How film and TV productions keep their cameras rolling during Toronto's lockdown

Tethered to a rope, a stunt man stands on the interior balcony of CBC's broadcast centre in Toronto and jumps.

It's all for a new Kevin Hart movie being filmed at night in the CBC atrium.

The Kevin Hart movie is one of four feature films and 20 series currently in production in the city, which is currently in lockdown.

"Film production, because it is a workplace, it's actually subject to different rules and regulations," says Marguerite Pigott, the city's film commissioner and director of entertainment industries.

Toronto and Peel Region entered a minimum 28-day lockdown on Nov. 23, as Ontario tries to curb a steep rise in COVID-19 cases.

But with film  and television production last year contributing $2.2 billion to city coffers, and employing thousands of people, keeping the cameras rolling is vital, Pigott said.

"That's a lot of people when you think about those families relying on those incomes."

To ensure sets stay COVID-free, compliance officers are on hand.

The set of a new Netflix film produced by Mary Anne Waterhouse has introduced multiple daily screenings and temperature checks, as well as a colour coded system to try eliminate all unnecessary physical contact.

"We have all these zones," the two-time Gemini Award-winning producer said over Zoom from her trailer on-set.

"We have classifications of green, yellow, red and purple," Waterhouse said.

Each colour corresponds with a different level of access and the required personal protective equipment. 

Safety protocols even affect how people can eat lunch on set. Tables that normally sit six or eight people are now limited to two, separated by a Plexiglas divider..

"The lunch tent that we're using right now in the show is like a circus tent," Waterhouse said, adding that it takes up nearly an entire parking lot.

The measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 come with additional costs to production.

Waterhouse estimates her "medium budget" film is spending an extra $1.2 million US.

Trying to keep people apart is hard. Some productions have implemented pods limiting how many people are working with one another.

There's no shortage of work to be done. Production has resumed on series like Kim's Convenience, Murdoch Mysteries and Guillermo del Toro's film Nightmare Alley with Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett. 

The City of Toronto is also encouraging various productions to use empty banquet halls, hotels and music venues to generate business for those forced to close, "to try to ensure that the economic benefit of film and television really does benefit Toronto as broadly as humanly possible," said Pigott.

Netflix Inc. in the spring reported more paid subscribers than expected in the first quarter, as global lockdowns to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus forced people to stay at home and watch shows online. 

The streaming giant added 15.77 million paid subscribers globally during the quarter compared with analysts' estimates of nearly eight million, according to research firm FactSet.

The company warned, however, that it expected fewer new customers from July to December compared with a year earlier. Many people who would have joined then are likely to have already signed up, executives said.

Creating more content during the second wave is vital, Pigott said.

"After the first lockdown, I think all of us felt that we had already watched a lot of content. These stories that we see on screens, they help us get through times like this. "