BBC Culture has noted that intimacy coordinators are increasingly becoming a staple in film and TV sets, especially in light of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements and call for a more transparent conversation about women and consent in the industry.
Speaking to BBC Lizzy Talbot an intimacy coordinator said their ” job is to bring the director’s vision to life in the safest way possible”.
The work of intimacy coordinators includes choreographing sexual act scenes and other scenes that involve non-sexual intimacy such as close contact between families, from determining movements and boundaries between actors to make sure the content does not trigger anyone.
The coordinators also help to reach an agreement between actors and directors on what they are willing to do within an intimate scene.
The new post-Covid-19 guidelines have post a number of new challenges when filming scenes that have an intense amount of physical contact. The Covid-19 guidelines also require that all sets must now have an intimacy coordinator present to guide the shooting of such scenes – something that Talbot view as a blessing in the longer term.
“That obviously hasn’t been the case overall for lots of productions prior to this,” she said as quoted by BBC.
“So the bar is being raised in terms of safety, and I think that consent is being highlighted in a way that it hasn’t been before because people have a heightened awareness of boundaries and personal space. If people’s considerations of boundaries have increased because of Covid-19, this can only be a positive thing.”
The guidelines on filming intimate scenes stipulate that camera tricks and insinuated actions should be prioritized above scenes involving bodily contact and nudity.
It also asks that modesty garment – guards or pouches that cover actors’ genitals when simulating sex on camera are bought or made for each actor and never shared.
It also requires that if the actors need to come within two metres of each other, that strict testing or isolation processes are adhered to. It strictly requires actors shooting intimate scenes self-isolate for 14 days before coming on set.
The new phase of post-COVID filming has seen production companies finding creative new ways to shoot intimate scenes. One of these has been bringing in actors’ real-life partners as ‘intimate scenes doubles’.
However, Talbot says: “the blur between personal and professional lives makes this complicated.”
“The emotion is real, and your body is experiencing all these hormones, but the situation is fake. You’re two people sitting under spotlights with 20 other people watching.”
Another trick especially novel approach has been substituting actors with mannequins.
Thai and Bollywood film set has totally banned love scenes, while the Netflix show Riverdale will be ploughing its script full of innuendo in order to replace some of the action on the screen.
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Talbot says ultimately, a knock-on effect of the new, industry-wide emphasis on the personal safety of actors on the set will be that the job of intimacy co-ordinators only becomes more fulfilling.
This story was originally done by BBC
