By George Robbins
The internet is becoming the home for a lot of movies nowadays both new and old through the means of digital release which has become more and more popular as time goes on. Digital release is the method by which companies will put their new content, usually which has already had a theatrical run, onto some online service where it can be purchased. The alternative for this now is that studios are making their own services in the form of streaming services as a means to make as much money from their content as possible. Obviously this is something that can only be done with the bigger companies but it is the means by which many companies plan on getting the most out of their films. Unfortunately, the pandemic has had a strong effect on the movie industry and those effects are going to echo forward from now on.
Of course, when the pandemic began every type of business save for the essential ones were shut down to the public to make sure less people would end up having the opportunity to be exposed to the virus. For the first couple of months this seemed to have worked and, along with other rules involving masks and social distancing, it was pretty successful at shutting down the rate in new cases. This downturn in cases eventually led to governments all over trying to open up as many businesses as possible in order to get their economies back on track. Obviously the shut down had a positive effect for getting the number of new cases to drop dramatically, but it also left many nations in a state of financial ruin as their economies stagnated. This is why after only a few months, they decided to start slowly reopening businesses with new restrictions in place so the cases wouldn’t spike again.
Businesses such as restaurants and the like were among the first to reopen with restrictions on total occupancy and seating rules which saw a lot of outdoor dining. While annoying for some, it was for a good reason for them to do these things and while the number of cases did start rising a bit, it was controllable. Upon the reopening of various other businesses though, everything started taking a downward spiral and the number of cases started rising even more steadily. This would go on to cause a rapid spike in cases in a short amount of time and many businesses were once again forced to be wary and enforce the health and safety rules. Not only were there just a lot more people going out at that point but also, people were just starting to get tired of the rules and regulations.
People not wanting to listen to rules really isn’t anything new, but this is a period of time where people need to actually listen to what people tell them to keep other safe. The lack of people listening to experts has led a small but not so unavoidable group of people who have managed to make things more difficult for everyone. These are the people that don’t like listening to what people tell them to do and they are the ones which end up gathering for parties where new cases then start to run rampant in the area. It is because of things like this that businesses are now rightfully worried that they could end up being shut down again due to what is now a second wave of the virus hitting everywhere. Fortunately there is a vaccine out there that is currently being tested which may end up working but there are no guarantees.
The number of people out there that need to be injected with the vaccine is not an insignificant number of people and on top of this, it is not even guaranteed to work. Of course, they need as large of a sample size as they can get to truly discover whether the vaccine will end up being effective in everyone or only a small group of people. It could even end up working on most of the population while a small number of people would not be helped by it, but it is hoped that herd immunity among a population can actually make up for this in some way. If a large majority of the population has the vaccine work for them, then the smaller number who didn’t have it work for them will be safe because the virus cannot spread so easily to them. Even if things do end up turning out for the best, there is also the issue that we don’t even know how long it could be effective for which makes it even harder to gauge how things will turn out.
With the vaccine in its distribution phase, many are hopeful that this could be the end of the pandemic which only started earlier this year. The aforementioned issues are definitely present but most people are not really looking at those and are more focused on public businesses and venues possibly being opened some time in the near future at full capacity. This kind of thinking can actually end up causing even more harm than good as people will then be more eager to try and go out once again after so long. There are plenty of people out there now that think that they can get away with not having to worry about getting sick if they were to go out and do things. This way of thinking is now the reason why there is actually talk going around that businesses could be forced to close again in order to slow the rate of new cases.
They are probably not going to shut down businesses once again, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be regulating them more harshly which is what they should have done after the summer surge. That was a point during the summer where a fair number of people ended up getting infected and it caused talks just like this where they thought about closing up again. While they may not have shut anything down, it was clear that this news had some kind of effect on businesses and many of them ended up losing a lot of money during what would be a peak season. Among the businesses which have suffered the most after reopening is the movie theater industry which has been in a state of rapid decline ever since most of them reopened in August. Now, they have been trying desperately to get more people to come through their doors before they eventually end up going bankrupt.
When theaters first reopened in August, they had already gotten off to a bad start as many people were not exactly keen on going out to places that were more likely to cause infection, like theaters, without some kind of incentive. Movie theaters thrive off of the fact that they have been the place for movies to start their release runs because of exclusivity which allows people to experience the film in a way they really wouldn’t be able to at home. This exclusivity allowed movie theaters to show new films for months before they could finally be released to the public for purchase by the production studio. Of course, once the pandemic hit, movie theaters shut down and any movies that were going to come out were delayed so that studios could release them in the future theatrically. Any movies that were already in theaters at the time had to be released by their production studio for purchase which just ended up being unfortunate for both studios and theaters.
