Story Productions Works for Public Square Films on their Covid-19 Vaccine Race Documentary for HBO/ HBOMAX

For HOW TO SURVIVE A PANDEMIC, a David France documentary produced by Public Square Films and HBO, following the global race for a Covid-19 vaccine, Public Square Films hired Story Productions to facilitate the shoot of all the Brazil-based segments — with the client directing remotely throughout.
Date: 2021

In March 2020, the covid-19 pandemic had just hit Europe hard and case numbers in Latin America were starting to climb exponentially. Around the world, scientists were mobilizing to develop the first vaccine against the new coronavirus in hopes of allowing the world to return normal life. In the midst of this pandemic scenario, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker David France (“Welcome to Chechnya” and “How to Survive a Plague”) embarked on a documentary project, covering this historical race for a vaccine.

THE PROJECT

Produced by HBO and US company Public Square Films, in association with Impact Partners, Sandbox Films, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Wellcome Trust and Sky, HOW TO SURVIVE A PANDEMIC is an ambitious, almost two-hour documentary, filmed in the United States, Great Britain, South Africa, and Brazil.

The scenes shot in Brazil by Story Productions between August 2020 and March 2021 show the daily work of Dr Sue Ann Clemens Costa - a professor at the Oxford University (United Kingdom), the Carlos Chagas Institute (Brazil), and University of Siena (Italy) - who coordinated the clinical trials carried out in Brazil by AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford - decisive trials in the vaccine’s approval, which was eventually obtained in February 2021.

David France’s documentary also followed the journey of a second Brazilian character: Thiago, an ambulance driver in São Paulo, and one of 10,500 Brazilian volunteers in the AstraZeneca group.

THE CHALLENGE

In all, no less than 7 shoots were organized by Story Productions in São Paulo, Rio, and Salvador, following Thiago and Dr Clemens, and at various Institutes, including Fiocruz and Gloria Hospital in Rio and the Butantan Institute in São Paulo. To keep on top of the twists and turns of the clinical trials, from the press conference announcing results to the final delivery of the first vaccine doses, the shoots were often necessarily last minute. The shoots also sometimes carried a high risk of Covid-19 contamination, which Story Productions had to provide protection for, such as when the crew accompanied Thiago in transferring two covid-19 patients to different hospitals, later documenting the ambulance disinfection process.

THE SOLUTION

After handling location scouting and casting, all filming was carried out remotely with entirely Brazilian crews, including a producer, DOP, camera assistant, sound technician, and a production assistant, with the strictest respect for health regulations and social distancing measures.

This collaboration with Public Square Films was also an opportunity for Story Productions to use, at the client's request, the LiveU live-streaming interface, so that director David France could view the images — even when shooting quite literally on the road — and direct the shoot in real time, fully remotely.

Story Productions offers remote post-production as one of our many client services. Give your next virtual conference that professional touch; get in touch with us today.