Being Accustomed to Solving Problems

As already suggested by the pragmatism, the thing that is most striking about the participants’

experiences of the pandemic, is that, by accepting the initial uncertainty and the lack of control, the gravitas of the situation was lessened to such an extent that it was seemingly not a big deal anymore. More precisely, the common consensus was that “this is just something on top” (PB, 2021), “it has not been something special to us” (PD, 2021), or “[that has] just added another uncertainty and it’s not so bad in the end” (PE, 2021). The reason for this can be pinpointed to the general uncertainty within filmmaking and the constant problem solving that is a necessity on any production. “There’s all these different elements of shooting and uncertainty in

filmmaking and shooting in general” (PB, 2021). “I think we are constantly dealing with crises” (PD, 2021). Director B further explained that every film shoot “[is] more or less always a novel process, it’s an untried process in the details” and therefore, “people are so used to working long hours in weird places and always having to fight against the impossible” (DB, 2021). This was also recognised by Executive D, who stated that, “we’ve adopted better than many other industries” and attributed it to “being an industry […] with people being quite used to problem solving, I think people turn around much quicker than many other industries” (ED, 2021). Producer A also acknowledged that the general uncertainty within the industry makes people very adept to reacting to unexpected events: “the film industry is an industry that always has to react to a brutal amount of unforeseen things anyway. We in this industry are actually used to some shit happening all the time and having to change and rethink everything from one day to the next” (PA, 2021). Therefore, it can be recognised that although “people in general found it very challenging and stressful, because it’s been an additional challenge, [they at least]

are used to looking for solutions” (ED, 2021), which arguably greatly improved how the pandemic was dealt with. Producer E laughed as he elaborated on the constant problem solving that occurs on film sets and explained: “I could talk for hours about weird shit that's happened that you’re not prepared for” (PE, 2021). While there are daily issues such as accidents, changing weather conditions, delays, or sicknesses where “you always have to rearrange and you always lose time and money and everything” (PA, 2021), Producer E volunteered more unique anecdotes to really underline the notion of the unexpected and substantiate his claims.

When talking about a “a film that involved a lot of waterworks” he remembered one cast member who “was allergic to, you know, neoprene suits […]. And he had forgotten about it and he asked me to come to his trailer and his balls had like become really big because of his allergy. So, he couldn't wear his costume” (PE, 2021). Furthermore, he mentioned dealing with terrorist issues in Pakistan and Morocco, making deals with the Mob, and recalled one specific incident where he was meeting up with drug dealers at three o’clock in the morning to split up corners during a film shoot and concluded by stating “and you go home, just another day at work” (ibid.). The obscurity and uniqueness of these examples aptly indicates the extreme variety of things that a film production may have to deal with unexpectedly. Regardless of the exact nature of such incidents, the key theme that transpires is that they are a permanent feature of film projects and need to be handled with little or no preparation as they arise. Therefore, dealing with bigger issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic was seemingly less problematic

“Because it’s every day for us to have crises. So, mentally you are geared to that constantly”

(PD, 2021) Therefore, Producer E stated that now where “sort of the COVID thing is a fact, it’s really business as usual” (PE, 2021), or in the words of Producer C, “business like every other day” (PC, 2021). Therefore, it is not surprising that the universal consensus was that “for most producers [who are] dealing with all kinds of crap, [COVID is] just another thing” (PE, 2021).

4.1.2 Gung-Ho Mentality¹ and Fighting Spirit

As a result of the permanent exposure to crisis situations, film workers tend to be quite adaptable and flexible. This notion is summarised by Producer A, who stated that “we essentially are constantly confronted by such situations”, therefore, if something happens, we are not surprised but know “OK, now, what’s Plan B” and “What else can we do?” (PA, 2021).

For example, she, mentioned working on a documentary at the start of the pandemic, and explained that “we had to modify a lot” in response to the life of one of the protagonists being upended as a result of COVID-19 (PA, 2021). Consequently, Producer C, recognised a characteristic Gung-Ho mentality, within the industry in dealing with the pandemic: “There’s like this Gung-Ho spirit that we need to keep fighting and, you know, get things moving and start shooting and keep the wheels turning and stuff like that” (PC, 2021). Producer E articulated a similar sentiment when he explained that a positive attitude was integral: “we’re like dogs, you know, what’s happening right now is what's happening and there's nothing we can do to change that. […] There really isn’t much we can do if it's raining” (PE, 2021). Both Producer E and Producer A exemplified how such an attitude manifests itself as “the production office is really just a space where I have an internet connection and if I don't have an internet connection, I could do it with my phone, if I don't have a phone, I use radio, if we don't have a radio, I'll have to start with notes” (ibid.) and “when something happens, you're just focused and somehow find two other solutions within no time at all” (PA, 2021). Producer A further extended on this notion by establishing “[being] very quick to respond and react very flexibly and spontaneously” as “one of the basic requirements of this industry” (ibid.). Which, according to Producer E, is why “we're all used to working out of trailers or hotel rooms or a quiet corner or whatever it is” (PE, 2021). This was confirmed by Director A, who recalled

1 Gung-ho (adjective): “extremely enthusiastic about doing something, especially going to war” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.)

closely collaborating with an editor a couple of weeks ago, while having to stay in a hotel for several days (DA, 2021).

