Film, TV Production in Czech Republic Can Resume Under Safety Guidelines
The film commission in Czech Republic announced Thursday that film and TV shoots can resume production immediately in Prague now that the government has lifted restrictions and provided safety guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Shows such as Marvel’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” were shooting in the country before production was shuttered there. And Amazon also had productions prepped for the latest season of “Carnival Row” with Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne and the first season of “Wheel of Time” starring Rosamund Pike. Other productions include the Netflix film “473 Transatlantic.”
Among the guidelines that the film commission laid out for individual shoots included access to testing, use of a sanitary base camp, eating lunch in shifts (more commonly known as “French hours”), taking temperatures of people on set and providing protective gear and sanitizing equipment.
“Film production as a significant part of the cultural and creative industry is essentially a type of manufacturing and an independent sector. The severe restrictions were a result of necessary measures that the Czech Republic was forced to adopt, affecting all areas of society,” Minister of Culture Lubomir Zaoralek said in a statement.
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The government in Czech Republic issued a state of emergency on March 12 when only 116 cases had been reported in the country, and the government now says that early measures have produced positive results. Thus far, just under 8,000 cases have been reported with 263 deaths. The state of emergency is likely to end on May 17, but the country’s borders reopened on April 27 for citizens of the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and the United Kingdom. Travel from elsewhere, however, is recommended to be restricted but is not prohibited.
“Three-quarters of audiovisual productions in the Czech Republic stopped in March. In full compliance with the Ministry of Health, filmmakers are no longer affected by measures restricting cultural and sporting events and large gatherings. We therefore consider audiovisual production to be resumed,” Helena Bezdek Frankova, director of the Czech Film Fund, said in a statement. “Even during the state of emergency, however, the incentive program ran without interruption, the Czech Film Fund continued to register audiovisual projects, and payment of incentives was not delayed for those projects where all conditions stipulated by law were met.”
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