When theaters were finally given the green light by local governments, they immediately opened their doors, but the problem was that they really had nothing to show to the public. Once the summer surge hit, many studios delayed their summer releases, making it difficult for theaters to actually have anything to show to the general public. It is due to this that they even waited until August because it played out like a dance to see who would do something first. Theaters did not want to open if they had no guaranteed movie releases and studios did not want to release any new content if the vast majority of theaters were open. This made it incredibly difficult for any progress to be made and it wasn’t until theaters reopened that we finally started seeing definitive release dates.
Unfortunately for movie goers and the movie industry as a whole, the release dates given would end up being much later than originally anticipated. After theaters were able to reopen no studio was really willing to take the leap and release their films to the public because they were worried that people would not want to go out and see them. Warner Bros. decided to take the leap by releasing the blockbuster movie ‘Tenet.’ This didn’t work out so well for them though and they ended up losing a lot of money because people didn’t go out and see the movie. This drove almost every movie in the following month through the end of the year to be moved into some time next year. Obviously people are annoyed that movies that they were looking forward to were delayed again and that they wouldn’t be able to see them until some time next year.
It really isn’t all that surprising that they made this move though because much of their initial income from movies comes from their showing in theaters and they want the best possible chance to show their films. This would obviously be some time next year, assuming that the vaccine works and the pandemic ends soon, and it would allow them to once again get people back out to theaters. This would most definitely benefit them in the long run because it would mean that they can show their new movies to large crowds without worrying if people are going to go see them. This isn’t so beneficial to theaters though as they are losing a lot of money everyday that they aren’t showing new movies even if it would be just a small influx of customers. A few customers are better than none and that is what is just barely sustaining them now that they don’t have any new movies coming out any time soon.
To say that no new movies are coming out isn’t really correct though as there have most definitely been movie releases ever since theaters have reopened their doors. The problem has lied in fact that they can’t get enough people to come in and see new movies because of the obvious worry associated with the release of new movies to theaters. People are generally smart about the pandemic and want to avoid public spaces that have been or are shared by numerous people even if they have been separated and even if they must wear masks. This fear is one that has resulted in new movies that should have gotten a decent amount of revenue essentially being given the shaft and not really making anything from their theatrical runs. Luckily for studios, they don’t have to wait long to release their movies as a deal has resulted in them being able to release digitally after just 17 days in theaters.
Now some studios, namely Warner Bros., are going the step further and going with a plan that was originally discussed by Universal Pictures earlier in the year. Universal said that their plan for future releases would be that they would release their movies on both digital and in theaters simultaneously which led to a lot of backlash from theaters. Now that theaters are not exactly in a situation to complain about things like this, Warner is taking advantage of the situation to use this original plan for themselves. They are even going to use their next blockbuster ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ as a guinea pig for this on Christmas Day, December 25th by releasing it on both HBO Max and in theaters on the same day. Not all movies are bound to take on the same format, but it is highly likely because it works out much better in the studios’ favor, at least for the near future.
One movie that this necessarily hasn’t been decided for yet is the upcoming entry to the James Bond cinematic universe which is ‘No Time to Die.’ The James Bond films have been a staple of the action-spy genre for generations at this point and the final entry in Daniel Craig’s iteration of Bond was meant to appear already, but this was delayed. Just like most movies this year, the movie was delayed because of the pandemic and although it was meant to release earlier this year it was unfortunately not able to. The second release date that this entry of Bond was going to release on was some time in November but after what happened over the summer, this plan was swapped out for the new one which sees it releasing some time next year. It is unknown exactly how we will end up seeing it, whether that be at home by streaming it or in movie theaters, and it just might end up being both.
The James Bond films are going on to their 25th entry which is most certainly a huge milestone as the character has seen a lot of revamping over the years since its original inception. The recently-departed Sean Connery gave birth to the suave, sophisticated gentleman spy with a license to kill many years ago in the 1960’s. George Lazenby took over the role for one film before Connery returned to star in his final Bond film, ‘Diamonds Are Forever.’ Roger Moore then took the title from 1973-1985 and had one of the most memorable runs with the character as he made the character seem like a more cartoonish version of himself. After Moore was Timothy Dalton who took over for the character for two films before passing the baton to one Pierce Brosnan who would take the cartoonish version of the character even further. In 2006, we saw the franchise hit the reboot switch where it would go on to be more serious while simultaneously remaining incredibly interesting for people to watch.
