What film students are up to: With changing COVID-19 restrictions and people getting vaccinated, film students are getting to return to semi-normal sets. PHOTO CREDIT: Lionel Jefferies
The COVID-19 pandemic has hindered creative abilities for artists everywhere, but it has especially affected the way that film students at the University of Rhode Island have been able to work in their field.
COVID-19 vaccines were easier to receive over the summer, leading to a higher vaccinated population and changes in COVID-19 protocols that had been put in place and had made filming more difficult. The biggest and most important difference was that students were able to be a part of a larger cast and crew than they were the summer before.
Alexander Pretorious, a junior film major, was fortunate enough to be a part of a larger production while working on a web series.
“A lot of people were vaccinated so that was very nice, and everyone wore a lanyard which said if they were vaccinated or not to make the set more comfortable for everyone,” Pretorious said.
On Pretorious’ set, if you weren’t vaccinated, masks were required, but he added that a lot of the crew kept their masks on even if they had been fully vaccinated.
Another junior at URI, Anthony Miller, reflected on the easier preparation for a shoot in contrast to this time last year, particularly in getting a group of 10 people together, including an actor who he wasn’t able to film with last summer.
“COVID just made it depressing to work as well in a creative field, and mentally it was hard to put together a production,” said Miller.
Film major Matt Wilson also noted that comfortability of students was a factor that made filming harder. He found that even those he took classes with didn’t feel comfortable enough to film together during the semester. This summer, his crew was tested daily.
Film students took COVID-19 protocols very seriously on their sets last year, as well as this summer. Most of the guidelines were set forth by the University and students respected how important they were to having a safe and healthy set.
Senior Lionel Jeffries also took precautions to keep his set secure, including having a production assistant in charge of checking everyone’s temperatures on set and verifying that they had negative test results.
He also came up with creative ways to be as safe as possible without it affecting the outcome of the final project. Jeffries was working on a short film, “Waterwick Prologue” last fall with an elderly man in his cast when the number of COVID-19 cases and mandates were at their highest and strictest.
“We never had the two actors in [a] scene actually sitting in the same room when we were filming in order to keep both of them safe,” Jeffries said. “We just cut it together to look like they were talking to each other.”
All of the students said that they were looking forward to productions this upcoming semester now that classes are back on campus.
“A lot of upperclassmen take this very seriously,” Pretorious said. “We understand that this is a fragile thing and you could very easily sabotage it in terms of COVID. I’m optimistic that it’s going to be okay.”
Film students, like all University students, will continue to roll with whatever precautions URI sets in place over the next semester as the new normal is created.