Story Links:
10 ways to keep your crew safe on set
Saniset
COVID 19 Compliance Services
John Hopkins Tracing
Women in Film
Safe Way Forward
Key Points:
1:05 Jill’s background
4:00 Becoming a COVID Compliance Officer
5:04 Getting the first job as a HSS
8:00 Authority of HSS on set
9:07 Working Union vs non-union sets
12:20 How much time protocols are adding to production days
13:05 Violation protocols to look out for as crew
15:34 Film school protocols
17:24 Protocols with actors & extras
18:35 How to position yourself
21:03 Pivoting from AD to HSS
22:53 Partnership with SANISET
29:32 Personal concerns with Covid
Full Transcript:
Jill Maxcy: (00:00)
So we have kind of a zones. We have a red zone, which means an actor’s mask is coming off. Yellow zone, which is where we’re staging our gear and then we still have masks on. And then we have a green zone where we can take our mask off and eat, or take a break.
Tanya Musgrave: (00:13)
Welcome to There to Here, an educational podcast where industry professionals talk nuts and bolts on how they got from there to here. On today’s show health safety supervisor, Jill Maxcy, uses her background as a first AD and her partnership with SANISET and epidemiologists to take us on the ground of what to expect on a COVID compliant film set. As this is a new podcast, we’re really wanting feedback. So go to media.colabinc.org, fill out the feedback survey and you’ll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift card. From CoLab, INC., I’m Tanya Musgrave. And today we have Jill Maxcy, a health safety supervisor with COVID-19 compliant services, a first AD with the Directors Guild of America, as well as on the AD/UPM Council. Welcome to the show.
Jill Maxcy: (00:52)
Hi. Nice to see you. Thanks for having me.
Tanya Musgrave: (00:55)
Yeah, we’re really excited because a lot of us are kind of curious about what’s going on on the ground. But let’s start with your background. How did you get from there to here?
Jill Maxcy: (01:05)
My background? Well, I’ve been a assistant director for about 15 years. I started out as a set PA in the ’94, ’95 area. And then I whipped myself up and I got my days to join the Directors Guild. And I’d travel across the country with assistant directors, asleep in my car, sleeping on the side of the road with my car. And then after time, all these movies I was working on, I finally got my foot in the door, got into the Directors Guild. And then I was living up in Seattle at the time. And I got a job on Northern Exposure, which was a very popular TV show. And I was a second-second assistant director on that show for six months. Then I went on to do a bunch of work with my mentor, Pam Curry, who’s also a first AD. She took me under her wing and I became a second AD.
Jill Maxcy: (01:54)
And we worked together for about eight or nine years in that relationship. And then I went on to Glee and at that point I said, “Pam, I need to move up. I need to become a first AD.” American Horror Story, got my first AD job. And then I did the first season of American Horror Story, the pilot. Then I did the first season. And then I went on to do a bunch of shows. And the last job I had was NBC’s Council of Dads, which we were shooting in Savannah, Georgia, which I love. And during that time I got the flu. I flew back from Los Angeles. I went to Savannah, I was with the DP on the plane and him and I switched seats because I wanted to be closer. And somewhere in there, in that time that I switched seats, I became infected with some kind of flu and I went back to work and I said, “I’m not feeling so well,” to the DP. And he says, “Just go home.”
Jill Maxcy: (02:49)
Okay. I go home. So seven days later, I’m still in bed with some kind of massive flu. And at that point I was out. In the meantime, the crew started getting very sick and everybody was getting the flu. And I started researching COVID-19 and I started to think I had it and I’ve been tested for the antibodies. I didn’t have it, but I did have some kind of flu. And flew back to Los Angeles and all of a sudden everything’s shut down. At that point, I was out of work for four months. So in the DGA meetings, we have council meetings where we talk about everything that’s going on. And usually those meetings are held in a conference room with, say a hundred people. We had to have the meetings privately because that’s the only way we could do it at that time was over Zooms.