When Daniel Craig took over the role in 2006 with the film ‘Casino Royale,’ no one knew what to think other than the fact that the character seemed to have returned to his roots. Over the years, we saw a version of Bond that went from inexperienced and all too serious to calm and collected spy with a license to kill. Now, we are about to see the end of an era for Bond films and it is a very big deal because Bond will continue onwards from here, but it will be different yet again. It has been a long road since the first film in this era and we would not have reached this point if not for the original films. So as of now, YouTube is allowing people to watch the first 19 films which made the character into what he is today for free with advertisements. Even if people are annoyed by the ads, YouTube really didn’t have to do this and it would be difficult to watch the films otherwise if you didn’t already own them.
By George Robbins
While there may not be many space epic films which exist in the world, there are some and among those is a movie that has had a niche audience over the years and that is the movie ‘Dune.’ There are not really all that many films which can take home the title of being an epic, but this movie was one in pretty much every sense of the word. From start to finish, the movie ranged from just over two hours to just over three hours based upon which version of the film was being screened. ‘Dune’ is a science fiction film based upon the novel by writer Frank Herbert which was originally written in 1965 while the movie ended up releasing in 1984. The movie, written and directed by one David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive), and it was poised to be an interesting movie until it actually released to the public.
The problem with adapting movies from novels is that the latter is a medium that sees a lot of time and effort being put into a readable detail that people can understand and imagine for themselves by reading it. Unfortunately, movies must take that detail and turn it into visual detail that people will be able to recognize and that is a very unfortunate job to have. Being able to take something that people can imagine in their minds being completely different from each interpretation and turning that into one definitive version of that thing is a difficult task. Ultimately it falls to the director and set designers to come up with whatever it is that they need for this stuff to work. When it comes to adapting novels to film, it is even more difficult for science fiction films to be done properly because everyone imagines things being far different.
The original ‘Dune’ movie was one that not a lot of people could identify with and it didn’t help that David Lynch is known for having a strange way of directing. The movie was an epic the likes of which no one would have imagined but it ended up being a box office bomb in the end after only grossing about $31 million on a budget of $40 million. Not only did the movie do bad while it was in theaters but it was plagued by constant development trouble before it was even released. They had talked about making a film based upon the novel not long after the novel’s release but it would be almost 20 years before they got a working film out of the novel. Unfortunately, the issues they were having were a glimpse into the future because they prefaced the lack of box office response that the movie had upon release.
Ever since then, it has been a question as to whether the failure of the movie was because of the director and his directing style or if it was the novel the movie was based upon. Some novels simply do not translate as well as people think they do into the movie medium and as such, the movie itself does not feel like it is paced properly and people end up disliking it. The new and upcoming Denis Villeneuve-directed ‘Dune‘ will be a good opportunity to gauge which one of those two statements is true and it is likely it was the former issue. Brian Herbert, the son of the original author Frank Herbert, has continued writing stories in the series and developing comics based upon the series and he has said that the upcoming version of the film will be the definitive version of his father’s original work. The movie was originally supposed to release by the end of this year, but it was pushed back to October 1st of 2021 where it will release on HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously. Hopefully the movie will end up being the thing that everyone wanted from the original film.
By George Robbins
There have been a lot of movies that have been in development over the course of this past year and many more which are bound to begin the production process starting as early as January. The pandemic made it very difficult for movies to get done in the right ways because of a number of issues that had to be worked through before they could get them done. When the pandemic had first begun, productions, like most other businesses, were forced to shut down until further notice which delayed the completion of many a film. This was to be expected because movie productions aren’t exactly considered to be essential businesses and they were terrible places for preventing the spread of the virus. When movies were forced to stop production, the entire industry basically ended up grinding to a halt until further notice.
Movie productions are sets that involve a countless number of people working in close proximity to one another in order to complete a massive undertaking. Obviously when a large number of people are forced to work closely to one another, it would be considered a pretty high risk and people would most definitely spread disease. Although they had to shut all productions down, this did not mean that they were going to keep said productions shut down. What studios were really waiting for was the moment when the health and safety regulations released and they could send people back out to work on sets. There was no way they would be allowed to continue filming unless those new regulations were in place because of the working conditions they would be under.
