I'm the standing joke in my family in that movies are, for me, a great opportunity to catch up on sleep.
In my global travels, I'm often asked about New Zealand's Hobbit and Lord of
The Rings film franchises. I tend to deflect the conversation by yarning about my mate Kev who, being somewhat on the short end of the height spectrum, and sporting a fair amount of both facial and foot hair himself, is our very own hobbit. Indeed, my running mates and I have taken to calling him Krodo to celebrate his hobbit-ness.
But I digress. The reason that I have to deflect away from a discussion of our cinematographic exports from this country is that I've never actually watched the films. I'm pretty sure I started watching one of them once, and dutifully fell asleep and disturbed the family with my snoring.
So films aren't really my thing and, other than proudly supplying the film industry with a heap of workwear (shameless plug for Cactus Outdoor, outfitting gaffers and other film crew everywhere since way back) my movie industry knowledge is pretty much nonexistent.
But you don't need to be any kind of movie buff to realise that Covid must have had a huge impact on the industry. Making a full-length feature film requires lots of people all working together in often cramped locations. It generally requires bringing people from various locations together to work together for a period of time, before upping sticks and moving to the next location. Movie-making is basically one of the best ways to spread Covid.