Jill Maxcy: (03:38)
And the paper came out, The Safe Way Forward came out with the Directors Guild that worked very hard with the Screen Actors Guild and IATSE, and Teamsters. And they started describing how this new workflow would go during the pandemic. And they described health and safety supervisors, the health and safety managers and how they would work with epidemiologists. And so I was just very interested, like how are we going to go back to work doing that? And so I decided that the best way I could support my family was trying to get work doing this. So I got trained. I just typed up COVID compliance officer, and there was a couple European courses I could take. There was nothing really on COVID in the US. So I took some classes through Ireland and I became-
Tanya Musgrave: (04:25)
Through Ireland?
Jill Maxcy: (04:26)
Yes. And at that time the Health Education Services, which I think is in Los Angeles, was also offering COVID compliance officer class. I took those classes and then I got a job. I put a post on, WIMPs, Women in Motion Picture, which is a… I got to listen to myself, said, “Hey, I’ve got this training if anybody needs anybody.” And then I started getting calls and I got a commercial. I met the owners of saniset.org, which is doing PPE and testing. And they put me out on a job on a commercial. And then I got another-
Tanya Musgrave: (05:03)
What month about was that?
Jill Maxcy: (05:04)
July, beginning of July. I guess it was after the middle of July. Nobody was working at that time. And so I had to work closely with the first assistant director, who was DGA. So I’m not working in a DGA capacity, I’m now a non-union working in this capacity. Because I figured not only are they going to need ADs, we’re going to need these HSS’s, which is a health safety supervisor and a health safety manager. Those are the new terms that we’re going to be hearing in our business, which were already working.
Jill Maxcy: (05:36)
So the first AD and I, we worked very closely in making sure that the room had ventilation, everybody had masks, everybody had gloves or hand sanitizer or whatever. We had to look at the white paper, The Safe Way Forward the DGA wrote, and we followed their guidelines. And it was a little rocky. At that point people were not testing. They were just going back to work and everybody’s wearing a mask now. And then we tested the cast that was on there and they were negative. And so we did that. And then the next job we did, we did try to do testing and it was a little bumpy. And then the next job after that, testing got better. Anyways SANISET had an office set up in Hollywood, and now we’re starting to funnel people in the offices there where they’re being tested by an EMT or an RN. And they do the nasal swab or the oral swab. And we’re doing, what’s called a PCR test, which gives your results in 48 hours.
Jill Maxcy: (06:30)
And now we’re testing. When our show needs to be tested, we just sign them up and they come down there, get tested and they get the results back in 48 hours. And that gets sent to the health and safety supervisor, which is my position. I look at it confidentially. If someone has COVID, we called them confidentially and speak to them. Also everybody in my team and my business is now required to take the Johns Hopkins Contact Tracing course, which is a 10 hour course. It’s free. Emily Gurley, who’s the epidemiologist. And she teaches you about how COVID spreads, what to do if you get it, how it works in a room and how it’s airborne. And so that’s kind of where I am right now. And now we’re just really filling a lot of orders. A lot of people are getting back to work, which is a great thing in Los Angeles. Great thing.
Tanya Musgrave: (07:18)
Yeah. With HSS and how they operate what, I guess authority, is there within their… I mean, do you have the authority to shut down a set if they’re not complying? Because there’ve been a couple of people I’ve talked to that have shot… I mean, since this whole thing, there was an indie shoot in Texas and a commercial. I was calling around for COVID compliance officers and both of them were just like, “Oh, no. You don’t want those.” And it seemed to be just a formality to appease the insurance companies, more than anything else. Like to make the crew feel safer, but they didn’t really have any authority on set. Has this developed into more for you? Or did it start out like that? Did you have the power to pause or shut down a set?
