Good Afternoon,
I am not predicting the end of the Democratic Party but this article spells unfortunate news for some Blue states:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/us/politics/coronavirus-red-blue-states.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Churches should have never been on the banned group meeting list. It was an open invitation for silly lawsuits from people who love to call attention to themselves.
Most importantly, it would have been a "put up or shut up" moment for all the adults who claim to believe in magic, and that that belief gives them the right to determine the fate of others. Either you believe that your imaginary friend (who sends hurricanes to punish your enemies) will protect you from disease, or you don't. Either walk into that building, say your magic spells and hug all the other deluded adults, or stay out of the building and shut the fuck up about your magic beliefs. If Jebus can't protect you from the plague, what the fuck good is he?

Wow, you guys were ON it with this round of crystal-balling. That was a killer read. Thanks!

While you make some good points inre: indie film production, there are other countervailing issues that will arise to pull the industry in the other direction. For one thing, lower budget independent productions aren't necessarily going to be able to absorb some of the additional costs necessitated by implementing "safer set" protocols, whether that be self-quarantining, daily temperature testing, additional PPE for workers, contact tracing, not to mention substantially increased insurance liability costs, even if some of that is offset by smaller crew sizes.

Additionally, independent films tend to rely heavily on location shooting, whereas larger budget studio films do the bulk of their shooting on sound stages. The former are generally fairly uncontrolled environments; think restaurants, bars, nightclubs, private homes, and office environments. Maintaining the hygienic integrity of these spaces is going to be problematic, and in many cases businesses are going to be reluctant to grant permission to shoot on their premises, because of all the additional work involved, even if the production itself absorbs the extra costs.

OTOH, sound stages are perfect environments for sequestered shooting, and those are mainly controlled by the big studios and content creators. Also, green screen shooting has become nearly ubiquitous to the point where many films are making use of it in ways that don't otherwise call attention to the virtual augmentation ("Parasite" is a case in-point). So, stages large enough to accommodate the scale needed for green screen rendering, particularly of outdoor environments, are going to see heavy use as the industry ramps up over the next several months.

That said, I do think you'll see a dramatic increase in "virtual environments" utilizing technology developed for the interactive gaming industry that will allow for shooting large-scale environments in relatively small physical spaces (by way of example: about 50% of Disney's "The Manadlorian" was shot on a mere 1,500 ft/sq. sound stage using high-resolution video imaging for the backdrops.) As the confluence of video gaming environmental modeling and motion picture and television production continues, I would expect to see not only the quality of virtual environments improve dramatically (as anyone who has seen examples of Epic Games recently-launched UE5 graphics engine can attest), but costs fall to the point where it will actually be cheaper to film in a CGI environment than in the real-world - with the results being virtually (pun intended) indistinguishable to the viewer. At that point, huge stages won't be an issue and it will be easier to create smaller VR stages outside the mainstream production centers of LA, NYC, VAN, TOR, etc., but we're still quite a ways from that becoming widespread. However, there's already some momentum being generated in this area. Ian Hubert and Scott Hanson of Port Orchard's KarmaPirates have been doing some interesting things with smaller-scale virtual environments, and I expect that trend to accelerate in the post-COVID landscape. But, until the technology fully matures and the price-point drops to where it's available to and affordable for small indie projects outside the big media production hubs, high-budget production is still going to have some distinct advantages.

You’d think churches of all places would understand the need to sacrifice their immediate desires (to gather in person) for the greater good (public health/ending a pandemic)

well that was fucking depressing

@9:

Apparently this doesn't apply to those run by pastors who proclaim that God personally told them they deserve three houses, two Mercedes Benzes, and a Lear Jet for doing His Good Work.