More times than not, movies are shot and produced abroad when they are made on location which a decent number of them just so happen to be. When a production crew is sent out to a location, they are sent out with equipment and they are set up within a certain space but otherwise they can freely roam around while they are there. Now, due to the pandemic, the number of people that can be sent out is limited, people need to quarantine before they can even enter another country, and rules on set are completely different. Obviously while on set, cast and crew need to wear masks at all times, except when filming a scene, and they aren’t allowed to leave the set for any reasons unless there is an emergency. These new rules have made it kind of difficult for any movies to really get done, but that hasn’t stopped many crews in the slightest.
Movies that have been in production this year were forced to shut down in March and most were able to start back up again by June or July with the new rules in place. As soon as they were able to open up once again, they immediately took advantage of that fact and got back to work even more revitalized after time off. Some productions- at least one– were able to actually get some work done while people were stuck at home and this helped them out even more in the long run as it made it easier to work through the next section of production. This meant that some productions would be able to finish sooner than initially planned and they would have plenty of time for post-production before the film was released. Many films were not this lucky though and as soon as productions began again, they had a long road ahead of them.
Some movies had actually started the process of production before the pandemic even began and they managed to at least get some of the movie done in a fair bit of time. Unfortunately, they were forced to stop their flow and those movies had to stop long before they were actually done filming which led to crews having to work even harder. There were a lot of movies that had to start up again after the green lights were given, but they also had a lot of setting up to do before they could resume. Eventually though, with people back on set and the new rules properly in place, they were finally able to resume filming and a lot of work was done very quickly. For instance, even though the ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ movie production was not resumed until later in the summer, they still managed to get their work done efficiently and they finished not much later.
Another movie that people have been looking out for has been the new ‘The Suicide Squad‘ which was being directed by James Gunn that was also able to once again resume proper production. While being touted as a sequel, it is actually more factual, apparently, to call it a spiritual sequel in the sense that it doesn’t go based off of the first movie’s story. The movie has a cast of villains from the DC universe that many people probably have no idea even existed and based on what Gunn showed people over the summer, it looks like a good movie to look out for. It has been revealed by James Gunn himself that the movie has actually wrapped production, and not only that, but also it has been finished with a final cut ready for release. The movie is set for release on both HBO Max and in theaters next summer and it is certainly one of those films that people will be watching out for upon release.
By George Robbins
Without a single doubt in anyone’s minds, this year has easily been one of the most difficult years for a large number of people and that isn’t going to stop going into 2021. Although vaccines are beginning the process of rolling out at the moment, the fact remains that it will be a long time before immunity is properly spread to the public. This is also assuming that the vaccines actually end up working as intended and people actually end up becoming immune to the virus after getting the vaccine. In the meantime, we will still be stuck inside for the most part until the world as a whole can decide whether it is safe to resume normal activity once again. This leaves a lot to be desired by much of the world who are trying to get out of the house and be able to do something for once.
Many people have been resigned for most of the year to staying in the house waiting for businesses that they would regularly frequent to be open to the public once again. A few months after the pandemic began, we started seeing businesses like restaurants start opening again for the first time, though with restrictions. Most restaurants could only really allow outdoor dining because they have to follow the social distancing rules which also limits the overall number of people that can be in a business at a time. Obviously this has made it difficult for most businesses to actually get stuff done properly as they cannot get anywhere near as much business done. Without a means of actually getting a lot of business, it would be easy to assume that businesses would start to fail a bit.
No industry has suffered from this so much as the film industry and more specifically, the distribution side of it which is things like the releases. Obviously it can be assumed that theaters didn’t exactly have a lot going for them when they first reopened but that wasn’t going to stop them from finally reopening to the public. By the middle of August, most theaters everywhere had been reopened and were doing their best to draw people in with the small variety of films at their disposal at the start. This meant that their saving grace that they were hoping for had to be a blockbuster movie and it had to be coming out very soon after they opened up again. This movie would be the new Christopher Nolan movie ‘Tenet,’ at least that was what they were hoping for, but things turned for the worse not long after release.
