Los Angeles County to Introduce Guidelines to Restart TV and Film Production

Tomorrow, Los Angeles County is expected to issue guidelines for restarting production on movies and television.

Guidelines will allow production to resume as soon as Friday, though many projects are expected to resume operations this summer as union representatives continue to negotiate protocols for individual jobs on film sets.

Last week, the film industry issued its own set of guidelines including temperature and symptom screenings and regular Covid-19 testing on sets, in addition to the use of hand-washing stations and other safety measures. Such protocols are expected to increase production costs by as much as 20 percent and slow the pace of production.

Barbara Ferrer, the director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, noted that despite plans for re-opening, gatherings of any size outside of religious services and protests are still strongly prohibited, despite the falling rate of Covid-19 cases in the county.

"We are not out of the woods," Ferrer said. "We are in the middle of the woods, and there is a lot of risk."

In addition to film production guidelines the county will also release guidelines pertaining to the re-opening other public spaces including gyms, museums, zoos, pools, day camps, and audience-free stadiums and sports arenas.