Sweet Stories #1: Filming Under Threat
2020. Feature musical film. 339 artists. 5 months. 0 known transmissions of COVID-19.
In July we–Aaron Kilian, Jon Milton, Peter Scheibner, and myself–realized that Christmas Sweet, the annual dessert concert at Colonial Baptist Church (soon to be known as The Shepherd’s Church), simply could not move forward as planned. We didn’t know hospitalizations would be this bad in December–many around us thought COVID would be long gone by now–but we had a hunch that 100+ musicians crammed on stage and 72 tables of 8 all eating desserts over a week of performances would probably still not be feasible or safe. And, at that point in July, preparations were usually well underway; rehearsals often began in mid-August. We also knew Christmas Sweet means too much to our community to simply let it go unmentioned during Advent, especially in such a bleak year. So, we asked ourselves, what is the best thing Colonial can make that people can watch on a screen? As filmmakers, Peter and I knew the answer right away: a movie. Thus, Christmas Sweet: All is Calm was born.
In this brief series I’m both journaling these experiences for my own future reference and, by pulling the curtain back on our production, hope to encourage other fellow filmmakers learning along the way.
Watch the film for free in 4K at christmassweet2020.com
By making a movie people could watch in their homes, we avoided the public health crisis of a theatrical production, but the endeavor brought about its own challenges, too. We still needed to put some people in one of the riskiest situations: spend time in a room with others and exhale air. Our actors had to perform without PPE and singers and musicians had to record at a studio-quality level that objective audiences would enjoy and want to hear again. Many in our Music Ministry are older and at risk. And, if one of our 4 core team members came down seriously sick it could have jeopardized the entire project. To make it all harder, we were working in a church still exasperatingly split over COVID; one half takes the risks seriously while the other half simply does not. (I can’t vouch for all the latter’s reasons and these may be gross generalizations, but I understand some either consider it all a scam, “dispute the science,” or seem to be more interested in “my American rights” or giving our Democratic governor the finger than ministering well. But, that’s a perilous essay for another time.)
In the end, we completed the 80-minute film on schedule and under-budget with a team of 339 people without documenting a single transmission of COVID-19 through any official aspect of the production. I’m incredibly proud of how our diversely opinionated body came together and I’m thankful our core team (Aaron, Peter, Jon, myself) stayed united on finding creative solutions. But, credit for our health truly belongs to Providence. (There were many, many holes in our armour where a virus could have sneaked through.) These are some of the steps we took to practically mitigate risk and some things I would have done differently.
1. Virtual Songs
When the pandemic began, Colonial’s Music Ministry partnered with Peter (our director on All is Calm) to produce a handful of “virtual pieces” and the response was tremendously positive. Like many other choirs around the world, it seemed to be the only way to safely be together and audiences loved them. One organically reached 96,000 views on Facebook alone. We knew that if we wanted to safely include all of our musicians in All is Calm, we needed to do something similar. It was the safest option, audiences understood the format, and we had refined our pipeline after several one-off projects earlier this year.
But, even by the middle of 2020, we sensed our choir and audiences were a bit fatigued with the format and culturally the grids started to feel like a worn-out gimmick. We didn’t want All is Calm to just be grids either, so we only selected 4 songs that would work well as “virtual” pieces and the others would be shot more like various “traditional” music videos. To enhance the production value and make all 516 video submissions practically work on our timeline, we did the following:
1. Coordinated outfits: Red/Green for Carol of the Bells, mixed for Hope Was Born This Night, and black for Silent Night and Thrill of Hope. This not only looked better, but demonstrated a higher level of coordination.
2. Invested more time in communicating guidelines for filming at home (use a solid wall or clean backdrop if possible, get camera to eye level, etc.) to our musicians
3. We put our musicians on a strict timeline for submissions in October to make sure every asset got in early enough to begin editing (each virtual piece took well over 30 hours to edit).
4. We added a more “produced” element to each song to add visual interest so they weren’t simply amalgamations of home videos. For Carol we added the dramatic, garage shots of the electric guitar. For Hope Was Born we shot multiple angles of our soloists surrounded by hanging Edison bulbs. Silent Night featured all of our members shot in a controlled lighting environment (we brought them in one by one) above a static, one-take manger shot. Finally, Thrill of Hope featured a visual reprise of every place and soloist seen before in the film.
5. While Peter edited 3 of them, I took the largest (Hope Was Born with 164 virtual submissions) and simply having another person cutting added a different flavor to that piece.
6. For Carol (the first full song in the film), we went with a more experimental editing style and grid arrangement to better fit the faster feel of the song and differentiate it from other virtual choir pieces.
7. On most of the pieces, each section (i.e. sopranos, basses, strings, children’s choir, etc.) were built and exported as single file in 4K or 8K and then compiled into the song’s sequence or project. This saved a considerable amount of time and processing power and allowed us to crop into each section’s frame and get multiple shots out of every section’s “master shot.”
8. Unlike the first virtual projects from the spring, we layered black or white borders on each of the home videos which meant a) the massive compositions were more palatable to the eye and b) we didn’t have to take the time to perfectly align every pixel.
9. For Hope Was Born, I outsourced building the adult choir grids to my brother which saved several hours of work from my plate during a critical week in post.