When ‘Tenet’ first released to theaters, it released in the international market before it released in the domestic market due to a surge in cases in the States. The movie was originally supposed to premiere back in the middle of July, but this plan went to the wayside because theaters could not find a good period of time to reopen. Eventually, once AMC began the process of opening their doors, Warner Bros. decided on a release date for ‘Tenet.’ The dates for release were at the end of August and at the start of September for the domestic market and these two weekends saw a decent amount of traffic hit theaters for once. Unfortunately, this was not going to last in the domestic market because the next few weekends only saw a few million each domestically.
Even from that point on, the market for the movie internationally started to slowly wane, but it was the main reason that the movie was able to stay afloat. There was no way for them to really make money from that point forward and Warner Bros. ended up losing a lot of money due to the “failed” theatrical release. They needed a total of $500 million before marketing expenses just to apparently break even on the movie and that was unfortunately something that was not meant to be. It has been a couple of months since then and there hasn’t really been any movies put into theaters that have generated any kind of decent income. This has caused many studios to waver on just what they want to do moving forward and there is no guarantee that things would get better. So after the ‘Tenet’ incident, most big releases were pushed out of this year and into next year to accommodate for better release windows.
Of course, most studios moving their release dates out of this year means that movie theaters were going to start losing money even more than they already are. Some theaters once again shut their doors to try and save money while others are about to go bankrupt due to lack of new income. They have been desperate to get more movies coming through their doors and thus they have implemented the plan that they announced a couple of months back which would allow movies to release sooner. Essentially, the plans goes like this: theaters will have exclusivity to new movies coming out for a period of 17 days, after which they can be released digitally to the public. This plan was one that was obviously unheard of but theaters are desperate at this point and want to draw people back in by any means even if it hurts them in the long run.
Normally, theaters would have exclusivity deals that would last upwards of months before the movies were able to release to the public for purchase. There is no one who actually liked this plan except for, obviously, theaters because it meant that they held most of the power in their own hands and they can do whatever they want with new movies until a certain amount of time is up. On top of this, movie theaters are always given a sizable portion of the money that is brought in by the movie tickets sold as well as concessions. With a lot less people now wanting to risk their health and safety just to go out, theaters haven’t been getting the business they need in order to stay open and they were forced to take the new deal. If they could get at least some people through their doors, that still works out better for them overall.
Movie theaters have always been the ones to get the best deal out of movie releases, but now it would appear that studios are the ones that are making out for once. Of course, they all make more money overall if theaters were functioning properly, but since this isn’t the case, studios are trying to get money the best way they can. Most people are still stuck at home on a regular basis and need something to do to keep themselves busy therefore, releasing new movies digitally works out better in the end. There are very few people out there that actually dislike seeing new movies so of course there would be a market for these new films. Thus, studios have been trying to get their new films out to the public as fast as they possibly can.
If things were normal, movies going to theaters would benefit a studio because that studio would make money from the film being in theaters as well as digital and physical sales later. Now that films being in theaters and not being available digitally is a huge downside to studios, they are trying to get their films out as quickly as they can while taking advantage of theaters. By releasing to theaters first it does two things which are the building of good faith between the studio and theaters as well as making more money for the studio. Things seem to be changing though as this is not the only change which has been discussed as of late and people are actually going to see movies release in multiple places at once. Well, specifically, people will be seeing movies release on streaming services while simultaneously being released in theaters.
A few months ago, theaters tried destroying the idea that movies should be released on multiple platforms at the same time and it resulted in a stalemate between companies for a while. Eventually they came up with the aforementioned deal from above where theaters would get exclusivity to new movies for at least 17 days. Theaters are unfortunately just not in the position to try and talk their way out of anything new that comes up after that deal or instead of it. They are actually being taken advantage of at this point by people in studios who want to make the most of their film releases while partially helping theaters. As previously stated, showing movies in theaters does attract a crowd, and while it may not be as large, it is still a little bit of extra cash to keep things going.
Warner Bros. is taking it that little step further than Universal tried doing some months back which is that they are trying to get their films to release at the same time as their theatrical release. To be a bit more fair, they are trying to get their new movies to release on their streaming service HBO Max because they need to drive traffic there somehow. Although the pandemic may begin to calm down at the start of 2021, things are still going to be pretty ridiculous for the remainder of the year. As such, studios need a long term solution which will make it easier for them to get work done and bring people to them. Warner has been trying to make their HBO Max service work for over half a year now, and things still aren’t turning out great for them.