Jill Maxcy: (08:03)
It didn’t start out that way. But once the union started getting involved and union members started going back to work, we must follow the Safe Way Forward, which was done by the document I’m talking about. Which is available on the Directors Guild of America, dga.org. They have that document there. And I have it in my bag at all times. And it says that the HSS has the ability to shut production down. That’s correct.
Jill Maxcy: (08:24)
So if you get an outbreak of people or you feel like we’re not being safe, or people are not wearing their masks, or someone’s coughing and we got to get them tested right away, or someone turns up positive. I’m going to shut it down. ADs always had an ability, they’re safety manager on set. So when I was working as an AD, if there was a stunt or say we had a tornado launched in Savannah. That AD has the power to call the studio and say, “I need to shut this down now.” And they say, “Okay, do it.” They can’t say, “No, Jill, you can’t do that.” Because I’m on the ground with the crew and watching out for them. That’s my job.
Tanya Musgrave: (08:59)
Yeah. You had mentioned that you’re not working in the union position, but have you been working union sets?
Jill Maxcy: (09:07)
Yes, I am working as a non-union health and safety supervisor. I’m also a consultant for production. So they call me up and they say,” Hey, we need a safety plan for this feature film or this commercial.” And then I spend some time looking at it, I look at where they’re going to shoot. And say they want to shoot all interiors, I say, “Well, the epidemiologists that I’m working with doesn’t want us to shoot in that room. They want us to shoot that scene outside.”
Jill Maxcy: (09:33)
Or they don’t say that. They’ll just say, “Jill, you can’t be in that room for more than an hour with somebody taking their mask off, even if they’ve been tested.” So I’ll say, “Hey. Can you guys consider shooting scenes in a different area?” And then it’s up to the director and the producer to try to do that. And if they can’t do it, then I’m going to have to say, “This is not doable. You can’t shoot in this area. Otherwise you got to take breaks. You got to shoot for 15 minutes, then you got to get everybody out of there. Air out the room some way, and then bring everyone back.” That’s why it’s just going to take more time to film in these days.
Tanya Musgrave: (10:04)
Interesting. Because you had mentioned that you’ve done action plans for a variety of shoots. And is it more along the lines of location, being in an enclosed space. Does it go beyond that? Having to do with actors or people in makeup trailers or the sanitization of products and gear and all of that stuff. How far does it go?
Jill Maxcy: (10:27)
The plan is usually about seven or eight pages long and it details… The Safe Way Forward has kind of an example, a sample of that. But our plans are very detailed as to how we’re going to move people in vans, how we’re going to eat lunch, how we’re going to have craft service, how we’re going to move the cast. Really the main thing is that everybody has to have a mask on, they can’t have a bandana or some clunky thing. They have to have a KN95 mask on. And then the actors can have like a surgical mask because we can’t mess up their makeup too much.
Jill Maxcy: (10:58)
So right before we go to roll, they take that off. We touch them up, they put it back on and they go on the scene. And then the assistant director will say, “Okay, here we go. Lock it up.” And then we’ll say, “We’re going to read.” And the whole set will either have a red light that turns on, not just to let them know that we’re rolling, but to let them know that we’re now in a kind of a lockdown situation. So we have kind of a zones. We have a red zone, which means an actor’s mask is coming off. Yellow zone, which is where we’re staging our gear and then we still have masks on. And we have a green zone where we can take our mask off and eat or take a break.
Tanya Musgrave: (11:30)
Interesting. Does the eating, is it going in shifts?
Jill Maxcy: (11:34)
Yeah. Yeah. We can’t have everybody line up like we used to and have a buffet. Those days are gone. We have to have pre-packaged meals. We have to take shifts. The assistant has the time, build-in time for the shift or the shifts. And then also we have to work in shifts on the set. So sometimes the art department will come in and they set up, then they clear out and then grip and electric come in and then they clear out, and then camera comes in, and then the actor comes in. So that just adds time to your day.
