COVID-19 has not only affected the health of an extremely high number of citizens all over the world, but it has also affected the main source of entertainment for many – our beloved TV shows and many of the movies we had been looking forward to for months. Obviously, this is not the main concern in our minds as we wade through the muddy and unsure waters of the pandemic, but film and television industries have been some of the many collateral victims of coronavirus.
As the pandemic continued to gain seriousness in mid-March, many films that were set to premiere in the following months decided to postpone their releases until 2021 or the final months of 2020. Mulan’s release was originally postponed indefinitely; however, on August 17th, they announced that the release would take place through the streaming platform Disney+, meaning there would be no movie theater release. Some films have also followed in Mulan’s footsteps, but others such as A Quiet Place Part II and F9 have decided to maintain their release for 2021.
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TV shows such as Riverdale, The Bachelorette, Supernatural and Grey’s Anatomy had to completely halt filming to avoid the many interactions on set that increase the risk of any crew members contracting coronavirus. Some of these shows had to postpone filming, and Grey’s Anatomy even decided to use the last episode they filmed as their season finale since they were only missing the production of four episodes.
Given that the pandemic has lasted much longer than expected, the film industry has had to compromise and set its regulations to continue filming certain projects. Crews are being separated into “pods” that restrict the number of interactions between separate departments. The temperatures and health of cast members are also constantly being monitored to control who goes on set. And – you guessed it – crowd scenes will not be allowed for the time being.
Although we had movie theaters close down, we regained drive-in theaters – a nostalgic option that is having a long-overdue comeback. This goes to show that despite the pandemic continuing to take away many of the things we love, we have learned to compromise and find new methods to conserve our entertainment in a way that is both fun and safe!