The HBO Max streaming service is one that has become something kind of strange to a lot of people because of the way that it is being handled by the public. Warner released HBO Max at the end of May as a way of finding their place among the streaming landscape which is now allowing other companies to flourish. If those companies are able to bring in a steady base of customers, then they can certainly get a lot more money in the long run from subscription fees. HBO Max started off with boasting from the company that they would be putting thousands of hours up on the service at launch and that it would be their entire catalog going up just like Disney+. Unfortunately this tactic hasn’t been working out as great as they originally thought it was and they are not getting as many subs as they originally hoped for.
Considering the size of their library, it is difficult to try and guess exactly why people aren’t signing up for the streaming service. On the other hand, most people can recognize that the service may just not have everything that they want on it and therefore they aren’t interested in subscribing. Thus, it would seem that Warner is now doing what they think is necessary to get more people to flock to their service and that is by putting up new releases. Anything that is new and interesting can catch people’s attention and in this world of digital convenience, this is the best way for them to ensure that they don’t lose more money than necessary. Their method that they have chosen to go with to get more subs to their service is to release their new movies both in theaters and on their HBO Max service.
Obviously if they are putting new movies up on their service while they are released simultaneously in theaters it will catch peoples’ attention. They kicked off this method of releasing their future content when they announced that this would be their way of releasing the new ‘Wonder Woman 1984.’ Over this past weekend, they have made it known even more that they will actually be doing this with all of their upcoming 2021 movies that they are releasing. Even if the pandemic does somehow miraculously end, we are going to see movies drop on HBO Max at the same time that they drop in theaters which completely goes against everything we know. If movies can release in this way from Warner, there isn’t too much getting in the way for other large studios to do the same to get movies out there. This is what they feel is the best possible way for things to go moving forward and it is bound to change things for the industry in the future.
By George Robbins
This pandemic has easily become one of the craziest things to happen over the past few years and it has fundamentally changed the way that we see the world nowadays. After all, there is not a moment that goes by now where we don’t think that we could be infected with the virus or that we can’t spread it to other people. On top of this, we have already seen how this managed to affect the world around us because of the various industries that are now suffering due to all of this. Among all of the industries that are trying to make up for what is going on in the world at the moment, there is one that is being affected in a pretty unique way. That industry would just so happen to be the entertainment industry and not so much the production side as the distribution side of the industry.
When the pandemic began and everything shut down, movie productions and movie theaters had shut down in accordance with regulations from the government. After a certain amount of time had passed, and new guidelines were created, businesses were able to reopen and movie production was able to once again resume. Unfortunately, it would still be a while before movie theaters felt comfortable enough to reopen and this time would be somewhere around the middle of August. Even after theaters managed to reopen to the public, it was quickly discovered that they would not be able to make money the way they initially planned due to the ongoing pandemic. Fears that people would contract the virus has led the general public to stay away from public businesses like theaters as much as possible.
With movie theaters pretty much taken out of the equation at this current point in time, studios have been looking for the best ways of releasing their upcoming films. The most common thing for them to do now is delay, but some films have already been delayed for a long time and the studios have to get them out there. So the other options available to them for the time being are for them to release the films theatrically and then get a digital release a few weeks later or release the film on both digital and in theaters simultaneously to maximize profits. Not many studios are going with these options, but it would appear that Warner Bros. is taking the leap and they will release their upcoming ‘Wonder Woman 1984‘ through both mediums. Those who wish to go and see the movie theatrically will now have their chance to get their tickets as they have gone up for pre-sale.
By George Robbins
This year has easily been one of the most tense and infuriating years that we have all had in quite some time as a worldwide society. Obviously there have been countless issues which have arisen over the years that are easily worse than what we are now forced to experience, but not in the same way. This year pretty much started of as a continuation of last year where everything pretty much remained the same and then it almost overnight, became a completely awful year for us all. The first few months of the year went on as they normally would and they didn’t bring too much with them with society rolling on. Then the middle of March struck and the pandemic had officially begun with everybody being forced to stay indoors unless they absolutely had to out somewhere.