The data analysis showed that this inherent adaptability on an industry and individual level is precipitated by the structural environment. More precisely, the industry’s labour dynamics, as well as the intricate financial structures, both enable and require flexibility in coping with unexpected events. First, the former is highlighted by Director B who explained that “since I have been a freelancer until recently, I am so used to navigating in the uncertainty of what’s coming up around the corner. […] you really never know if what you’re doing now is your last job. You have no idea if the phone is ever going to ring again” and how navigating in this uncertainty requires “all financial structures [to be] built to facilitate that sort of gooeyness”

(DB, 2021). In addition, Executive D praised freelancers as being responsible for the quick problem solving within the industry: “I think that is in general because it is freelancers that come in and are used to turning around quite quickly to sort things” (ED, 2021). By reverting to Bechky (2006), it can be recognised that freelancers are required to cope with uncertainty swiftly and effectively due to the structural characteristics of the film industry. In other words, due to the temporary nature of film projects and the high risk associated with them, “production managers prefer to hire those they know will do a professional job” and “with whom they feel comfortable” (ibid., p. 9). Therefore, based on the importance of reputation in a network-based industry (Jones & DeFillippi, 1996), it can be recognised that being adaptable and flexible is a precondition for film workers, due to directly affecting the likelihood of future collaborations.

Additionally, the finite nature of film projects encouraged Producer A “to start shooting as soon as we could, because we could not postpone further than the end of October, since actors had other theatre commitments then” and there was no guarantee that they could get the same composition of the case for next year (PA, 2021).

Second, film projects require an elaborate network of investors, be it government funds, or co-producers, who generally insist on a contingency insurance (PA, 2021). However, in order for the insurance companies to cover eventual expenses “we are obliged to take damage-reducing measures” (PA, 2021). “You cannot just say ‘Oh, we cannot film today because this person is sick’” but “even for regular accidents or sickness where you normally have insurances, they always ask us to act like we don’t have an insurance” (PF, 2021). This is why you always try

“to have an option because something else always happens” (PE, 2021). For example, “if you plan to shoot on the beach for a day, of course, it rains that day. What do you do? You rewrite

the script, you move it into a bar, you do it by the pool, you know, you constantly have to adapt”

(ibid.). Therefore, it can be recognised that reacting effectively to unexpected events is predicated by structural characteristics and epitomised by film workers due to repeated exposure to such situations. Furthermore, it indicates the innate gung-ho spirit and why the COVID-19 pandemic, for the film industry was “not that different from any other kind of accident or sickness or something that occurs on a film production. [Since we] will always look for possibilities to keep the show running” (PF, 2021). Executive D reinforced this by acknowledging that “of course, it’s challenging for the production to actually adapt to these things overnight. [But] that’s what a film shoot is about, it is solving problems, so, they handle it” (ED, 2021). As a result, Director B even went as far as to refer to film production as “a micro cosmos of complexity handling procedures” (DB, 2021).

One sector of the industry where this gung-ho mentality seemingly did not transpire is within exhibition. More precisely, the value chain for a feature film that is planned for a cinema release is clearly defined in that “they have a fixed exploitation cascade [where] a film first goes into the cinema, then into the video business, then into the pay TV business, and then into free TV”

(EB, 2021). Furthermore, Producer A mentioned that the film financing is essentially tied to the type of release that is intended: “you actually defined the film as a theatrical film with these subsidies that you picked up” (PA, 2021). Therefore, it can be recognised that swiftly adapting to cinema closures by switching to a streaming release may not always be possible. Moreover, the case of Producer C shows that, when possible, doing so may even have dire consequences.