Tanya Musgrave: (12:03)
Yeah. As a first AD on average, how much time have you seen this add to typical sets? I don’t know, if it was a two or three day set. Are they adding a third or 10%? or how much more of a length are they adding onto their production time?
Jill Maxcy: (12:20)
I would say you need to factor in about two and a half hours more of time per day.
Tanya Musgrave: (12:26)
Per day? Okay.
Jill Maxcy: (12:27)
Because you’ve got to check people in, you’ve got to wristband them, you’ve got to move them. Three people in a van. If you can’t have a parking right there on location. Then you got to do the shifts. And usually we’re just like an army that just attacks the set. We put it all together after we do the rehearsal. Now we have to take a lot more time. So I would say you’re going to lose about two and a half hours. And that’s why the DGA is recommending we only shoot 10 hours because we need that time in the beginning and time in the end to check people in, check people out, and it’s like clean up.
Tanya Musgrave: (12:59)
Is there any kind of violation protocol that crew members should be looking out for it?
Jill Maxcy: (13:05)
Yeah. I would say if people don’t want to test, I would say don’t take the job. Now I know in the smaller parts of the country where you got to shoot little things, I understand you just have to be as safe as you can. But in Los Angeles and New York and Atlanta, they are testing and they’re following The Safe Way Forward guidelines.
Tanya Musgrave: (13:24)
And this might have to go back to the non-union side of things because a good majority of our listeners come from the indie side where they don’t necessarily have the unions to adhere to. Now we do have some listener questions regarding this. And there’s one that comes from a listener that says, “I’ve been on a few sets and something that I’ve noticed enough to feel that it may be a trend is that the closer to the top of the food chain someone is, the more likely it is that they are not complying with the directives. And in at least one case, it was my impression that the COVID compliance person did not feel like they had the clout to challenge or enforce with a person that significantly outranked them. What would you have to say about this dynamic? And what should a rank and file member of the crew do if they feel like people are not doing what they’re supposed to, but don’t want to be a snitch?”
Jill Maxcy: (14:13)
As a crew member, I would say, “Hey. When you get the job, ask, ‘Can I see the certification of the COVID compliance officer or the HSS?'” Because with my team, they have to do the Johns Hopkins 10 hour course. Then they have to take the Health Education Services COVID Compliance Officer training, which is an hour. And then they have to take a training with me, which is another hour. And then my people will shut you down. Now if you’re working somewhere else, you have to ask the production manager who’s in charge and make sure. You have every right to do that, you know? And I’ve seen people, I’ve heard about people walking off set when they don’t feel safe. You just walk off set. Don’t take that job. If you’ve got unemployment and you’re cool, don’t do it. It’s not worth it
Tanya Musgrave: (14:56)
For some of them they don’t have unemployment.
Jill Maxcy: (14:58)
I know.
Tanya Musgrave: (14:58)
That’s the-
Jill Maxcy: (15:00)
You can’t risk it. Go work in a different job, go to Starbucks or something until this is over. It’s like this is a scary time and this is a very stressful thing that we’re doing. Believe me, I can’t even bear to wear the mask for that long. I have to take breaks. And I haven’t even been a first AD quite yet because I’m more comfortable doing the plans for people because I feel like that’s a safer environment for me.
Tanya Musgrave: (15:22)
So how about moving it one step further, even into a film school setting? This is another listener question. What are your recommendations where testing and pre-production quarantine aren’t options?
Jill Maxcy: (15:34)
Yeah. We have a film school that did a shoot a couple weeks ago. They did test everybody because it was a nonprofit who financed them. So if you’re in a city that you can’t afford that, you can go and get tested. I hope. I don’t know where you are. But in the state of California, it takes about a month to get an appointment but you can go to a drive-up that the governor set up, or the mayor has set up, and get tested for free. That’s one option if you time your project like that.
