Screenwriting : The Best Thing About the Pandemic by Gordon Clatworthy

Well the best thing is that small indie productions haven’t been that impacted (as much). Rental houses love them as these small productions are still renting lenses etc.

Actors are willing to take smaller pay packets as their good gigs are shut down.

I have created a Covid Safety plan that we use. We have a dedicated position on the crew called a “Covid safety marshal”. They have ultimate control. They can expel someone from set for breach safety guidelines.

I am personally writing as much as possible and getting stuff ready to go. The UK Production of The Valley is still have funding issues. But that will be overcome. I have faith in them.

I am personally putting out an audio series of a novel I wrote years ago. I am a crap novelist. But I can talk. So I am going to tell the story and release it as a serialise podcast.

Small indie productions have been impacted horrifically by the pandemic. These are productions reliant of smaller, more vulnerable investors, can't afford to suddenly have permits pulled, and suffer the highest proportional costs of Covid measures. Thats before even getting into limited hours during shooting days, sudden crew unavailability, and the distribution side of the business falling into chaos.

It's also very hard for actors to take pay cuts when they are on union rates.

As for how I'm using the time. I wrote and co-produced a movie that we put through development (including writing the script) , pre-production, and principal photography in just three months so perhaps I'm the worst person to be commenting in that regard. Those are the breaks though. You do the best you can to meet the opportunity and indie deadlines can be tough on top of having limited resources.

The best planning in the world can't stop a production from running awry either. I've been that writer tearing out pages and rewriting on the spot because the world has fallen apart that day.

This all said, I absolutely agree in principal that many indie feature productions just don't seem to value the importance of a good script enough. There's too many directors trying to do it themselves and failing, like you say Gordon, to see the long returns.

Educate. Free online meetings all over the net. Oscar winner writers giving gold about the trade.

Gordon, I've been using the extra time to write new screenplays (working on three at the present time- the first new ones of mine since the US lockdown began on 3-15-2020), fine-tune the twelve I've already completed since joining Stage 32, and do research to help my new scripts actually do their job.

What's more, I've been regularly using online tools such as Prewrite and ScriptHop. (Really loving 'em!)

And I'm with you and CJ when it comes to coming prepared before typing "FADE IN." I don't feel ready to start a script until I've come up with an outline/scene list first.

Glad you're on Stage 32, Gordon...wishing you all the VERY BEST!

CJ Walley from a cash POV that is true. I get tunnel visioned. I have a script that all the funds disappeared overnight because of the pandemic.

I think I was just impress by the agility of the other production to quickly adapt and move with the changing scenario.

I see it as an opportunity for the small-time emerging indie filmmaker in the aftermath. Obviously this horrid pandemic is reeking havoc on the entire filmmaking industry; both the majors and the small-time indies - but this too shall pass. The majors were stumbling around long before the pandemic. Essentially they've simply over expensed themselves which why they've moved production to less costly locations where it's economically more feasible to churn out those profitable pop-corn flicks. And there is still a ginormous amount of capital tied up in the huge sound stages and production facilities in movieland; those will continue to be the sources of huge budget blockbusters & tent poles. Obviously the small-time indies cannot compete in that environment. Hopefully the film audience will regain its interest in real Film once again and that's where the indie filmmaker can become the dominate species once again. If we band together to promote, encourage and promote real independent filmmakers, I think the future is bright but if we sink into the quagmire of mediocrity then we have no future. I'm of the hope springs eternal crowd.

I hear ya, Craig D Griffiths. I had a greenlit production have to shutdown because we had an elderly lead. No way that we were going to put someone like that as risk.

You make a good point about adaptability which smaller organisations tend to have on their side. It's just so much easier to fix film problems with money though. The big studio pictures have even been able to circumnavigate lockdown restrictions in some regions. It's never a level playing field.

For anybody interested in the topic of making a movie during Covid, we just had an article about our production of Double Threat covered in Student Filmmakers magazine. Go to page 18 via this link; https://www.studentfilmmakers.com/magazine/pdf2011/SF_2020_v16_n1-digital-pages.pdf

We developed a platform over the pandemic to make an impact on preproduction for smaller films. We saw the value of being prepared to drive down cost. www.filmatick.com

Lisa Blaney I am not really interested enough to ask for a quote. But a ball park price on the website may be nice. Just some feedback.