By: Dorie Triplett

Today marks the third day of filming for Shenandoah’s newest production, ‘A Cupid for Christmas’. Which, if you can believe it, is going to be even more magical and gag filled than Santa Girl in all it’s holiday cheer. 

Production for our Cupid movie was meant to start in March of this year, but due to the unexpected pandemic and SU being one of the first schools to close down, the project was forcibly postponed. Now we can truly say we’re experiencing a Christmas in July. (Just wait until all of SU’s Christmas decorations get decked up over the town)!

Coronavirus has successfully thrown a wrench in everybody’s plans for 2020, not excluding Hollywood’s finest and scheduled movie productions in Los Angeles. Our team is proud to be making history by being one of the first to successfully navigate the very high COVID standards of the ‘Screen Actors Guild’ or SAG (as it’s known in the movie business). 

The managers of the team, including producers from Capital Arts Entertainment in Los Angeles, Joe Genier and Mike Elliot, SU’s own Blayne Weaver and Paul DiFranco, have been pulling all-nighters in preparation for the film. The production is not only up to the normal SAG standards, but also organized by Jana Mangubat and Cherish McCormick to ensure that everything is up to code to protect the cast and crew from contracting the Coronavirus. 

We are flying in a total of six actors from Los Angeles. Student and Production Manager Joe Fisher has been picking them up from the airport and securing their COVID tests arrive safely from point A to point B. Each and every person that will be working on the set is getting tested 3 times a week. Blayne is calling it a “snow globe” (Haha, get it? ‘Cause it’s Christmas!) that everyone stays safe inside the bubble and remained quarantined.  

The production team has been planning some “camera trickery” to make scenes look crowded with characters when they actually aren’t. Obviously, we cannot have gatherings of large groups because of the virus, but with some help and creativity from Director of Photography Rob Senska, it will look as though we’re living in a pre-Covid period. Some adjustments are being made to the story as well to limit any hugging or kissing.  

Stay tuned for updates on the making of ‘A Cupid for Christmas’ and behind the scenes interviews from the cast and crew!