Jill Maxcy: (16:03)
It’s really ridiculous, and I’m not going to get into the politics, that we don’t have testing for free for everybody. That’s my one big argument is this should be free. What are you talking about? We’re trying to get back to work. These tests should be free for all my crew. And I’ve reached out to many officials and I have had no answers. So I’ve tried like numerous times and I will keep trying because I really think if we made this free, we could go back to work and get our business back up.
Tanya Musgrave: (16:33)
As it is now, is that a production expense or is it personal?
Jill Maxcy: (16:36)
It’s a production expense. It’s about $180 to $200 for each person to get tested
Tanya Musgrave: (16:41)
For each person? Wow.
Jill Maxcy: (16:43)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (16:44)
I had no idea.
Jill Maxcy: (16:45)
Isn’t that great? Go America.
Tanya Musgrave: (16:49)
But to think about having to do that for each and every single job that you have to go on.
Jill Maxcy: (16:54)
That’s currently Los Angeles. I don’t know what it is across the country. It could be cheaper, but that’s what our market is bearing. We’re not marking it up very much. We’re not making a profit off of this. We’re just trying to cover people. And so it’s ridiculous. I get very upset about it.
Tanya Musgrave: (17:07)
So what does this look like for some of the larger groups, like actors or even background actors? Can they expect kind of the same thing? I mean, you can’t really have shifts for the actors. What is the recommendation there? Or what could they expect?
Jill Maxcy: (17:24)
If you had a scene with actors or extras, all the extra are going to have to get tested just like the actors are. And they’re going to have to quarantine when they’re not working, which means you don’t go to the grocery store. You don’t go out to a restaurant outside, you don’t take that risk. And then what productions are doing is they’re writing scenes without extras in them because we just can’t do it. It’s too big. It’s too massive. Like you can’t do Titanic or some big show right now. You can’t do it. People are going to be too close to each other. You got to be six feet apart without the mask on. And then we have a time limit interior. And then when we’re exterior, we have much more time because the epidemiologists are saying, “Hey, we got more time outside. As long as the mask is off and the air is flowing, you have more time.” But it’s all an equation.
Tanya Musgrave: (18:11)
So is there like a survey that is taken at the beginning? Or is it literally just testing? Or is there an actual way that people, crew and cast alike, can position themselves the best in order to be like, “Okay. I have all of this criteria here. I’m the best candidate for this gig. Hire me.” What is the best way for people to position themselves in that way?
Jill Maxcy: (18:35)
Yeah. I mean, if they go to my website or they go to SANISET, which is S-A-N-I-S-E-T. Maybe you could put it in the chat or something?
Tanya Musgrave: (18:45)
Yeah. We’ll put it in the show notes.
Jill Maxcy: (18:47)
saniset.org or my site. And then you could see what we’re doing.
Tanya Musgrave: (18:51)
Yeah. And your site is covid19complianceservices; covid19, one, nine compliance services. Is that dot-com?
Jill Maxcy: (19:00)
Yes.
Tanya Musgrave: (19:00)
Okay. All right.
Jill Maxcy: (19:01)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (19:02)
All right. Fantastic.
Jill Maxcy: (19:03)
Yeah. And so you just got to learn those rules or you just contact me and say, “Hey. I’m shooting and blah, blah. And I need help.” And then I type up a list. I say, “Okay. What are you doing? Where are you shooting?” And then we have a sliding scale based on budget. So I’m doing a couple of shorts now, I’ve got a PSA, I have a movie. Everybody’s different and everybody needs to work. So we’re just trying to be very flexible and help people. So just get educated, I would say take the Johns Hopkins Contact Tracing course, which is 10 hours. I’m requiring everybody to take that. That will give you a base knowledge of the disease.
Tanya Musgrave: (19:38)
For the producers out there, particularly of indie shoots, ones that aren’t part of the union. What kind of budget are we looking for, for an HSS?
