‘Old, Alone & Stuck at Home’ Making a documentary under Covid-19 lockdown restrictions
Co-directed and co-produced Angie Mason & Nick Green, our latest documentary ‘Old Alone & Stuck at Home’ tells the stories of the elderly and vulnerable people self-isolating during the crisis, for whom lockdown may endure for many more months. We caught up with them both to find out more about their experiences, who despite both having directed Rogan Productions documentaries before, have never actually met each other. They give a personal account on how they’ve had to adapt to filming amidst a pandemic, discussing the challenges of capturing and telling the stories of those most vulnerable people in society, as well as being careful to protect themselves along the way.
Nick Green (Putin: A Russian Spy Story, A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad)
I am not sure I have ever made a film with so many practical complications. This would be a fast turnaround film where I would never get to meet my editor (or co-director) and my mere presence might critically endanger the subjects of our story.
Given the nature of the film all our contributors were either old or shielded, each one being especially at risk from Covid–19. Clearly their safety was paramount. I have made films in the past with contributors who were in fear for their lives, but I have never made a film where we, as filmmakers, were potentially the danger.
Filming safely
The day before filming started rubber gloves and a face masks arrived. We were told to take our temperature twice a day. Anything abnormal and filming would be cancelled. Immediately there were small annoyances. Turning the pages of a script with rubber gloves on? Having your breath bounce off the inside of a mask to fog up your glasses. You try it…
And social distancing… on a documentary? What a nightmare! It’s easy to forget how important being close to people in making a film actually is. Simply pulling a contributor’s eye-line around often means leaning in close to your DoP… being able to shift a dying pot plant from a background that’s ruining a shot… simply shaking hands with someone who is about to bare their soul. All these are conventions that you take for granted: they were conventions that were immediately thrown out.
The challenges of user generated content
Socially distancing from contributors in the sense of this film meant staying well clear. The film was sold on the basis that user generated content (UGC) would be critical in getting our contributors to tell their stories. Across the channels UGC storytelling has been the mode of choice, and for good reason. It’s safe for the contributors and production team.
Immediately we started getting some fantastic material. But we also started getting footage that was clearly rehearsed and self-selected – a lot felt strangely distancing.
It was very important to reassure the contributors that we were not in the business of sending them up or attempting to make them look stupid. We wanted the material to run long and we wanted it warts-and-all. We wanted the raw stream of consciousness. We wanted to understand the contributors and their experiences more deeply.
We realised very early on that we needed interviews and shot material to stiffen up their stories and also to provide a different texture in the film. Going deeper in to their stories meant directing them a little more. The problem was that we knew we couldn’t be in the same space as our contributors. We couldn’t enter their homes, and yet we wanted to get a sense of their space and who they were.
We came up with the idea of filming through their windows, with them talking to us on the phone. The image and the electronic and distanced sound of their voices on the phone would add to the experience of their imprisonment during ‘Lock down’. I think it worked.
I am rather proud of our film. The old and vulnerable have been are constantly neglected in all walks of life and drawing attention to their plight at this tough time seemed a morally important thing to do. I hope it encourages people to write to their MP lobbying for better care provision… perhaps more basically I hope that it prompts people to occasionally check on their elderly neighbours.
Angie Mason (One Night in 2012, Crisis in Care)
As Nick’s co-Director, I agree with all he’s written. He was out on the road gathering the material with our cameraman, Charlie. I was up in Suffolk running another part of the production. Why? Because I’m the only one on the team who won’t see 70 again and classified by the Government as ‘vulnerable’ and therefore confined to barracks. I won’t sound off here about the arbitrary classification of all 70–year old’s as being frail, with underlying medical conditions.
The commission from Channel 4 was to get the experience of old people in lockdown in their words, filmed by themselves. Thinking that most of them were not tech savvy and could barely find their way around a TV remote control, Georgina, our Assistant Producer and I drew up a guide to filming – hold the camera horizontal (‘landscape’) and not upright (‘portrait) – that’s for TV news. Keep it steady for 5 seconds after pressing the button to allow the editor to get into the footage. Don’t cover the microphone etc, etc.
We then became casting directors. We hit the phones to our professional contacts, put call-outs to social media, persuaded friends to join us. Would she/he be old enough? Were they in the shielded group? Did we have the right geographical mix – too South East, not enough northern voices? Honestly, we were surprised at how so many people up and down the country were willing to open up their lives to us.
Bar a few examples where the pictures are blurred or the angle of the shot is up their nostrils, the quality of a lot of the footage is remarkable. One or two are real budding filmmakers.
I have enjoyed watching hours and hours of their material as their personal stories unfold. And to see their houses in a way that perhaps we never see in a conventional way of filming.
It’s not just the shot of book–lined studies which have become the common backdrop nowadays. They took us into their kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms at all times of the day and night. I loved the way that some talked intimately to us on their mobile phones at the dead of night confiding in the stresses and strains of the day. You would be hard pressed to get that with a camera crew.
All in all, our contributors have done us proud. They’ve told us how it is for them living in the worst of times. Let’s hope that this group are better served in the future than in the past. And that they, and I included, can soon get to see our family and cuddle our grandchildren. Plus, meet my co-director for the first time.
