COVID-Safe Commercial Production: Bathroom In A Church Edition

Ever built a bathroom in the middle of a church sanctuary? The Storyfarm office is not really production studio. It's a church sanctuary built in 1888, with original floors, stained glass and much more. We rent studios elsewhere normally. But everything is different with COVID. Our client, Wahl, needed to shoot in a nice big bright modern bathroom, so we scouted lots of real bathrooms looking for a big open feel/look. The best were in nice hotels, but with no opening windows and a crew on top of each other for days, it just was not safe enough. We needed better option.

So we decided the safest thing was to use the 40+ foot ceilings and big wide open windows in our church office. With the help of a set designer we built a beautiful 3 wall bathroom complete with DIY water running in a hose to the sink. We shot more than a dozen clippers and other mens grooming products with a series of models over the course of several days. It worked perfectly. We stayed totally COVID safe, with rigorous pre-shoot testing, distancing and masks. And we made great content combining 3D animated products and live action film for our client Wahl and their Amazon pages.

We've done really well in COVID leaning into the safest approaches. Clients have been understanding, and we've been able to stay safe on set and keep working. Our clients were able to be on set virtually, approving everything as we went. It's not the same as before. It's harder and slower and takes new approaches and ideas. But you can be safe and still do great work even now. I'm really proud of our Storyfarm team here.