Jill Maxcy: (19:48)
Well, like I said, we’re a sliding scale, my team. So you can come to me and you tell me, “I have $10,000 to shoot this.” Or, “I have $20,000 to shoot this.” I’ve done a lot of shorts myself. I’ve directed a bunch of shorts. I directed one for $14,000. I produced a bunch of low budget films. So I get it. Everybody’s different. We’re doing an indie film right now, that I can’t talk about, but they have a certain budget and we’re trying to make it work with them. Everybody’s different. Wherever you are, you’ve got to shoot. If you can’t test, you got to wear the mask at all times, you got to sanitize and just be very, very safe.
Tanya Musgrave: (20:26)
Yeah. I remember talking to a couple of producers and they were saying the number that had been passed around was adding a 10% addition onto their budget, just specifically for COVID-19 stuff. Crazy.
Jill Maxcy: (20:40)
That might not be enough.
Tanya Musgrave: (20:41)
I wanted to pivot just a little bit, because you mentioned a little bit of this earlier and how you pivoted real quickly out of an AD job into essentially becoming a small business owner. So CoLab is big on entrepreneurship and I understand that this is a fairly new horizon for you. What has your experience been?
Jill Maxcy: (21:03)
I have kids. So what happened was I kept racking my brain, like what am I going to do? I’m out of work. What am I going to do? I kept thinking do I work at a… the grocery stores were open. I have a wife and we’re like, “What are we going to do for money? Oh my God, we’re both not working.” She’s a writer. And I was sitting there. And I’m a Buddhist, I was chanting, doing my thing. All of a sudden it came to me, was the word COVID-19 compliances. I was like, “What? Okay.” And I went over and I wrote it down and I looked it up. The domain name, I checked. Is the domain name available? And it was so I bought it.
Tanya Musgrave: (21:41)
Done. Yeah.
Jill Maxcy: (21:43)
And it was only like $24 at GoDaddy. So I went to GoDaddy, I built my website. I’ve never done that before. And I worked in technology about 10 years ago at a company, at MovieMagic, and I was doing some technology. So I have that backstory or I have that skillset.
Tanya Musgrave: (21:58)
Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Nice.
Jill Maxcy: (22:01)
I built my website. I got on WIMPs, which is Women in Motion Pictures. You have to be a member of that. I said, “Boom. I’m ready. I’m available. I can do that. I got that training.” And then I got an office space at like a WeWork, which is where I am now. So I’m in a little tiny cubicle that’s like the size of a phone booth. And this is where I am every day until I get try to get home around 6:00 so I can be with the kids. Because they’re struggling too with this, without being able to be with their friends.
Tanya Musgrave: (22:30)
Everybody. Yeah. And with school starting up, that’s just insanity. Everything having to go with that. So are you technically an independent company then?
Jill Maxcy: (22:38)
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave: (22:39)
Are you the one that ensures that you don’t accept liability? This is another listener question.
Jill Maxcy: (22:44)
Well, I have a partnership with SANISET and I’m working under their insurance policy currently.
Tanya Musgrave: (22:50)
So they are working?
Jill Maxcy: (22:53)
We’re working together as partners. So I bring in the order and then they fulfill the order. So I get the client, I do the plan, and then that I push it over to SANISET and they fulfill the PPE and the testing and any kind of equipment that the client needs. That’s how that works. And it’s going really well. Again, it was bumpy. It’s still going to be bumpy for probably another couple months. This is not perfect. We’ve never worked in a pandemic before. It’s clunky, but we’re trying to do what the unions are telling us to do.
Tanya Musgrave: (23:24)
Yeah. Yeah. So does SANISET work… is it along the lines of an agency and agents?
Jill Maxcy: (23:29)
SANISET is a PPE provider, plus testing, plus they will employ HSS and HSM. They’re a company of about 20 people right now. We’re building. Every day we’re getting bigger because we have so much requests coming in because everybody wants to get back to work. We have a few competitors. I don’t know all their names or anything but a couple of other companies are doing this. So people can do their research and find out what they want to use. We’re just film people. We’re producers, production coordinators, technology people, PAs. We just started out small and then just started getting bigger. And we bought a van and then we got [inaudible 00:24:09]. We’re just slow. We’re just a startup.