10. We didn’t use any instrumental audio and only some of the choir’s audio…
2. The Studio and CSS
Our virtual pieces over the spring and summer showed us that audio from home submissions just cannot stand much scrutiny; brass instruments are usually far too powerful for phone microphones and our musicians still perform considerably better “live” with others. If music was going to drive the 80-minute film, it needed to be as good as our mostly-amateur ensembles could deliver. So, early in the process we decided to convert one of our larger rooms on the church campus into an ad hoc recording studio. We took full control of the space for over a month and set up mics and socially distanced booths with chair barriers. Jon, our orchestra conductor and de facto music producer on the film, conducted considerable research into ventilation systems, instrument PPE, and air patterns to inform how to arrange the set up.
In total, Jon led 41 audio recording sessions that included all our instrumentalists (rotated in small numbers by section: woodwinds, brass, etc.), lead vocalists, and a group dubbed the “COVID Studio Singers” or CSS for short. We gathered 14 singers chosen for ability, flexibility, commitment, blended sound, and housing unit (2 couples participated which also helped simplify any potential contact tracing) to record choir parts for 3 songs and additional tracks for the 4 “virtual” pieces to lay a higher quality foundation for the full choir’s sound (since phone audio was hit or miss).
In the end, that meant only the best of the at-home choir audio could be used without gutting the sound of the ensemble and all of the instrumental tracks were recorded in the studio.
3. Crafting the Story and Songs
Third, from the very beginning of the project we approached the story and music video concepts with COVID risk in mind. Our lead actor was indeed older, but he appears alone on screen for nearly all of his scenes. When carolers interrupt him, they’re outside and at least a dozen feet away (and those carolers were actual immediate family members and spaced into their own “pods” 6 or more feet apart). “Joy! He Shall Reign” was also filmed outside where we could distance. For all of the other songs except one shot of the opener, Almost There, and Be Born in Me (Mary), each singer was shot independently in singles. (For Almost There and Be Born filmed almost a month apart, one of the 2 participants in each two-person video was part of our director’s household unit.)
While developing these concepts I simultaneously plotted the schedule for our 16 days on set. Across my workspace I had multiple notes and active spreadsheets mapping out our talent/crew to find ways to minimize risk of exposure when possible and/or provide days for symptoms to appear or get test results between various shoots. (Most of it was filmed within a 2 week period, but some shots were picked up as early as late September and as late as late November.)
On the music side, Aaron, Jon, and Peter ran a number of “Zoom Rehearsals” for the full choir where we brought in CSS and a pianist so choir members at home could sing along and interact with Aaron conducting, ask questions, and see (from multiple angles) what was going on.
4. Filming Protocols
Fourth, as a non-union production operating under religious exemptions in North Carolina, we had a considerable amount of legal leeway. But, as producer and 1st AD I was adamant that we follow whatever protocols we could from LA County mandates issued in the summer, the SafeWay Forward plan, and other industry rules and guidelines. While we did not have the budget for routine testing (more on this below), that practically meant:
a. Small Crew — We kept our sets closed and crew lean to limit bodies on set, especially since a few of our indoor locations were unfortunately cramped.
b. Temperature Checks — I conducted temp checks on people arriving at the start of each day (or night) on set
c. Strict Masking — Unless you were on camera or eating, masks were required. The crew did well under this mandate, though it could have been more strictly enforced.
d. Cleaning — Hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes were always available and their use was encouraged. When crew rotated out of space I tried to wipe down the most commonly-used surfaces.
e. Crafty — Food was almost always served outside where crew could distance well while eating. When possible, individual trays or plates were prepared (more on this below).
f. Maximizing Gear — As the shoot went along, we got better at leveraging our gear and setups for distancing with wirelessly paired monitors for playback and using a boom cradle on static shots so our sound op could sit even further from talent.
g. Strict Waivers — Everyone who worked on set was required to sign a strict waiver agreeing to follow these and other facets of our COVID protocols. This was especially important to help let both sides within the church (the masked and maskless) know the standards and expectations of our set; the “masked” felt more comfortable participating and the “maskless” graciously put up with it. Part of that waiver mandated I be informed of symptoms before/after or possible known exposure before the day(s) each signee was on set; that warning was repeated in nearly every email and call sheet. Clear communication and prioritization of health over making the day actually helped us avoid some close calls since participants saw we were serious about COVID and made these protocols a requirement for participating. In more than one instance, I was notified of individuals’ possible exposure before coming to set. That meant our schedule or scenes looked a little different, but we went into the project and schedule knowing it needed to be flexible.
h. Just in Case— In the unfortunate case talent or crew was exposed to COVID, we built in some contingencies in the schedule and personnel. And, we had a number of health professionals (within our music ministry or familiarly related to me) in our orbit that we planned to consult for quarantining procedures, timeline for effective testing, scope of necessary contact tracing, etc.
Things I Would Do Differently
In the end, our protocols proved to be enough, but along the way and in retrospect I can see a myriad of ways we could have been safer. These are probably the two main things I would change first:
1. I wish we were stricter about crafty. Some days we did very well with COVID safety. But, I should have brought on a dedicated person or designated a PA to ensure every meal was individually boxed and served.
2. Second, I should have fought for room in the budget to provide for testing. Except for our 3 days for the narrative scenes at the very end of principal, all of our shoots were practically one-day music videos with different talent. At the time, LA County didn’t even mandate testing for similar, low-budget one-day shoots. But, at the very least, I wish we periodically tested our lead 4 or 5 main singers and repeated crew members including myself, our director, DP, gaffer, PD, and art director. I especially should have tested since I flew from Los Angeles for principal (although, the first day on set was almost a week after I flew and an exterior scene).
This will probably be the longest of this 4 (?) part series. Next time I’m looking at how one of our most well-received scenes came together…
