COVID-19 Nukes Large Scenes

Black Panther scene Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan.

Before Netflix, we used to love going to the movies. We used to line up for tickets, later we bought them from machines. We used to buy popcorn, buttered or straight. Filmmakers somewhere in Mumbai, LA,  Tokyo, Lagos, Toronto or Hong Kong made movies.

How do movies end? With THE END. Ironically, the end is here for big movie production because of the pandemic.

COVID-19 is like bed bugs. It loves warm blood, loves crowds, 50 people making a movie in one location: setting up lights, cameras and tripods, laying dolly tracks, fitting costumes, carpenters making ‘bedrooms’, hair and make-up fixing hair and faces, preparing food for cast and crew, all in preparation for the magic words from the director ACTION!

Because of COVID-19, scenes with many actors and extras are history.

1. New York City street scenes, actors walking with computer bags clutching coffee cups during rush hour.

2. Train scenes, crowded subway trains.

3. Cops in a crowded precinct.

4. FBI offices, with 20 agents in one room.

5. Church scenes, actors in serious hats while the congregation shouts Thank you Jesus.

6. Nightclub scenes, there’s always a nightclub scene in movies. Why? I wonder. Anyway, they’re gone.

7. People in crowded elevators.

8. Wedding scenes. Bollywood is the front runner. Nobody can beat them in wedding scenes. No more ‘holi’ scenes in Indian movies.

9. No open space office scenes.

10. No World War 2 or Vietnam scenes, where 40 men are charging forward. Zhang Yimou, director from China excels in war scenes.

You can add other scenes that will be impossible to set up and shoot because of COVID-19, masks and social distancing.

This is another ‘written podcast’ by Nonqaba waka Msimang.