Production Tricks

Lights, camera, action: Creativity on-set amidst a pandemic

Oct 18, 2020 | 4:30 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The biggest thing that has changed for John Chuby and his work with Picaroon Pictures has been the planning ahead of his shoots.

“Normally before you do a production, you do quite a bit of planning to get your locations and all of that. Definitely, with the pandemic, you have to really shift the way of thinking. And honestly, some projects, I ended up cancelling quite a few projects early in the summer. One, my first project was actually a pandemic-related short horror film, and it was extremely dark so I figured that was better if we just not do that right now. Any films that have a lot of extras, or where you’re indoors, anything like that is a lot more risky.”

Recently, Chuby shot a short sitcom at a bar in town using a small cast, of whom were all from the same bubble. He says some shoots require a heightened level of creativity.

“The best thing you can do is just space your actors out and use longer lenses,” explained Chuby.

The use of optical illusions also helps, having actors spaces apart while scenes get shot from angles that make the cast appear closer than they actually are.

Amro Majzoub believes the on-set precautions are now part of the process when fielding offers of shoots to take on.

“Out from the pre-production to the knowing your role and knowing how to prepare, you need to now have that in the back of your head, too, where am I going, where am I standing,” said Majzoub. “They’ve expanded roles now where they have people there to help with the set and help you with the precautions. The best thing I can do is make sure that I am adhering to the precautions and helping out where I can, and asking questions to make sure I’m not overstepping.”

Chuby is best known for his work in both creating and acting in the show Jeff and the Ninja.

“With that one, we had a cast and crew of about 60 people. Shooting that during the pandemic would have been a whole new ballgame,” admitted Chuby.

He says they’re working towards getting picked up to continue the show, but admits a number of projects have been put on hold until the pandemic calms down.