PRODUCTION


SCRIPTED RETURNS


The Third Day, starring Jude Law and Naomie Harris, consists of three parts - Summer, Autumn and Winter. Two are traditionally shot dramas but the third is something very different. A theatrical live event that will be a single camera drama broadcast live on Sky Arts as the 12 hour show takes place on the Essex island of Osea. Created by theatrical innovators Punchdrunk and co- directed by artistic director of Punchdrunk Felix Barrett and Marc Munden, Vicki Betihavas was brought in to plan and run the live production of the show.


Was this planned pre COVID? The Autumn episode was originally planned to be an immersive theatrical event, like a festival where the audience could immerse themselves in that world. And then COVID struck. So you couldn’t have 2000 people on an island. That’s when they got in touch with me to make this a live TV show? I took them through the process of what would be involved. And then they told me it was 12 hours! I’d done Woody Harrelson’s Lost in London. We did 102 minutes and


38 televisual.com Autum 2020


that was challenging enough. No one’s done a one camera, one take performance live like this. What has COVID added to the complexity? If we were not in COVID times, it would be complicated enough. But the fact that we have to factor in COVID adds a complication and a cost. Health and safety looked at the size of the island and worked out what the maximum headcount could be. It’s not like a normal project where you can have people come and go, it’s been a real logistical jigsaw to manage because we are only allowed 300 people at any one time on the island. That creates its own set of considerations around delivery. You can’t have the extra grip or lighting person or costume person. Will the island itself be a bubble? We’re staggering arrivals until we peak at the number we’re allowed to peak at. But, once you’re on the island, you can’t leave the island because the island becomes a bubble (there are departmental bubbles too). Also we’re on an island that has a tidal causeway. So you’re limited to your on and off times. There isn’t enough


accommodation for 300 people on the island. In normal times they could have stayed off site in hotels but now we’re having to build almost like a tented city (though it’s not actually tents) Has communication been tough? Most of this has been done over zoom. The traditional broadcast production meeting where everybody sits around a big table has not been able to happen. We’ve done site visits obviously but even on the site visits, everybody’s been careful not to stand next to each other. we’re wearing masks. Traditionally you’d have more time to sit down and work through things. Will it look like the other parts of the drama? We are filming this as a film. It will be very similar in look and feel to the series. It won’t jar greatly. So it’s a digital film camera that’s being used with 35 RF antennas dotted around the island. Our job is to support the creative. The technology is not dictating how it’s done, the technology is enabling the vision to be to be imagined. We want to keep that cinematic feel to it, it was never going to look like a sports broadcast.


DRAMA, PART OF PUNCHDRUNK’S THE THIRD DAY FOR SKY IS A


VICKI BETIHAVAS, MD OF LIVE PRODUCTION


EXPLAINS HOW IT WILL BE DONE


ISLAND OF OSEA.


OUTFIT NINETEEN FIFTEEN,


12 HOUR LIVE DRAMA SHOT ON THE ESSEX


ALONG WITH A TRADITIONAL


THE THIRD DAY


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