It’s Shortland Street’s bread and butter – but the beloved television show will have to go without kissing and intimacy as long as physical distancing measures are in effect.
The show resumed filming this week after production was halted in Alert Level 4 lockdown, and while the crew is relieved to be back, working under Level 3 has its restrictions.
“It’s a little strange. We’re used to delivering scenes right up close to someone. Of course, we couldn’t do that,” said actor Michael Galvin.
Make-up artists also can’t get up close so they’re giving online tutorials to the actors, who producer Oliver Driver says are “freaking out”.
Clever camera tricks will hide any of the botched make-up jobs, as well as make actors appear closer.
“Cameras can’t see depth, our actors can be a metre apart and we can make it look like they’re not a metre apart,” Mr Driver says.
But those saucy scenes have been scrapped.
“There’s a lot more yearning and a lot more ways to show they’re not just straight in for a snog.
“We’ve been snogging for 27 years, it’s time we did some longing looks.”
Something Galvin, aka Dr Chris Warner, says can work if you “do it properly”.
Writers are working on future storylines from home and as they tend to reflect what’s happening in the outside world, you can bet there will be a pandemic coming to a screen near you.
Producer Maxine Fleming says things are “already changing in the script”.
“We’re taking on board stuff and referencing it, having a good hard look at how we reflect New Zealand society that’s been changed by this unprecedented time.”
Covid-19 is set to be one of the biggest plot twists yet in the show’s 27 years on Kiwi screens.
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