Safety in Action

HOLLYWOOD

Lights, Camera, Safety!

How the CCP virus has changed the way Hollywood acts

By Jennifer Dornbush

t the onset of covid-19, the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, all Hollywood productions shut down overnight. By mid-summer 2020, a handful of productions ramped up again, emerging with a brand-new production budget line item—COVID-19 safety.

Nick Greco was one of the first COVID-19 safety monitors to be trained and hired in July 2020. He has been an actor in Los Angeles since 2005, taking crew jobs on network and cable TV shows to pay the bills along the way.

“I became unemployed when the pandemic started and then, a few months later, this job was offered to me. I’ve been thankful for having a job during a pandemic,” Greco said. “A year and a half ago, this was not a job. Now it’s one of the more essential jobs in TV and film.”

Sometimes titled COVID-19 compliance officer, COVID-19 compliance manager, or COVID-19 production assistant, Greco’s role includes making sure people wear masks, wash their hands, and maintain social distancing.

He orders all the PPE and sanitizing equipment and oversees the cleaning. Greco also supervises the COVID-19 testing days.

“Every crew and cast member gets tested once a week. And then there are others on set who get tested more than once a week,” Greco said.

“I don’t get any push back. But sometimes it does feel like being a hall monitor.”

Greco, who is unable to divulge the name of the production for which he’s employed due to a nondisclosure agreement, works with two On the set of the indie feature film “The Star City Murders” in Los Angeles on July 1. In 2020, Hollywood productions maintained strict social distancing guidelines, creating new enforcer jobs for young people eager to get into the industry.

Most Hollywood

productions remain strict on social distancing and mask wearing guidelines.

10% 20%

safety is now 10 to 20 percent of all production budgets. other COVID-19 safety officers across a 24-hour schedule. “On set, there are about five COVID-19 safety officers,” he said.

HE DOESN’T IMAGINE COVID-19 SAFETY in Hollywood going away anytime soon with the CCP variants and flu season about to start. “Even a cold, or flu, can shut a production down if your No. 1 actor gets sick,” he said.

MacKenzie and Katianna Lee, daughters of TV writers, saw COVID-19 safety jobs as a way to gain entry-level jobs in the industry while relieving the isolation and loneliness of being at home.

Katianna Lee was studying cinema and TV arts at Cal State Northridge when the lockdowns began.

“Two months later, I graduated into the pandemic,” said Katianna Lee, a COVID-19 health

and safety manager on a Disney show.

“My older sister, MacKenzie, was in production and informed me about this COVID-19 safety job. We thought, ‘If we learn how to do this, we’ll be on set and we’ll meet everyone and have access to everyone and everything!’

“What a great way to learn the industry.”

Kaitianna Lee was hired on for an ABC show in October 2020. “I remember the first day on set, I didn’t know set lingo. And I was trying to figure out who everyone is and what they did,” she said.

In preparation for the job, she attended 30 hours of training and learned OHSA regulations. She was also trained by her boss on site. Her first position was COVID-19 production assistant (PA). Her daily routine as a COVID-19 PA was similar to Greco’s.

Last year, when Greco and the Lee sisters started working in COVID-19 safety, no one in the industry had ever worked on a film set with these kinds of safety protocols in place.

“Masks, face shields, only 25 percent capacity in a transportation van, plastic sheets on the seats of the vans, having to stay six feet apart of everyone on set. How is that even possible with costumers, grips, and actors?” MacKenzie Lee said.

“When they could, productions tried to hire people that lived together. Producers hired spouses, roommates. My sister and I worked together on a job.”

This year, protocols have loosened a little and aren’t as heavily enforced.

“There are important people on set who don’t like the rules. Sometimes you have to tell them to put their mask on. They may respect you, but they may also hate you.”

Katianna Lee,

health and safety manager, Disney

Katianna Lee eventually progressed to health and safety manager when she took a new position on a Disney show.

She says the hardest part of the job is making sure everyone is complying with the COVID-19 safety rules. She’s had to deal with every type of person on set.

“There are important people on set who don’t like the rules,” she said. “Sometimes you have to tell them to put their mask on. They may respect you, but they may also hate you.”

IN A TIME WHEN MOST YOUNG PEOPLE were feeling the anxiety of being locked up at home, Katianna Lee considers herself blessed to have found an on-set community in Hollywood. She went from months of isolation and loneliness to being with a community of 150 to 200 people on set every day for months.

“I was having laughs and bonding for 14 to 15 hours a day. Within three weeks, I knew all their names. You start to just become family. And that felt special at a time when no one was seeing anyone. It was very fulfilling,” she said.

MacKenzie Lee, who is a COVID-19 safety office administrator, has worked COVID-19 safety for Disney, Marvel, Paramount, and Hulu and on multiple music video productions. She thinks COVID-19 safety jobs are going to be around for a while.

And COVID-19 safety is now 10 to 20 percent of all production budgets.

One of MacKenzie Lee’s most discouraging moments happened after she alerted a producer that several people on set had been exposed to the CCP virus. Protocol required that they be sent home and quarantined. “That producer didn’t like that and fired me,” she said.

She says the biggest takeaways from working COVID-19 safety are the friends that she’s made working on productions during the pandemic.

“You really connect at a core with people, rather than surface level, when times get hard. You talk about things that really matter to you,” she said.

She’d like to eventually work as a producer. “I really got to know people on a personal level. I’ve experienced the bottom of the bottom, and this will definitely help me be more connected to my cast and crew. I want them happy!”

Jennifer Dornbush is a screenwriter, author, and forensic specialist. She wrote the theatrically released film and novel “God Bless the Broken Road” (2018) and has worked in TV developing and writing both original and adapted work. She is currently adapting her mystery series “The Coroner’s Daughter” for Lifetime TV. Visit jenniferdornbush.com.

COMING TO AMERICA

Fire engines spray water over an Airbus A350 of German airline Lufthansa prior to its take off for Miami from Munich, Germany, on Nov. 8. The United States reopened its borders to foreign visitors fully vaccinated against COVID-19 after 20 months of travel restrictions, paving the way for eagerly anticipated reunions among family members and friends.

PHOTO BY CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES