On March 9, 2020 I was riding high. I had just wrapped up a busy job with a major financial company and my 1st quarter was turning out to be the best period for my 4-year-old business yet. It seemed like my young production company was turning toward a bright and busy future and as the weekend came I was planning on celebrating with my friends. I was also turning 34. As the week rolled on and the Coronavirus was coming into view in the Bay Area, upcoming clients began canceling one by one, starting with a live streaming conference the following week. It surprised me at first how quickly all my work was evaporating but by the end of the week with the economy closing down and shelter in place beginning it seemed inevitable that everything on the books would be canceled.

The production world has been upended by Covid-19. The entire industry has been affected: from major directors and studios to small independent freelancers around the United States. It is a sink or swim moment for many, and that means adapt or go broke.

Film shoots are slowly returning after months of being shut down due to the coronavirus crisis. With the return of film shoots comes new budget line items to deal with COVID-19. These costs include additional personnel, new equipment, medical testing, and lots of sanitization. In addition to the added direct costs, there are indirect increases in costs due to slower work and increased shooting time. The additional costs of regulatory compliance can be incredibly difficult for independent film productions.

Running our video production company used to be about jumping on a plane to meet the next story in person. That all stopped the second week of March - when Covid-19 hit, my team went from talking face-to-face with our clients with full-sized cinema cameras to get the best angle to...nothing. Working on-location wasn’t an option. We weren’t allowed to travel. We weren’t even allowed out of our houses, let alone to work with a crew.

Prior to 2020, advertising spending, on average, in the United States increased 8% - 10% annually since 2015. Increases in spending in each year were in excess of $10 Billion USD year over year and were about $241 Billion USD in 2019. 2020 looked to be even better until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, of course.

As productions return to work, they are faced with the realities of what it will take to create the safest possible work environment. While some locations have specific restrictions, including quarantine requirements, there are some universal precautions that will apply to shooting in any location - such as implementing staggered work shifts and/or the zone system, increasing off-set work, and limiting contact.

No industry was left undisturbed by the current pandemic. The majority of web design and marketing agencies immediately felt pressures as clients canceled, marketing budgets were reduced, and businesses scrambled to figure out how to improve their online presence.

Quibi and the ATTN: team are gearing up to debut the new "Your Daily Horoscope” daily animated series. Taye Shuayb, VP of Production at ATTN, and team, which includes designers, animators, compositors and editors, counts on Adobe to edit and deliver 12 minutes of animation everyday using a combination of Photoshop, Character Animator, After Effects, and Premiere Pro.

In the past there have been many good reasons why someone might choose to hire or work with a remote editor, however during the time of Covid-19 it’s become more of a necessity. If you’re planning on working with an off-site editor, there are some things you can do that will:

I interviewed Brian De Herrera-Schnering, a colorist for Pinto Pictures who has flexed his color-grading muscles on everything from commercials and corporate projects to feature-length films. We talked about what has changed due to the pandemic, what remains the same in every era, and how he stays inspired.