Ruben Mercadal
Associate Director of Film Production
Droga5

Survey, Part 1. The Pandemic

1) HENNESSY “Unfinished Business” | https://www.shootonline.com/node/84930
We partnered with Hennessy to create the “Unfinished Business” program that pledges $3 million in support for small businesses owned by Black, Asian American and Latinx people who have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the core of the program is the film, directed by NYC based filmmaker Haley Anderson, that spotlights seven small-business owners of color talking about their challenges. The film is backed by music from jazz pianist Julius Rodriguez and also features art from the gallery at Brooklyn’s Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA). The Unfinished Business program, announced in late May, provides funds to One Hundred Black Men of New York, the Asian American Business Development Center and the Hispanic Federation to ensure support is distributed directly at the community level among those who need it the most. In addition to capital, the program will also provide access to information, educational content and other assets to help safeguard continuity during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

The film was made during the pandemic and all shot on location in NYC, interviewing people at their businesses in and around the city. The film was produced by our in-house production studio Second Child that worked tirelessly to make this project happen.

2) As always, our intention is to achieve our executional goals and deliver a campaign in line with our Droga5 and client creative standards. Leaning into the restrictions, we carefully put together a bespoke live-action production methodology that reflected the importance of managing the health and risk assessment aspects of the project as well all parties involved in the production, being incredibly respectful to all the individuals taking part.

3) During COVID-19 the entire agency has embraced the challenges and restrictions of working remotely. We swiftly adapted during the early days of COVID-19 and have successfully made impactful work for various clients, including a lot of large live-action projects, both domestically and offshore, all handled remotely and operating within all local, statewide and national government guidelines. Our overall approach is to continue to provide tailored production solutions for our clients and help navigate this unique period of production in our industry. While we miss the uniqueness of in-person collaboration during all stages of a production, we have adjusted to the remote working environment really well.

4) With regards to the Hennessy project, we put together a tiny micro crew for the shoot with three people, including Haley our director, with no remote link up to ensure the footprint was small, as reflected in our COVID-19 risk assessment. It also helped to add to the intimacy of the subject matter, because we were shooting with real people. All post production was again executed remotely.

5) What is critical during COVID-19 is ensuring production is part of the project from an early development stage to ensure a robust production methodology is in place from the start that is actually achievable. Production needs to be in lock step with creative, which is important.

What is also key is that the correct amount of forward planning and prep time is allocated from when you award to selecting the director to actually shooting. This will ensure that the correct risk assessment is implemented upfront. Shooting during COVID-19 means needing to lock the cast, locations, etc., much earlier than before. It is important to ensure your director and production co-partners are not put in high-risk situations due to COVID-19, so prep time is key.

COVID-19 compliance on sets with regards to PPE/cleaning/COVID-19 compliance officers also means that budget costs have increased, because those are new hard costs that did not exist before, all of which are critical to ensure a successful and risk-averse production.

Survey, Part 2. Emerging filmmaking talent. 

1) It’s important to find your unique voice as an emerging director/auteur. Directors often try to fit into what they think is the current popular trend in our industry, and it’s good to bring your stamp to the work you do. As an example, we have had our eye on Haley Anderson and her work for a long time. What we loved about her work was the incredible voice that she stamped across all of it, even as a young director, and it really resonated with us. The creatives on the Hennessy project felt the same way when they saw her reel, and once we spoke to her, it all fell into place quickly.

3) We think more so now, even during COVID-19, producers have an incredible ability to bring projects to life, given everyone has to work within daily, changing restrictions, so it’s a producer’s puzzle to work out and come back with viable creative production solutions. It’s been a complete re-think about how we re-skin every step of production, so it’s been a really interesting journey.

COVID-19 learnings to date—such as the need on certain productions to book backup cast in case any talent leads get infected before the shoot or to book backup locations should the location permit get pulled in your first-choice location due to local country regulations, e.g., in LA—are new developments. Discussions should even be had about booking backup heads of departments as needed, e.g., the DP. The objective is to mitigate the risk and ensure that all backup plans are mapped out in advance.

4) At Droga5 we are dedicated to hiring diverse professionals because we strive to authentically tell the human story from multiple perspectives, and we recognize that in order to do this, our talent must be reflective of the audiences of our work. We’ve been on a diversity journey over the past few years and part of the daily work that comes with the journey including a variety of mentoring and diversity programs both for talent within our walls as well as for the industry. This includes D5in10 Academy, our free 10-week program that invites creators from all backgrounds to come to learn our award-winning creative process.

We also have a wide range of training and diversity programs in place at Droga5.

5) The New York Times “Life Needs Truth” work is an example of a project that we are really proud of, that we partnered with director Kim Gehrig on. It was an incredibly complex project, but overall, it is testament to the power of collaboration with our production partners and how we make effective work for our clients.

We also loved working with director Haley Anderson on our Hennessy project; she was a joy to work to work with, and she brought incredible vision to the project.

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