn’t possible a week ago may be possible now. And vice versa! How do socially distance performances? A lot of our show makes social distancing on screen fairly easy - we have scenes of one or two people interviewing one or two people, for example. The desks in our police station set are well over a metre apart. And outside it is fairly easy to keep our actors apart. Elsewhere, camera angles and editing tricks help us a lot. For example, one actor can be wearing a mask if their face is out of vision. But this is extremely rare - most of the time we’re able to maintain social distancing. What tech changes have you made? We’ve added more monitors to the floor and use a system whereby crew can log on to the video feed on phones and tablets, which has reduced the need for everyone to huddle around monitors. We’ve used long lenses more than in the past, which helped make up some of the time that the
extra measures have cost. But we also decided early on that our best chance of getting going was to stick as closely as possible to how we normally did things. We resisted temptations to shoot some of the show in the UK, or use green screen or anything like that. By honing our usual system, we were able to hit the ground running on day one, and since then we’ve completed every day and have nearly shot our first two episodes. Has the Guadeloupe base helped or hindered? The biggest challenge during Corona has probably been simply getting people there and back, with evolving rules and airline cancellations. Quarantining is obviously a huge obstacle, but thus far we have managed to work round all the challenges. We had to commit to filming quite early as it takes over 4 weeks for the boat to cross the Atlantic with all our equipment. But cases are low in Guadeloupe, there is no need for mass public transport each day, no crowded cities and we film outdoors a huge amount. We are semi isolated already by the nature of what we do, so the risk is lower - but the virus is of course still present and we take it very seriously.
Autumn 2020
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DEATH IN PARADISE
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