End of Year Blog Post- 2020- What a Year, Right!?

The sun sets on 2020

I made the headline to this year’s end of year entry the same as what I wrote in the personal Holiday cards I sent out this year. Following “2020-What a year, right?!”, I wrote “Let’s hope 2021 is better…”.

What can be said about a year which brought the world a deadly pandemic, the likes of which have not been seen for 100 years? On top of that, we also had a long overdue reckoning with racial injustice, following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of the police force meant to protect them. And then you had 2020’s prolific hurricane season, which broke all previous records for named storms, so much so, the forecasters had to dip into the Greek alphabet to name them all.  We had west coast wildfires which made San Francisco look like Blade Runner and made the sun look weird all the way on the east coast. On top of all of that, you have a US Government who did not do enough to ensure the safety, economic stability, and well-being  of its citizens during this deadly pandemic. On the day I wrote the draft of this entry, the US has suffered just under 300,000 deaths and just under 16 million cases of COVID 19 since the start of the outbreak.

The economic fallout of the pandemic has been significant, and the production business and small green businesses have not escaped unscathed. Back in March, as states began reporting community transmission of the virus, Broadway went dark for one of the few times in history. At the same time, restaurants and bars closed, events, conventions, conferences, film festivals, all cancelled. On Friday, March 13, most productions, tv and film,  shooting in North America and Europe, shut down. Vanity Fair ran a compelling account of what it was like to be on some of these productions as they shut down. I (Beth) was actually working on a pilot myself (as a set dresser). The day before, when I heard that Broadway went dark, I texted an old High School friend of mine who is in IATSE Local 1 and works on Broadway to say “Sorry to hear the news”. The very next day, I got word that our production was shutting down as well.

If you remember at the start of the pandemic, we didn’t know as much as we know now about transmission, how long the lockdowns would last, and when or if scientists would be able to come up with a viable treatment or vaccine.

Where 2020 would lead us was uncertain.

My world, as I know it, came to a complete standstill. Immediately, what would have been the start of GPP’s and productions’ “busy season”, ground to a complete halt.

Now, I have not been one to share personal events on my business pages, but this being the kind of year that it has been, I’m going to share a couple. My elderly mother had a severe stroke at the start of lockdown, and is still in residential care, as she has vascular dementia, and will not get any better. She is bedbound with severe aphasia. Imagine all of this happening during the early days of lockdown- when we were still wiping down all groceries and packages because we didn’t know what we know now about fomite spread of the virus.

Fairly early on, all of the productions, unions and guilds began meeting regularly, virtually, amongst themselves and with infectious disease specialists to come up with some safety return to work protocols. My entrepreneur brain began starting to think about what new opportunities I would have for work, once production resumed. I knew that it wouldn’t be as busy as a normal production season if the pandemic was still going on, even with the new safety protocols. Some shows were already getting cancelled. Meanwhile, people were watching content while they were locked down. So. Much. Content.

One of the spring binge watches was “Sweet Magnolias” on Netflix. I was so happy to see our client Gunas’ bags take the spotlight!

Gunas’ red Cottontail on Sweet Magnolias

Gunas’ Miley bag on Sweet Magnolias

I enrolled in a Contact Tracer course through the Bloomberg School of Public Health and took every short online production Covid safety course I could find. I met virtually regularly with other industry colleagues to discuss resources and what we thought the future of our industry would look like. I sent email updates out to clients to keep them abreast of what I knew- and didn’t know. I even launched this website CoronaSafeSets.com with the thought that I might build that into yet another side business (more on this later).

I connected with Filmmakers for Future, which is an international, grassroots effort among production personnel to make our industry more sustainable, based in Germany. The name is modeled after #FridaysForFuture, the movement started by Greta Thunberg.

I also connected with Green The Bid which aims to push for more sustainable commercial production here in North America, modeled in a similar way to the UK’s Ad Green APA.

Beth trained as a Climate Reality Leader in July

In July, I trained virtually with Al Gore to become a Climate Reality Leader. At the end of the week-long training, my friend and GPP Advisor Tim Guinee, a Climate Reality Leader for a few years now, was presented with an Award by Mr. Gore for his tireless efforts on behalf of the climate. I’m very proud of Tim! In early 2020, just before the year changed reality as we know it, Tim launched his non-profit, Climate Actors.

