*Tyler Perry was one of the first producers to set start dates for his TV shows after developing a plan how to safely restart production amid the coronavirus pandemic.
His new safety rules are said to be in compliance with federal and local government regulations, and reportedly go above and beyond the unions’ recommendations, according to Deadline.
Perry was also one of the first to set start dates for his shows filming in North America.
Earlier this month, his two BET series, “Sistas” and “The Oval,” began production at his Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
Perry discussed with Deadline the filming and testing on set and addressed the challenges they faced inside the quarantine bubbles.
“All of the hard work and months of planning paid off. Production went extremely well on the second season of Sistas, and now we’re preparing for The Oval,” said Michelle Sneed, president of production and development at Tyler Perry Studios. “Of course, there is always a learning curve when embarking on a new project and even more so when filming it in the middle of a pandemic. However, one of the most valuable lessons I learned is to trust the process and the people you have in place to do their job.”
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The Deadline article notes that “there were 360 people — cast, crew and 10 extras — inside the bubble who worked on Season 2 of Sistas for the duration of the shoot. That was down 80-100 people from the regular production team that worked on Season 1 as Perry had to scale back because of the amount of housing available on the premises.”
“We had four positives in our initial check-in before anyone was allowed to leave their room,” Perry said. “We had those people leave and got them the help they needed.” The positive tests were extras, two were crew, according to the report.
“My biggest concern was, I have several crew members who have preexisting conditions that I asked personally to sit this one out but they said no, they wanted to work, they needed to work,” Perry said. “I couldn’t legally stop them from working, so my biggest concern was making sure that they were safe and that the actors who did not wear masks were safe. Because masks one hundred percent help cut down on the spread. Every time an actor had a mask off, and every time I looked at the people with preexisting conditions, they were my biggest concern.”
Perry requires everyone on set to wear a mask except for actors when they are filming.
“After losing a crew member to COVID that was on another production at the very beginning of this thing, clearly I understand the nervousness, I understand the trepidation, and they should enter with extreme caution,” Perry said. “But I tell you, if you can’t test everyone every day, I don’t know how you do this unless it’s a quarantine bubble. I don’t know another way, because COVID could be among you and spreading and you not know it.”
Perry is prepared to use the current production setup for months or even years.
“We are set up for the long haul, we could be here for a year and a half, two years, five years if we needed to,” he said. “But my hope is that there is a vaccine by this time next year. I know the hope is it will be by the end of the year, but even if it’s by the end of the year, by the time they ramped up production and by the time it got to the masses, to say another year is safe.”
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