On-screen intimacy during Covid – guidelines published

  • News

Normal People Directors UK has published a follow-up to its Directing Nudity & Simulated Sex guide called Intimacy in the Time of Covid 19 – Directing Nudity and Simulating Sex. 


The organisation has updated the original, which came out nearly a year ago, after working alongside directors Susanna White and Bill Anderson, and intimacy co-ordinator Vanessa Coffey. 


The guidelines aim to navigate the challenges faced by directors of scripted content when telling stories involving intimate scenes. 


Soe of the advice includes a return to the Hays Code of the 1940s, which forbade the depiction of sex on screen, and was adhered to in classics such as Casablanca and It Happened One Night. 


Other guidance suggests emphasising the emotional intimacy as much as the physical, potentially delaying the intimate scenes if the content is within a series format. Directors UK stresses the importance of the director, writer and producer going through the script as early as possible to see if substitutions can be made for physical scenes. 


Any physical interactions should be included in the production risk assessment and mitigation agreed by the performing, editorial and production team. 


Extra time should be allowed for planning shots and directors should consider scheduling the intimate scenes towards the end of the shoot, the document posits. 


The 12-page guidance report contains further details on sanitising, quarantine, mitigation and hygiene generally as well as a breakdown of narrative and technical alternatives to showing physical intimacy. 


Click here to read the full publication

 

Image: BBC