More precisely, he explained that when they opted for an early release with a streaming service,

“the cinemas won’t take it even though they like the film and they could see that they could sell tickets to it” (PC, 2021). The reason for this is that these release windows are extremely strict and “you have to obey these windows, otherwise, even though they like your film, they don’t take it” (ibid.). The clearly defined windows compounded the already bad situation for films that had a theatrical release shortly before the cinemas were shut down. More precisely, “the theatrical release has a major influence on the sales to the television business. The better a film does in theatres, the more expensive it is for television to buy it. And if you as a studio, release a good film that is hacked to death [by cinema closures], then it has no value in the television business” (EB, 2021). Therefore, despite “the film studios [wanting] their money back as quickly as possible” (ibid.), postponing a release, similar to how the new James Bond movie was consistently moved back for over a year, may be more sensible despite a deferred payday.

However, it was indicated that the production studios have seemingly utilised the pandemic to shorten these windows: “there probably will be […] a much shorter window where the films will exclusively be in the cinema” (PD, 2021), and to introduce hybrid release models: “On some of the feature films we have in development now we are looking at a parallel run […], we may go […] theatrical or we may go streaming. So, we keep those options open or a combination of the two of them” (PE, 2021).

4.1.3 Anticipating Potential Risks

Because the occurrence and the permanence of the COVID-19 pandemic could have hardly been foreseen, handling its consequences required ad-hoc coping capabilities. However, the crisis greatly increased the existing uncertainty within the industry and precipitated a looming fear of production shutdowns, which posed further challenges for film projects that needed to be accounted for by production managers and executives. In line with the inherent ad-hoc resilience of film workers, Producer E, advocated that “the most seasoned producers and line producers and the staff [will] always have, you know, a Plan B”, since “the most expensive thing to do is not shoot” (PE, 2021). More precisely, he mentioned that when they filmed “on some oil rigs […] this fall with a very narrow window [of only four days], a shutdown would have been disastrous for us because the rig was going out again. It’s not coming back” (ibid.).

As a result of increased risk, they formulated a contingency plan where they “[adjusted] the script to just be there for like two days in that section, so, in case we had someone getting the virus, we could sort of delay things enough to finish the day and then make another Plan C or Plan D, whatever it was” (ibid.). Producer C confirmed this notion by saying “when you do a production, you have an uncertainty margin, you know, you have a contingency if things blow up or things go bad” (PC, 2021). Another thing that complicated the management of film projects during COVID was related to location management (PB, 2021; PE, 2021). Producer E explained when talking about scouting houses that “the most difficult thing with this whole situation is that a lot of stuff that normally is easy-peasy and you can just say ‘Sure, we’ll do that, we’ll find a house tomorrow’, may suddenly take a week as opposed to a day. And even then, you’re not sure because people keep changing their minds” (PE, 2021). For Producer B, mitigating the risk associated with external resources was among her main concerns, next to crew and cast: “with external resources, equipment companies, locations and so on, [we were]

really trying to minimise our risk. So, in case where we’re not shooting for a period of time, we would not have to pay the full amount for whatever service” (PB, 2021).

Nonetheless, while contingency plans for minimising specific location-based risks are a possibility, Producer F, established that regarding the worst-case scenario, where you have to completely stop a production due to a COVID incident, “it’s really difficult to have a Plan B”

and that in such a situation, ad-hoc responses are necessary as “you have to consider the immediate situation and then you have to act on that” (PE, 2021). One mitigation strategy, for COVID cases that do not require a full shutdown, is keeping the writer employed throughout the whole project (ED, 2021; PB, 2021). Executive D elaborated that “I think we manged a lot because I’ve had decided to keep the writer on for the duration. If I hadn’t done that, I think we would be much harder affected, because now we had a writer that actually had the time and the head to say ‘This change doesn’t matter in terms of the content, in terms of the arc, in terms of the whole series. We can do that, it doesn’t really matter’, or ‘This can’t be done’ (ED, 2021).

Producer B decided on the same strategy for the production of a TV series, in order to increase adaptability: “[the] screenwriter is still working on the project even though the scripts have been finished because we need to have her on the side in case something happens” (PB, 2021).

This mitigation strategy proved fruitful in two instances where scenes had to be rewritten as a result of an extra and an actor testing positive for COVID-19 (ibid.). In order to minimise the financial repercussions of a complete shutdown, Producer F had a COVID insurance on one of his productions during “the very early stage where we learned about how to behave in this pandemic” (PF, 2021). However, he explained that he “was not too happy about [it]. But in a big company like this, I mean once you know there is a possibility of trying to minimise risk, then it’s difficult to talk your way out of it” (ibid.). The reason why Producer F felt that the insurance was somewhat redundant was that “somebody has to be sick” and simply “[having]

the suspicion of somebody being sick and you therefore have to close down, or you have to wait, it doesn’t cover that” (ibid.). He further elaborated that “that’s not really the problem, the problem is if the main actor’s wife or husband is sick and they have to isolate because of that, then it wouldn’t cover it anyway” (ibid.). Therefore, the likelihood that the insurance would cover a production shutdown was incredibly small, considering the safety measures, constant testing and, at times, even isolation of the main cast: “they’re keeping a really close set […] so nobody is giving the disease to anybody from the crew. So, the television series is quite isolated from everybody” (PD, 2021). Finally, Producer F concluded that “even if you have an insurance, you’re still fucked if you have to stop the production” (PF, 2021). Therefore, it can be recognised that while the COVID insurances may have mitigated some risks, they seemingly

were not worth the trouble, especially considering the government-mandated safety measures that every production had to fulfil regardless. Producer F even recalled that for their production in Paris instant quick tests were not available “so, we had to import people from Denmark [just for the testing]” (PF, 2021).