Everywhere people looked, businesses were shut down, with the exception of businesses that were deemed absolutely essential to the continuation of society as a whole. This essentially meant that places that sold food, clothes, and water as well as other necessary essentials like gas, replacement parts, and toiletries were allowed to keep their doors open so that people would not have to go without supplies. With places like these still open, things were not as bad as people originally thought they were going to be, but the fact remained that we were stuck indoors at the start of a pandemic. Things were already looking grim from the onset and the limited facts that people were going on were not exactly forthcoming to the general public. This meant that people had no idea what was really going on and they could only end up listening and following government mandated orders.
The long incubation period and the subsequent quarantine periods meant that it was hard to track whether someone was sick until they started showing symptoms. On top of this, it was discovered that even asymptomatic patients could give the virus to others so we were given the rules to always wear our face masks and to distance ourselves from one another. This new rule of social distancing in order to prevent infection became a commonplace practice and this was what needed to be followed in all forms of business. Therefore, businesses were given guidelines for how they should open and how they would be allowed to remain open from that point forward. Mostly, this meant that only a limited number of people could be in a certain business at one time, they could only travel in one direction, and everyone had to wear masks.
For a couple of months following the start of the pandemic, no businesses were allowed to reopen because of fears that the number of cases would spike it they were open. Eventually, once the number of new cases started dropping, state governments as well as other governments around the world slowly allowed places to reopen to the public to their new limited capacity. This went against the views many people had because although the number of new cases was down, people inherently knew that the number of new cases would spike again once businesses reopened. Sure enough, this past summer saw a huge surge in new cases, but businesses did not shut down again, at least not many of them. We are once again at one of those points where things have gotten dangerous again though as a massive spike in cases has once again arisen.
There are many businesses that have managed to have decent reopenings even with the limited capacities they now have to deal with. Unfortunately, these reopenings were not handled the way that people expected them to and people being people didn’t listen to what they were told. As a direct result to this, the second wave that experts were waiting for has pretty much come back and talks about shutting things down again are taking place all over. There isn’t really all that much that can be done at this point though and, in an effort to keep more people from getting infected, this is something they simply have to do to keep people safe. This won’t stop some people from apparently putting themselves as well as others in harm’s way though because plenty of people are going about things like nothing is happening.
One of the most dangerous forms of allowing this to happen is by event organizers planning live events where people will be doing things in person. For most of this past year, any events that would have normally taken place in person have instead been taking place online or they have been delayed until such time where they can have the event safely. Now that there are talks of possible vaccines hitting the streets soon, people are becoming hopeful that this pandemic will end sooner rather than later and they can go back to living their lives the way they use to. The fact is that there is no guarantee that the vaccines will actually end up working in the end or if they will even affect everyone if they do work. Not only that, but if they do end up working, then how long will those vaccines last; we are in uncharted territory and it could still be some time before we know if this pandemic will be over for sure.
In the meantime we should still be careful like we have been with many events that would normally be held in-person being held online instead. Plenty of conventions and the like have been able to make this work since the pandemic began, so then why do the Academy Awards want to have an in-person event for next years award ceremony. The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, is a time of year for people to celebrate those in the movie industry who have happened to make incredible works of art. Whether it be actors, directors, production staff, etc., the Academy Awards honor those who have created something phenomenal that people have had the chance to enjoy on screen. While not the only award ceremony to give awards to people for their achievements in the industry, they are easily the most well-known among the populace.
This past year hasn’t really seen a lot of positive things happening within the movie industry, but that doesn’t mean that things have not happened over the year. People were not sure of just what movies would end up being allowed to be nominated for the Oscars because their usual rules disqualify movies which have not been in theaters at least once. Luckily, they have started allowing movies which have been streamed upon release instead of put into theaters given the fact that theaters are kind of having a difficult time right now. This year is the reason for a fair number of different rules being made in order to accommodate for the difficult situation the industry has found itself in. In fact, some were not even sure whether they were going to be having the Oscars this upcoming year or not.
As it would seem, not only are they having them, but they will be having them be in-person rather than livestreamed or by some other means. They announced a while back that they were going to delay the award ceremony until some time in April while allowing the entry deadline to go to some time in February rather than ending when the year ends. There is really no way of knowing just yet how they will actually be holding the awards ceremony with things the way that they are now while still being safe. Like already stated, even if the vaccines that are supposed to hit the streets soon work on the majority of the population, there is no way of knowing just what their effectiveness will be. The only way to find out for sure when it will be safe to hold the awards normally would be to wait a lot longer for good results to become public knowledge. As of now it would appear they are flying dark, so hopefully we hear more about this sooner rather than later.
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