How movie and TV projects will have to adapt to Covid-19, with virtual sets like Disney’s The Mandalorian

The coronavirus pandemic shut down major Hollywood productions in March and five months later it is still unclear when most TV and film projects will start back up again. What we do know is that concerns about health and safety will shape how TV and films are made and it’s possible we’ll see significant changes – changes that were already in the works, but might be more rapidly adopted thanks to the challenges posed by Covid-19. What might the near future look like? The more a production can control its environment – and who enters it – the better. That could mean fewer scenes shot on location, with everything done on sound stages instead using high-resolution, 3D photorealistic video backdrops. Instead of a green screen, it’s creating a virtual reality that the actors can see and inhabit – interiors, landscapes, whatever. This kind of sophisticated technology already exists for video games, and it was used to shoot The Mandalorian for Disney+. YouTubers turn to subscriptions and e-commerce as coronavirus pandemic dries up advertising income Richard Janes is an entertainment analyst and the founder of the influencer studio Fanology. He recently wrote about what kind of changes he sees coming. “The future was definitely moving this way anyway,” he says. “The technology coming out of the gaming world has just been improving so much, but with the streaming wars and Covid happening at the same time, everything has been fast-tracked.” With so many streaming platforms in need of content, studios have to find faster and cheaper ways to make that happen. And a crew moving from one real-world location to another is more time-consuming and expensive than shooting on a sound stage. “Also, we’re in a situation where insurance is difficult for film production,” Janes says. “A lot of insurance is not covering Covid-related illness for any new productions. If you’re a multimillion dollar project and suddenly one of your lead cast members tests positive and has to go into quarantine for two weeks, the economic impact on the project can be absolutely massive. So they have to work out better ways to control those environments.” Visual effects tend to drive up costs (the budget for Universal’s adaptation of Cats was reportedly anywhere from US$100 million to US$297 million) but Janes thinks that’s going to come way down, partly because these virtual environments will be captured by the camera and won’t require as much labour-intensive frame-by-frame CGI after the fact. “Also, as with any technology, the more people who use it, the cheaper it becomes,” Janes says. “Seeing the two worlds of gaming and film combine in this particular area, the cost implications will come down in a very quick way,” Janes says. “Pre-Covid, I think this would have been five to eight years off, but I think we’re going to see that in the next two years.” If this technology does become affordable, even to indie filmmakers at lower budgets, Janes sees the potential: a small film can create the look of an expansive world in ways that would never be possible otherwise. Films and TV rely on casting companies to provide background extras. And production designers rely on prop houses – warehouses filled with all sorts of ephemera – to flesh out the visual world of their TV show or film. Janes thinks much of this will go digital as well, and that filmmakers will license virtual props and virtual people. “The prop houses that 3D scan all their props the soonest are going to have the brand positioning in the marketplace” and will be able to make quite a bit money without any of the hassle of physical storage. “And yes,” Janes says, “you’re going to see a smaller number of [real life] background actors on set, because you can’t really quarantine them for two weeks to ensure it’s safe for them to be there for one day and be close to the cast.” Janes also sees this technology extending to hair, make-up and costumes. But there are drawbacks if filmmaking becomes even more of a digital experience, according to Sydette Harry, a writer and research fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. One problem is potentially forgoing the serendipity that happens when actors are on location. If everything is shot on a sound stage, cast and crew will never have to interact in real-world spaces, walling themselves off even more than they are already. Populating a scene with digital extras means everything is less messy. Less human. “And I don’t trust [creatives in Hollywood] to interrogate that going forward,” Harry says. Seeing the two worlds of gaming and film combine in this particular area, the cost implications will come down in a very quick way. Pre-Covid, I think this would have been five to eight years off, but I think we’re going to see that in the next two years Richard Janes, entertainment analyst There are more downsides. Projects may start asking cast members to have their likeness scanned for possible future use someway, somehow. This has already happened on big titles, including the Star Wars franchise (and some actors are choosing to do this on their own, with an eye to licensing their digitised likeness in the future) but Janes wonders if this might become standard practice on projects of any size. “You can envision it as an insurance requirement,” he says. “Personally I don’t believe we’re at a stage where we have the ability to do that cost-effectively and have it look natural, but I don’t think it will be too long until that happens. “There’s risk associated with it, because what happens to that asset after you’re done filming? On the other hand, the actor doesn’t have to be on set as much but they’re still earning the same money. It’s basically the extension of the idea of stunt doubles.”