With the pandemic upending everything we know and love, film sets are being pushed to their limits. Productions are being pushed and pulled by taking extreme costly precautions in an attempt to keep their crew safe. With that being said, many have still had to shut down for several weeks due to crew becoming sick with COVID-19. 

Movies have become more expensive and also more time consuming, and thus more expensive again. A winter surge in COVID-19 cases has not helped either, forcing many countries to go into lockdown allowing only essential businesses to operate.

“Jurassic World: Dominion” just wrapped up filming in the UK on Nov. 7, after 18 months, spending $165 million, enduring a shut down, and providing 40,000 COVID-19 tests for their crew. Director Colin Trevorrow said in an interview with Deadline, “It has been remarkable. Our crew and our cast have been so resilient. All producers have worked around the clock to make it the best it can be. It has been inspiring.” According to Deadline, the studio spent around $6-8 million  on safety protocols.

Alexandra Derbyshire, executive producer on “Jurassic World: Dominion,” stated to Variety, “Social distancing is the hardest part because the nature of filmmaking is so collaborative. It’s quite difficult to speak to someone at two meters.” 

The cast and crew ended up staying at a UK hotel away from their friends and family for four months. They created this safety bubble where they, “ate together, told stories, shared our fears and hopes, played Frisbee on the lawn… there was a lot of laughter at a time when it has been hard to find things to laugh about,” explains Trevorrow.

The second season of “The Witcher,” starring Henry Cavill, has been in production this past year, just outside of London. They too, have had their own problems regarding positive COVID-19 cases. They received four positive cases recently, none of which involved the main cast. Those who tested positive are in isolation. This is the second time they have had to shut down, the first was when actor Kristofer Hivju tested positive back in March.

“Don’t Worry Darling” starring Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, and Harry Styles has also been shut down due to the pandemic. They just started filming in Los Angeles a month ago.

Several weeks ago, “The Batman’s” very own Robert Pattinson tested positive resulting in another shutdown. They have since resumed filming and are on set to finish in Feb. of 2021. Their original release date was supposed to be during the summer of 2021 but has now been pushed to the summer of 2022 in order for post-production to perfect the film.

The pandemic is slowly, yet all at once closing in on a full year. Film sets are showing their tenacity by coming to terms that their sets will continue to look quite different for the foreseeable future. With the announcement of a possible vaccine in the works from Pfizer, studios are hopeful and are beginning to see a very faint light at the end of the tunnel.