As the world continues to see the affects of COVID-19, we find ourselves in a world where filming for many shows and films has been halted. However, this hasn’t stopped some production teams. 

The show must go on

According to reports,  producers of Keeping Up With the Kardashians decided that instead of putting production on hold, the family can film the entire Season 18 finale episode with their phones. According to Kim Kardashian West, ‘everyone in the family will document their daily household activities during this current government-mandated quarantine.’

“We have tripods set up, and our iPhones, and the whole last episode will be what we do in quarantine”

Rumour has it, initially crew members entered the homes in full hazmat suits to set up lighting and iPhone friendly tripods. The sisters film up to 16 hours of footage and have new iPhones delivered weekly.

Isolation Stories

It’s not just KUWTK that has used the pandemic to try a different approach to filming. ITV produced a 4 part series of 15 minute films based around life in lockdown. 

Isolation Stories came about through, award winning producer and screenwriter, Jeff Pope’s  own family suffering from coronavirus symptoms. As his wife was recovering, he decided to make a series of short films about different people’s experience of lockdown. But, how do you make a drama while socially distancing? 

“We gave it a go”

Equipment, lights, tripods and camera’s, were dropped at the cast’s home and family members, with no experience of TV or video work, had to assist. Actor Eddie Marsan, signed his entire family up for the project. His wife organised the props and cameras, his sons became the supporting cast, playing the characters sons and Eddie’s daughter captured the behind the scenes footage.

The crew were on hand at all times and professionals were able to direct and assist with the filming via the video conferencing platform Zoom. 

“The heroes are the families of the actors,” Says Pope

 

 

 

 

It’s great to see ITV respond so quickly and create and innovative project using equipment which we all have in our pockets. 

You can watch the Isolation Stories series on ITV Hub. If you’re interested in finding out more about how the series was created I recommend watching Isolation Stories: Behind the Scenes. 

Smartphone video training 

If you’re interested in finding out how you could also create videos using your smartphone, Focus ‘n Develop offer Smartphone Video Training and Smartphone Video Toolkits. Contact us for further details. 

All images sourced and copyrighted to ITV.