But this feeling of being frozen in time has been discovered in one small corner of Atlanta. Tyler Perry Studios recently completed its first successful session of what Perry calls “Camp Quarantine” to film season 2 of “Sistas,” the comedy-drama series on BET.
It is one of the first TV series to be fully produced during the pandemic. Eleven days of filming, more than 300 people on site and no one got sick while there. According to the studio, everyone was tested and sequestered immediately upon arrival until their results returned. Four people were found positive at the time, and no one has tested positive since.
And Tyler Perry Studios turns it around and does it all over again to film the second season of the primetime soap opera, “The Oval.” Less than two weeks ago, 377 people were tested on arrival. Since then, they say two more rounds of testing have been done – all negative. Shooting on “The Oval” began Thursday.
Perry was ready to go into production for the new fall season on “Sistas” when the global pandemic came to a head.
“What I normally do at the top of the year is that I write all my scripts and I will go into production in March,” Perry told me. “That I was all ready to go. It was March 16. I see, I read, I pay attention to everything that happens to the figures, and I go, ‘Okay, we have to quit.’ So for the city, for the state, I quit because I did not know how to keep 500 people safe when shooting. “
Perry said he hoped there would be a federal response, a federal plan. “But within a few weeks, I realized … you have to figure this out if you do.”
Perry consulted with medical experts, including me, and put together a 30-page plan that essentially made a quarantine bubble large enough for cast and crew for the duration of the shoot. He called it Camp Quarantine.
It was about testing and quarantining pre-arrival; flights on Perry’s private jet for suburbs; more tests and quarantine on arrival; a lot of personal protective gear; no hugging; wear a lot of mask – except the cast when filming – and good hand hygiene; and then test every four days. Cast and crew were kept isolated on the 330-acre studio lot in a combination of accommodations including army barracks and historic houses. There were food and alcohol trucks, movie nights, church services – just about everything.
“Once I started getting the information and understanding this virus a lot more, I thought maybe this is possible, to get everyone together, reduce the crew size, social distance – do all the rules that the unions ask, that the “State demands that the city demand. But also, get us all in the studio – let’s all live here during the production period,” Perry said.
“We have [cast and crew] down to 360 people, and we’re all moved in and we’ve just finished our first television show successfully, without any positives in the quarantine bubble, “he said.
The cost: $ 18 million. Get access to rapid testing: costly. I asked Perry about the thousands of tests conducted at Camp Quarantine, at a time when testing is doubtless not enough for so much of the country. He said he was aware she was paying top dollar for the privilege of rapid testing, while others in need could not pay to test to be easily tested, let alone soon, but he said he would stop production if he felt that his tests interfered with their tests.
“When I see such lines in Arizona and other parts of the country where they wait 10, 12 hours to get tested, it’s heartbreaking to me because I know that test – this antigen test – is only $ 23 per “Kit. Although I pay several hundred dollars, the average person can not afford to pay,” Perry said. “Let us be clear: if that happens, we would go back and shut down, because the important thing is that people can get the tests they need.”
A trusted leader with a plan
Cast and crew were excited to return to work. “I think we can all agree that entertainment has helped us by getting this. Books [are] entertainment. Television is entertainment. “Movies are entertainment,” KJ Smith, one of the stars of “Sistas,” told CNN.
“I’m excited for us to go back and I know the world is too. I know we need to. I know this sector is needed. And especially in a time like this we want to leave … we do not want think about these things, “she said, referring to the coronavirus.
Smith said she and others trusted Perry from the beginning. Shortly after the coronavirus forced the cancellation of the production schedule and press tours, she said she went on to talk to Perry who assured everyone, “We will find out.”
And then, she said, the cast and crew received a 30-page document. “We’ve been given a whole quarantine package of what’s going to happen. He came back to talk to us, made sure we were completely comfortable, what we were. I tell people all the time: I trust 100 “Tyler Perry. He treats us like we are his relatives. That I knew we would be completely protected and we were – we were safe,” Smith said.
“During the whole process, we had this great package of protective materials: hand sanitizers, surface cleaners, masks, packs, glasses, gloves – everything we needed. That we were really, really protected,” Smith added, “he added.” “There were no loopholes. There was no way around it. Everyone held each other accountable. And it worked out.”
Perry took his responsibilities very seriously, especially after someone he often worked with – hair stylist Charles Gregory Ross – recorded Covid-19 and died in April.
“That was sober to me,” Perry said. “And then when I started [seeing] the numbers about African-American people and Latino people, I was, ‘Whoa, whoa!’ This thing affects us in much, much larger numbers. That I thought, I have all these people who work with me … the majority of the people who work with me are Black and Brown people. That I knew I could not put them in the way of evil. So I had to come up with something, but it was very sober. Charles’ unfortunate death from this virus was very sober. “
Perry was also concerned about those who had pre-existing conditions and other health concerns. “The biggest challenge for me was actually keeping absolutely everyone safe. … I have several people who are older and who have pre-existing conditions from heart disease to … cancer. Three others are cancer survivors. That I was very worried about her, “he said.
Perry made sure everyone knew how to play it safe. Says Smith, “I consider myself a healthy individual with a healthy immune system. But I was aware – and he made us aware – of the people who needed the work, who needed to be there. , who part of want this, who had [pre-existing] circumstances that may affect them. And so I had to stay in the first place so that we could all protect these people. “
First of all, Smith said it was a bit difficult to remember to work in this new way. “It was like, okay, throw on your mask. Okay, let’s go over the next thing. What’s next? Okay, take off that mask and now we’re doing the play. Okay, throw on the mask and what’s up? “So? That was the biggest change and it felt really weird. It was really uncomfortable the first few times, but after the first few days we could all just get in the groove,” she said. greet fellow members with a hug after being apart for a year, and not being able to sit and catch up casually.
But overall, Smith said the whole experience was fun. “I had the best time ever and I honestly hope we keep this business model for the rest of our shoots,” she said.
Lessons learned
Perry said the success of the quarantine bubble he created for “Sistas” shows that the show can continue after all. “Masks work,” he said. “Testing works and contact tracing works. We have [hundreds of] people here and we could manage it just by doing that: testing, isolating and tracking contacts, “he added.
“All those guidelines work. They work for ‘Sistas,’ they will work for ‘The Oval.’ And as long as we stick to the letter we are doing, I think we will be fine, “he said.
“I think everyone who was here filming ‘Sistas’ would say it was a really, really good experience. And you know what they told me I thought was really great? … They say to me that they feel so safe. ‘I feel safe.’ And that’s what the country has been missing for a long time, “Perry said.
CNN’s Andrea Kane and Amanda Sealy contributed to this report.
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