Tanya Musgrave: (24:09)
Well, it’s necessity. Necessity begets productivity. So I think it’s great that you guys jumped right on that because artists being artists, it’s just like… I mean, there’s only so much that people can handle. That they have the bandwidth to handle. I mean, that’s everybody, that’s across every single person that’s going through this. From the kids who have to deal with school and that kind of thing, but to the professionals. And it is a crazy thing to try to have to pivot so quickly into a completely new territory and environment like this, where it’s just born out of necessity. And in some ways it can be good, because sometimes you think that you have time to figure stuff out. But at the forefront, at the tip of the spear where you guys are at literally right now, that’s a lot.
Jill Maxcy: (24:59)
Yeah. I have contacts, especially in Savannah. I want Savannah back and running because I had such a good time there when I was down there. And I met so many kind people.
Tanya Musgrave: (25:07)
It’s the South.
Jill Maxcy: (25:08)
Savannah’s like… that’s my target zone right now. I want to help them. So we’re working on that. I’m doing the process of training, probably 10 people in Savannah. So if there’s other small, not small, but communities like that… like I need people in Chicago. I need people in Atlanta. I need people in New Orleans.
Tanya Musgrave: (25:24)
Like Knoxville, Nashville.
Jill Maxcy: (25:26)
Everywhere that production is, I need people. So if they want to sign up with me and get on my roster, they have to do my training, they have to do the Johns Hopkins, they have to do the HES, they have to do my training. And then they’ll be ready to go. That doesn’t mean they’ll be perfect, but at least they’ll have some training and they could say, “I’m a COVID…” Some people like to call them a COVID manager or COVID officer in the smaller states that aren’t really following the union guidelines.
Jill Maxcy: (25:50)
Like here we call it HSS, where in Atlanta they’re saying COVID compliance officer, or Savannah… you know? So those little towns, they need to get back to work. They can’t just sit around and go through their unemployment and go to the food banks. They need to get back to work.
Tanya Musgrave: (26:05)
Absolutely.
Jill Maxcy: (26:06)
And you got to be like… I don’t know. You have to have the calling to do this and you’re able to stand up and go forward, or you sit back and be afraid. And those are the types of people that I’m dealing with. It’s just like, what am I going to do? I got to take care of my family.
Tanya Musgrave: (26:21)
Exactly, exactly. And what is anybody going to do except for pivot into the best place possible for them to earn a living for themselves? So on your site, is there a link that people can go to if they want to start training with you?
Jill Maxcy: (26:34)
Yeah. We create safety plans for companies going back to work, and you can book an appointment where you can just ask me questions. We create these safety plans. I’m writing this area for SAG and DGA projects. And we also do non-union. I really think ADs make really good HSS’s. But they can be anybody that just has really good experience on set, that we work with epidemiologists, create solutions to return to work in our non-union shoots. So I say, “Hey. Give me everything you got about your project and we’ll design a safety plan.” My class is $25. That’s pretty cheap. I don’t want to charge you a lot because I know people are struggling. But, you guys, if you need training, you go to my site, I give it to you. It looks like SANI SET, but it’s SANISET. That’s what I tell them.
Tanya Musgrave: (27:17)
SANISET. You know one thing that might be an asset to have on here is a typical package should you have a crew of 20 people, or a crew of 40 people?
Jill Maxcy: (27:29)
Our team puts that together because we like to listen to the client and see what they need. Because a lot of stuff is very hard to get. We have thermometers that we provide, thermal detection. We have disinfection solutions, which will be in much smaller sizes, but you need to make sure you have this stuff on set. And you can buy it at the store if you didn’t want to do it here, you can buy your paper products at the store if you can find them. I also find that a lot of crews asking for goggles, you want to use nitrile gloves. You don’t want to use any of the food handler ones because they have too much dust. We’re recommending these goggles that you need to wear on set. You’re basically doing, if you were going into an operating room.
