In order to ensure the health and safety of all crew, talent, clients and vendors, we have established the following best practices related to COVID-19:
- Prior to production, on-site personnel are asked to complete a COVID-19 screening questionnaire.
- Anyone who is sick or has been in contact with someone with Covid-19 must stay home.
- Before work begins, a temperature check will be administered to everyone on-site.
- Masks must be worn by crew at all times. On-camera participants, may remove masks while filming, as long as local regulations (physical distancing) are followed.
- Practice good hand hygiene. Frequent and thorough hand washing is required by all personnel, without exception. If soap and water are not available, hand sanitizer will be used.
- Physical distancing when possible. A 2M distance should be kept between crew at all times. For certain tasks, this may not be possible (example lifting something that requires two people). Once the task is complete, hands should be washed and resume physical distancing.
- Cleaning & sanitizing the space and production equipment.
- Remote productions should be considered to reduce the number of people on site. By creating a remote video village, a small team can be physically on site for production, while client and creative roles can view a feed from the production camera remotely. This allows for real-time feedback and direction from clients, agencies and creatives, while reducing the amount of people needed in the same space.
- Health and safety guidelines from local government must always be followed.
The above list is a preliminary list of key steps we have taken to ensure the safety of everyone involved with a production. Additional considerations may be taken depending on the nature of the project. In certain situations, all cast & crew can be PCR tested for COVID-19 prior to production.
Black Box’s head of production was certified for COVID-19 Best Practices by Safe Sets International in June 2020.
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For additional information, follow these links:
Quebec CNESST: Workplace Sanitary Standards Guide for Audiovisual Production – COVID-19
https://www.cnesst.gouv.qc.ca/en/forms-and-publications/guide-covid-19-audiovisual-production
Ontario Ministry of Labour: Film and television industry health and safety during COVID-19
https://www.filmsafety.ca/safety-guidelines-i-ontario/
The Association of Canadian Commercial Production (ACCP)
https://www.theaccp.tv
Ontario Film Commission https://digitallibrary.ontariocreates.ca/DigitalLibrary/CovidUpdate.aspx
Guidance for production relating to COVID-19
https://bit.ly/2MW6LW2
Safe Sets International
https://practicesafesets.co
