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Entertainment lawyer Elsa Ramo founded Ramo Law PC in the universal backlot. Today, his company of 12 lawyers manages one hundred videos and 30 TV screens a year, with clients ranging from A24 to Netflix. While productions go back cautiously, or compare whether to do so, Ramo’s paintings have taken on a new urgency. He spoke to IndieWire about how he asked his customers to compare their productions and what kind of adjustments they could make in the coming months.
When manufacturers come to you, how do you evaluate whether they check for moving forward or waiting?
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Look, it’s not my job to say “wait” or “go away.” The consultation is, if you need to go, how can you make it work?
Of course, you are also allowed to have an opinion about it.
It depends on whether you have the monetary resources for a plan B. You can do everything perfectly and there may still be an epidemic. So the basic question is, “Who’s going to write the check if the cameras are recording and someone is in poor health at the time?” If there is no position to do that duty, they deserve not to continue. Now, where’s that duty right now? Sometimes it’s the network; Sometimes the producer; infrequently a rich user willing to guarantee that risk. If this exists, if someone can do a canopy in the worst case and it is imaginable to strengthen production protocols to control prices, then it is imaginable.
What are the most demanding situations for assessing how production is progressing now?
Just when we think we have a plan, it breaks. There are some brick walls, but other people are locating paintings around. There is no insurance to cover COVID claims yet, so if the duty falls on the study or the financiers, production by production will have to be evaluated. There is a law that is intended to be in a position to ensure COVID’s claims with the government through insurance companies. It’s a painting in progress. Most end-touch bonds cannot put them on independently funded projects because they don’t need to cover anything where there’s such a gigantic exclusion from insurance. It’s a challenge.
How do conversations make the latest rules easier?
In March, we didn’t know what to do. In August, looking for what we’re about to convert, we know what kind of equipment we want. We want to expand a production plan. With each real example of a photo shoot, you recalibrate what works and what doesn’t.
California has published a white paper on production protocols that has become an evolving document among various independent producers and studios. Everyone from Lionsgate to Warner Bros., has their own production rules on how to shoot during COVID. The kind of icing on the cake, which is essential for the skill to succeed, is that saG has hired an epidemiologist, the DGA is also very concerned and will have to approve those standards.
What are the most recent conversations you’ve had about production standards?
Only in the following week, one factor that was raised was that on-site productions were administered through APs. Is it as reliable as bringing a doctor? There is also the challenge of other people doing good with Americans in a trailer where everyone comes in and out all day, where the airdrops are. Can we do it outside? Things like that are constantly being reorganized.
Then you have the query what happens when you test positive in a production tray. How do we put in place the procedures we have so that there is no complete epidemic?
So how do you respond?
People paint in germ circles, so when there’s a positive test, you can circle very temporarily around other people who have been in contact with those other people. Productions have been smart on this. In fact, they know the pods they want to paint in combination and have moved away from cross-contamination.
The concept is that the user deserves to be sent home and those who were in contact with that user deserve to be tested and evaluated without delay. If it reaches the quarantine point it is anything we want, on a case-by-case basis, with all the variables involved. There’s no black-and-white answer.
What do you think of non-union projects at this time?
Look, a lot of unnamed stuff is rarely very syndicated. We make many very small movies where the threat is that of the user who writes the check. In this case, as a manufacturer or producer, you have an excessive duty and you have to mitigate it with protocols with which you feel comfortable. You won’t have insurance. The reality, especially in California and New York, is that if a user is infected, they should rule out the benefit of their disease. These jobs and daily prices are serious. Even manufacturers who feel they can beat the appearance of unions want to make sure they have a safe running environment for other people who are spinning.
What kind of role does a lawyer have in discussing the stories that filmmakers should tell?
I’ve been on calls where this intimate scene doesn’t make sense. If the mask is disabled, you ask them to change the pin. There’s no point in endangering two other people. Just ask if the check is a false negative. For other people’s giant teams, there are conversations about how CGI can tell a story. The only thing that has definitely happened is that the pre-production procedure has been re-tested by COVID. The concept of this pre-production workplace no longer exists. Development meetings with editors and executives are far away. I think the disorders are changing. This gives other people the feeling that you don’t want the other extra people on set in the first place. After all, how disgusting is the table of the artisanal facilities because of the pandemic? I’ll never have a vegetable fountain open on a tray again.
What kind of progress do you see on the front of the check?
I was on the line with a syndicate looking to figure it out. It takes a technique of one week a week to find out what’s reliable or not. It turns out that there is a consensus that nasal swabs administered through a fitness professional in all spaces have a point of reliability. But some productions simply can’t see other people several times a week. If the artist has to leave the set, take a check and come back, he will have to be paid for this time. It’s an incredibly prohibitive cost and perhaps the most unlikely.
I asked one of my clients to verify a device they would buy for their business and self-administer. I think what we’re going to do in terms of verification in 3 months will be incredibly different because knowledge is becoming very fast. But the truth is that so far, the most reliable thing is when it is administered through a fitness professional. I will say that the chains and studies have taken other positions on it. It is also an environmental service. Does your release sound like the NBA bubble, or do other people come from home every day and see your kids? If this is the last case, verification will be more frequent. You can’t rely on check number one if it’s a four-week session. We have had conditions where a user tested positive after giving negative the day before. Two days later, your check is negative. Shall we let them come back and quarantine them?
You’re quarantined! Right?
Right now, we’re looking for other people to be careful. I’m not a scientist. I say where the negative and the positive are in terms of transmission.
There are considerations that a vaccine will be released too soon. But how much would it replace the game on the production front?
I certainly don’t think that’s going to happen overnight. To my consistent general knowledge, the vaccine is a deployment. Older players may come and settle down, but there is a transmission threat if the vaccine is not fully available. The other detail that has given the impression in many conversations is whether there will be price or price for a user with positive results in antibodies. Does that minimize the threat of knowing that, say, 80 percent of production had COVID? Is there discrimination in that? It’s kind of like a Hunger Games thing. Are you now selected to have a positive antibody test that suggests we don’t have to worry about you? These things have not yet materialized, however, they are genuine conversations that are taking a stand with lawyers, unions and manufacturers who turn their heads around it.
What do you think of antibody tests?
I’ve talked to a few other people on the insurance side, and there’s a lot of discussion about whether you can tip the scales to use antibody verification reliably. But we’re not there yet. This has been something in the threat assessment to see if you can cover COVID claims.
Where do you think of the desire to rent COVID security guards on set?
We live in a capitalist society. You can have a security guard, other people with bases of genuine wisdom, of all sizes and scales. Some other people do it every hour; others can be part of your budget and get there every single day. As a producer, you cannot assume that you must communicate about disease transmission and want someone with a little delight to advise you on the law.
To what extent have the last few months replaced the number of paintings you have made?
About March to May, we did a lot of treatments with people. Now we are not at the point of the productions that we had a year ago, but this has been complemented by the solution of many problems. There are so many other legal ramifications that didn’t exist a year ago. It’s also a matter of finding opportunities. How do you restructure content to constitute content in this area? People feel this is a difficult time, so there will be many opportunities for equity or borrowing. I’m preparing my staff. You can’t just slow things down for a few months while everyone watching Netflix or other platforms without having to make up for that with the content. We begin to feel the effects and be busier with production. But the floodgates aren’t open yet. If there is no wave at the moment, I think there will be a massive flow in December and January. In fact, it depends on what happens next.
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