Beth’s Climate Reality Leader Pin

Then, the very next week, the second personal event happened that made this year one of the worst years ever, for me, personally. My brother- 3-1/2 years older than me, passed away from congestive heart failure. The circumstances surrounding his demise contributed to the emotions related to his loss, and because of the pandemic, his memorial consisted of 8 immediate family members socially distant in my backyard and about 40 other family members and friends attending via Zoom.

If you imagine what that phrase “and to add insult to injury…” means- well, it’s been this year. One thing after another.  Things started looking up slightly toward the end of the summer, as far as productions resuming, once the industry unions and guilds published a white paper, studios set up their own safety protocols and productions started to gradually resume. The first two productions I was contacted about were both very female centric, for Netflix and HBO.

Production work slowly picked up steam early autumn, and in October, I placed our brands in as many shows as any past (normal) busy October! I also went and wrapped that pilot, which sadly was cancelled altogether because of the pandemic. But I also met a public health background Covid officer who would have been a great partner for the CoronaSafe Sets business, should there be no indication of the situation ending anytime soon. By this time, after dealing with my deceased brother, I had no desire to deal with any of the healthcare related parts of this business, but that’s what this possible new partner would be for. However, with the announcement of several viable vaccines at the end of November, this would be a business with a short lifeline. After the busy October, I decided to put a pin in CoronaSafe Sets and concentrate on injecting (pardon the term 😉 ) GPP with some new energy and new enthusiasm. I signed 3 new clients, Gibson Guitars, PRS, Guitars, and Doizpe Handbags. Good Clean Love and Repurpose Compostables signed back up with us after a few and a couple year breaks, respectively.

Although some clients said they needed to put a pin in all or most marketing in the immediate, it was encouraging to actually have some clients renew through all of this, and to sign some new clients as well.

This autumn, I also had my first “act of leadership” as a Climate Reality Leader, result in a 1/3 page commentary in the newspaper. My piece was about how Climate should be high on any presidential agenda.

In November, Joe Biden won the US Presidential election and has promised to put the US back into the Paris Agreement on Day 1. His Vice President, Kamala Harris, a very competent woman of color (of Indian-American and Jamaican-American background), is also the first GenXer in the White House. I can’t help but relate to her just a little bit. She’s only a year older than me, we were in college/university at the same time, and she still wears Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers- which well… is something I still do, too.

John Kerry at #EarthtoParis during COP21 in 2015

The Biden-Harris transition team has even created a brand-new cabinet position for Climate- Climate Envoy- and has named John Kerry to this position. My friend and former business partner Lisa and I were in Paris 5 years ago during COP 21, and saw Kerry speak at the #EarthtoParis event. He had just come from the north side of the city, Le Bourget, where the official negotiations were taking place. We saw that the threat from Climate Change was something that Kerry took very seriously, and also that he was committed that the US should be a world leader in transitioning to a more sustainable world. I look forward to the United States joining the rest of the world again in prioritizing this most important of issues- one that will determine what the future here on earth will be like.

So, while looking back at this “train wreck/dumpster fire” of a year, we all have to realize that just making through it, intact, is a commendable feat in itself. This year was the year I had originally planned on beginning to orchestrate some growth for my company, in the end, to have actually made it through the year, still have clients, and still be placing them onscreen ie. to still be a working, operating business, is something many others do not have the privilege to be able to do.

As I write this draft, the first people in the US have begun receiving the first one of the Covid vaccines to become available. Experts are saying that life could return to almost normal by around late summer or autumn of 2021. (It will take many months to be able to manufacture and distribute these vaccines to the general population).

There is an inevitable regime change on the horizon for the US, in January. The new leadership respects science, understands Climate Change and has a desire to see the rampant spread of Coronavirus reigned in and people vaccinated here in the US.

Here’s hoping for a brighter, greener future in 2021 and beyond

So, while we’re not “out of the woods” yet, I can’t help but feel a bit more that there’s more of a light at the end of the tunnel now. And although this holiday season will look so very different from any that came before, there is still reason to be thankful for the things we do have in life, and to maintain a hope in our future.

Season’s Greetings

Check out GPP’s Seasonal Holiday E-Card by clicking HERE.

Here’s wishing you and yours a safe, healthy and joyous Holiday Season.

May 2021 be way, way better than 2020!

Cheers,

Beth

Beth Bell

Founder, Green Product Placement