Tanya Musgrave: (28:09)
That’s what it looks like.
Jill Maxcy: (28:11)
So this is in Hollywood currently. They can select a time to schedule a test, and then you would say how many people you have. And then it’s based on how many people are in your group. And here it’s like 1 to 20. They’re coming into our office, they’re paying $200 per test, $185. I know it looks expensive, but this is the best we can do with what we have. And then we have, like if a celebrity wants a test, we got to send a nurse out there. It’s not like we’re just raking in the cash. We’re doing the best we can.
Tanya Musgrave: (28:39)
Yeah, of course. We’ll be putting all of those links in the show notes to make sure that people have access to this resource. Thank you so much for the time that you’ve given us today. I’ve learned a lot. We are going to be putting this out to everyone that we can. A couple of my friends, they were texting me and they were just like, “I’ve got nothing. I’ve got nothing. I will work anything,” You know? Just like if you need help on a set, just let me know. And I was just like, “I got nothing either, like I don’t have anything either.”
Jill Maxcy: (29:06)
Then you guys just have to create the possibility to go back to work. You have to put your foot forward and get yourself trained and then let people know you’re ready. Because you can’t just be like, “Oh, I’m going to wait till the last minute.” Then I call you and I say, “I need your resume.” And then you’re like, “I don’t have it.” And I’m like, “Okay, next person.’ You can train with me, you tell me where you’re located and you’re ready to go the minute I call you.
Tanya Musgrave: (29:26)
The only question that I have left, is I ask it to every single guest. What questions should I have asked you?
Jill Maxcy: (29:32)
I would say are you scared?
Tanya Musgrave: (29:33)
That’s a valid question. How are you feeling? How are you feeling about things actually moving forward?
Jill Maxcy: (29:39)
I worry about my family. I worry about my team members, I worry about them contracting the disease. And I try to debrief with them a lot. And sometimes I can’t or they’re too busy. And so I’ll send a text, like, “Are you okay out there? How’s it going?” Because last week they had to do a night shoot for four nights. And that must’ve been really rough because I’d done it on American Horror Story. I know as a first AD how hard that is. Now imagine a mask is on, you’ve got goggles fogging up. You’re like a surgeon out there. And then the crew needs to take breaks. So it’s just like all my team members, they may seem calm, but I’m sure they’re scared a little bit.
Tanya Musgrave: (30:20)
It’s definitely uncharted territory.
Jill Maxcy: (30:23)
Yeah. But just remember that we can do this. I always look at the stores, Trader Joe’s or supermarkets. And the frontline workers, they’ve been doing this the whole time. Imagine how much fear they had. The ones that had… you know, like the supermarket workers. Like, “Nobody’s giving me time off. No one’s giving me unemployment.” They are the true heroes. And then we’re just kind of the next step. And they did it and now we can do it. And really, I love my Trader Joe’s. I’m like, I love you guys. Because they’re so safe.
Tanya Musgrave: (30:50)
I really appreciate the efforts of everybody in your position. The companies that you work with who are making things as safe as possible to return to work. Because, like you said before, I mean, it’s true. Everybody needs to get back to work. They need to provide for themselves. So we really appreciate all the efforts that you guys are putting into making sure that everybody’s safe.
Jill Maxcy: (31:11)
Oh, thank you so much. And good luck to everybody. Okay.
Tanya Musgrave: (31:14)
Awesome. Thank you so much. If you enjoyed this interview, follow us right here and check out more episodes at media.colabinc.org. If you have comments or know someone who would be a great guest on our show, send in your suggestions to tanya@colabinc.org. Jill, thanks so much again for your time. Be well and God bless. We’ll see you next time on There to Here.