[updated 5th May 2020]

On 27th March 2020 the CFPE held their first meeting by Zoom, the first gathering since their cancelled annual meeting in Paris – Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK all attended.

It was a very useful discussion. There was very little production happening in Europe at the time, with the exception of Sweden, where production was working fairly normally. The main focus of the meeting was government subsidies for Coronavirus. Most countries then reported a level of subsidy for employees, to help employers retain employees and other measures that gave production companies genuine hope of surviving the Coronavirus crisis. Most felt that demand for production would change gradually and that the way we work would be changed permanently.

We’ve held fortnightly meetings since, keeping up to date with the possibilities of shooting in Europe when they emerge and how we meet the demands of the post Coronavirus era. Most helpful of all have been the sharing of safe shoot guidelines as we all prepare, safely, to shoot once more.