Love in the Time of Coronavirus by Our Female Students in the Master in Film Production Management

Our Master 1 in Film Production Management students, Li Lei and Yixiang Zhou, presented a video-conference screening of the short film “L’amour au temps du coronavirus” (Love in the Time of Coronavirus) on Tuesday, May 12, 2020, at 18:00.

This film was shot on March 15, 2020, and was supposed to take place in a café. On March 15, cafés closed, the lead actor dropped out because of the health crisis, and they had to adapt to see it through, supported by their professor Julio Lisboa, who teaches short film production.

This screening, lasting about 5 minutes, was introduced by Boris Grebille, director of IESA. It was followed by a discussion with Li Lei and Yixiang Zhou, and their professors Julio Lisboa and Séverine Roinssard, producer at Parati Films and professor of Film Production Management in the Master 1 at IESA arts&culture.

Note that CIFACOM, a graphic design and audiovisual production school belonging to the Studialis group of which IESA is also a part, supported the project by providing material and human support to the two directors.

here is their account of making this film L’amour au temps du coronavirus, a film by Li LEI & Yixiang ZHOU.

"We had been working on this project for 3 months: writing the screenplay, casting, technicians, shooting permits… We had found, as we wanted, a chic café, provided free of charge for the shoot… Everything was settled, everything was ready for D-day: Sunday, March 15, 2020.

In early March, COVID-19 began spreading rapidly in France; we had some worries, but everything continued as planned. Until the night of March 14 at 20:00, when everything changed: Prime Minister Édouard Philippe declared that France was officially entering phase 3, and that all non-essential public venues such as restaurants, cafés, cinemas, and nightclubs had to close from midnight on March 14 until further notice. We were then overwhelmed. The decision was understandable but remained startling in such a short time frame, announced 4 hours before the closure was mandatory. Most of our story was supposed to take place in a café!

What to do? Cancel the shoot? Postpone it?

Neither of these two solutions suited us. We did not want to abandon the project, nor did we want to wait for the day the reopening of cafés was announced - as Chinese students, we were aware that this pandemic could last for months in France, as it had in China. Each member of the team had invested a lot in the film, and we did not want all that effort to be in vain. After discussion, we decided to stick to the schedule and shoot while keeping the essence of our film but considerably changing the screenplay, adapting the indoor scenes to outdoor ones. We thus staged a world in the midst of a pandemic, where people wear masks and use hand sanitizer, but have not lost the habit of going to parks, reading, and sharing their ideas. Before, the film was only a love story; it will become even more so at the start of this special COVID-19 period.

The shoot was supposed to start at 8:30 am, and around 7 am our lead actor dropped out, afraid of the virus. It was an even bigger surprise with such short notice, as some of our technicians were already on their way to the shoot. We had the idea of asking Barthélémy, one of our camera operators who also had some acting experience. He immediately agreed and stepped in at a moment’s notice to replace the lead actor.

In the end, this scare caused only a slight delay in the shooting schedule. With the help of our professor, Julio Lisboa, we set up a fictional café in a park: a table, two chairs, a simple shelf, and a few books. The evening before, following the government announcement, we had already replaced a few sequences of the film, but there was still some improvisation based on this new and particular environment. We had to adapt, very quickly. Julio even found a professional actress in the park and asked her to play the role of the café waitress! At noon, we went to a florist in the neighborhood hoping to buy two roses for a sequence of the film, but the owner told us he was not allowed to sell, so he simply asked what we needed and just gave us two roses! That and so many other things, so many unexpected situations and events happened within the space of 24 hours.

Finally, at 17:30, we wrapped the shoot (and ran to the school, which closed its doors at 18:00, to return the camera and sound equipment). The next day, Monday, March 16 at 20:00, President E. Macron announced the start of the lockdown …

This whole experience still feels unreal to us; we ran into so many unpredictable things and improvised so much, which will surely make the film strange in the end. But throughout the whole production process, we all did our best to finish it in the best possible way, and that is what makes it so precious."

L’amour au temps du coronavirus (Love in the Time of Coronavirus), a film by Li LEI & Yixiang ZHOU.

You can watch the film below.