COVID sucked.
We can all attest to that, but there’s one industry that took quite the beating from the pandemic and is still licking its wounds.
The film industry.
Following lockdown rules, cinemas were closed down or only operated at a limited capacity worldwide. Filming and production for movies still the works were shut down or delayed, and there was an ungodly rise in the number of streamed shows. The box office dropped by billions of dollars, and the effects are still being felt today. Viewership is only just recovering, and companies are considering unorthodox release methods instead of the traditional cinema.
Shant Tutunjiani had to work during these troubling times. The 42-year-old is an actor and producer, but he is best known for his executive producer role on the immensely successful HBO MAX show, Legendary.
Working in the middle of a pandemic was hard. In fact, Shant named COVID-19 as one of the most significant challenges he’s ever faced in his career.
However, where there’s a will, there’s a way, something Shant proved with the release of not just one but two seasons of his critically acclaimed show Legendary.
He spills the tea on how he did it and what kept him motivated in those trying times.
Mindset
The first thing you need to get right is your mindset, and Shant believes that if you’re going to succeed in film, you need to be tenacious. Add the bigger challenge of a global pandemic, and you need to be extremely tenacious to get anything done.
When the COVID-19 Pandemic and the resulting lockdown hit in March, the first season of Legendary was largely complete, so it wasn’t too difficult to get everything in order and in time for the release date in May. However, the real challenge was in filming the 2nd season. Making sure that safety protocols were up to par to protect the talent, enforcing safety procedures, and managing the tension that comes with knowing a highly infectious and potentially fatal disease is out there in the world took a lot of grit and willpower.
Luckily, thanks to his vast experience, Shant has developed a will forged in iron and found the strength to forge ahead with the project.
Innovation
Finding new ways to do old things was at the heart of filming for Legendary during COVID. If anything good came from covid, it’s that it forced us to rethink the way we’ve done things for so long. Shant had to evaluate current practices and devise new, more efficient ways to do them while keeping social distancing requirements and general safety in mind. Designating areas on set and setting up periodic tests were some of the measures devised to tackle the pandemic and keep everyone safe.
Resilience
We can’t predict all outcomes, and there will be setbacks. Shant faced many setbacks while filming. Safety protocols are not perfect, and sometimes someone tested positive, and filming had to be postponed to ensure that the virus did not spread. Moments like these were highly frustrating and shook his resolve.
In times like this, keeping his goal to tell unique and undiscovered stories kept him motivated and helped him shake off the failures and keep advancing towards his goal.
Communication
I’m sure we all felt it, so we all know that dealing with a pandemic is a highly stressful situation. Getting people on one page is hard enough on ordinary occasions, but getting them to agree when a dangerous virus is introduced into the mix is a lot harder.
Tackling this situation required effective communication that considered the positions of everyone while maintaining a solid stance on crucial points. Shant learned a vital lesson during this period which was “talk to everyone and listen more than speaking.”
Considering everyone’s perspective helped to avoid discontent within his group and at the same time maintain a safety standard that kept everyone safe.
Learn
The pandemic brought with it a whole lot of unknowns. We didn’t know how things would progress or when they would return to normal, or how we ought to conduct ourselves in the meantime. In such uncertain times, Shant found that the answer lay in learning. Learning everything he could about the virus, the efforts that were being made to combat it, and how he could continue to function despite it played a huge role in the success of Legendary. By learning, he could educate others, andtogether, they could work toward an even better result.
Conclusion
Working during COVID-19 brought with it untold hardships, and it is an experience Shant would like never to have again. But he did earn valuable lessons, and for those, he is grateful. The importance of believing in yourself, tenacity, and communication helped him overcome COVID-19, and he hopes they can also help you conquer whatever challenge you face next.