Ghost Town

Walking into the office this morning I felt like I was on a set of a post-apocalyptic movie.

Today I’ve been confirmed as part of the business continuity team so will be kept busy over coming weeks using my writing skills. This is only possible because my hours in the film office switch to just 7.5 hours a week from April unless a colleague goes sick then I will cover. Nice to know I have some work at least.

Many of us in the office still don’t have remote access so the option to work from home isn’t available yet. Being self employed if I can’t work I don’t get paid so for now I am grateful to have any work so I can buy food and pay my bills.

There’s about a dozen of us on my floor in the building where usually it would be 120+ so it seems to be fairly low risk in terms of interaction. When we need to have meetings or chat we sit or stand about a metre apart. We all seem to be doing it without thinking now but it does feel unnatural.

I was supposed to be working on three film productions on location over the next two months but they’ve been postponed until - at least - the summer.

Forefront on everyone’s minds, of course, is staying healthy and helping the vulnerable but the cold hard reality of little or no work for so many in the creative industries (film and tv, tourism, hospitality and events, arts, culture) will mean financial hardship for many weeks and months to come. I spent a lot of my working day today putting out tweets and messages for freelancers in the industry. I hope it helps.