Lastly, within corporate filmmaking, the use of existing archive footage precipitated that the biggest concern was that “you run out of options about how you can re-edit or reshape stuff out of existing footage. So, you need new content to come in and that hasn’t been possible” (PB, 2021). Therefore, according to both Executive A and Producer B, the focus was on preparing for the reopening, since if “we won’t be able to shoot [the projects in preproduction] that means a steep decline” (PB, 2021). As a result, it was essential to “[approach their customers] so they can understand that now is the time to start development, so, we’re ready to start shooting when the lockdown is finally lifting” (ibid.), because “it’s important that when this is over, they just need to pull the trigger right away […]. So, […] when a country or a market opens up, we can just execute right away” (EA, 2021).

4.1.4 A Crisis as an Opportunity

An important part of resilience, according to Duchek (2020), as well as Bracci and Tallaki (2021), is that organisations not only cope with the circumstances, but, in fact, handle them in such a way that potentially promotes future success. In the case of Producer D, this has been one of his main learnings from the past few months as he stated: “don’t start committing suicide. A crisis could also develop some new business opportunities” (PD, 2021). He elaborated that his company was able to sell old titles to television stations “because all the time slots television had booked for sporting events were now empty. So, they needed to fill that up with something” and explained how they received “something like 4-5 million Danish Crowns, which is a lot of money for some bullshit that you have made 15 years ago. […] So, that was really a gift” (ibid.). While this opportunity arose due to the favourable disequilibrium in the market, others required proactive actions. More precisely, Producer D described how they decided to push the cinema releases of two films forward in autumn because “at that time all the American films [especially James Bond] were postponed in their release, which meant that all the cinemas had a lot of free space” (ibid.) In doing so, these films grossed much more than initially anticipated (ibid.).

Furthermore, many Producers have used the time to engage in project development and Producer F even confirmed that “we have difficulties finding all kind of crew members, all kind of creative people because everybody is writing, researching, and even producing. So, there’s a lot of heat in the business right now” (PF, 2021). The reasons for an increase in development are twofold. First, they are of opportunistic nature, since there was nothing else to do. More precisely, Executive C and Producer A mentioned that “actually the development of projects has been really high here during the lockdown because all of a sudden, all these creative people are sitting at home instead of going to bars and stuff” (EC, 2021) and “[the] lockdown has been used to put more time into development [because that] always works when you are not allowed to move” (PA, 2021). This is because “[it] is just coming up with some ideas and sitting and writing on your laptop” (EC, 2021), which is a sentiment that is shared by PA, who concluded “I mean, if all you can do is sit around at home somewhere in front of the computer anyway, then you write scripts and do development” (PA, 2021). Second, project development has also been heavily incentivised by an increase in funding from the film institutes. “A lot of money has come into the system in this year” (PB, 2021), which is why Producer B engaged in a lot of development. And while Producer C indicated that “a lot of companies have tried to put money in the bank in the sense that they’ve developed a lot more than they used to in this given period”, he added that “you cannot run a business from [it, but] it’s keeping the food on the table for the writers and directors” (PC, 2021). However, despite such an increase, Executive D mentioned that “the decision process has been slower” (ED, 2021). In other words, “there’s been more projects started earlier in development, but then, you know, if you need a broadcaster or whatever, it actually has been slightly slower” (ibid.), which may be attributed to the prevailing, highly uncertain financial situation that is later elucidated further.

Within corporate filmmaking, being willing to use archived b-roll footage as well as the willingness to outsource production, shows that this sub-sector proved resourceful in coping with the pandemic. While it may not have solely been advantageous, as further elaborated on in the next section, it definitely proved to be an unexpected opportunity as “some of our other clients, where we are not running the archive, they are, of course, looking into what we are doing. That’s really interesting and they can really see the benefit now and that it’s really smart to invest in us running the archives” (EA, 2021). Furthermore, regarding outsourcing, Executive A concluded that it not only was a quick fix during the pandemic, but, in fact, “the