'Bold & The Beautiful' Exec Explains How They'll Resume Filming Amid Pandemic: 'Safety Is Our Utmost Concern'
Bold & The Beautiful is coming back.
The long-running CBS soap opera is the first U.S. series planning to resume production on Wednesday (June 17) amid the global health crisis, and executive producer Bradley Bell is explaining how they’ll do it in an interview with THR.
“We feel we’re ready to go. Safety is our utmost concern and will be as we return to production,” he said of the show, which shut down in March amid the lockdown.
“We’ve been preparing for this over the last month, month and a half. We knew the day would come, so we’ve been modifying our spaces, modifying our studio, our booth, staying up to date on what the most important health and safety protocols are,” he said.
“We’ve been working with a group called Reel Health, and they provide great COVID response services. We’ve been looking to them to guide us through a safe path back to production. We’ve been doing testing — everyone has been tested. Actors will be tested at least once a week, maybe multiple times a week. All production personnel will be tested on Mondays, and we’ll be filming Tuesday through Friday,” he continued.
“In terms of the booth and control room, we have plexiglass between the director, the AD, the [technical director]. We’ve spread out all of our production people so they’re at least six feet apart and divided by plexiglass. We’ve moved the lighting department to an auxiliary area where they have more space. We’re limiting the number of people on set at any one time, and keeping the actors eight feet apart at all times — which will be tricky, especially during love scenes [laughs],” he went on to say.
“We’ll really rely on our directors to employ all techniques. [Actors will] shoot eight feet apart, following all the safety standards, but use the tricks of the business. We’ll shoot one side of the couple in a romantic scene alone in the room, but looking at a spot very close to them, and then shoot the other side alone. When we edit it together, it will look like they’re nose to nose.”
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