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Production must not stop if an actor gets infected

June 26, 2020

Maribel Ramos-Weiner

Webinar by Produ

When considering the possibility of an actor getting infected, the panelists of the fourth PRODU webinar, Arranque de Grabaciones con Los Nuevos Protocolos, coincide in that deciding what to do will depend on the size of the series and the actor´s role in it. “If it is a daily series that allows a 25-character cast, it is possible to take that actor out until he recovers. But if it is a smaller and less choral series, if all the scripts are ready, it is possible to work doing other scenes while the actor recovers. You have to juggle and balance, do the best you can, but never stop shooting,” said Montse García, Fiction director at Atresmedia TV.

Humberto Miró, executive co-producer of Boomerang TV´s series Acacias 38, confessed having “revolutionary ideas”, after commenting that you can replicate what is done in theater, where everybody has a cover. However, Emilio Pino, executive producer of the series Servir y Proteger from Plano a Plano, pointed out that the easiest solution would be at the script level, although it always depends on the moment the shooting is in.

To the question, if someone getting infected on the set is the responsibility of the production company, Miró commented that the production company gives the entire personnel protection equipment, enforces the fulfillment of the protocol and social distancing, but cannot control what each person does when leaving the set. “If there is an infection, you cannot prove it happened in or out of the set,” he said.