With COVID-19 mostly discontinued filming in the US, Movie Magic presents in Bulgaria: NPR

Sophia, Bulgaria – There are signs that post-dark US movie production is back in for almost a year.

But movie magic has found shelter in a small corner of Eastern Europe during these difficult times – Sofia, Bulgaria – as Nu Boyana Film Studios is located on the edge of Vitosha Mountain overlooking the city.

The studio was state-owned during Communism in the 1960s – but for the past 20 years it has been the location of action films, dramas, and horror. It’s home to Consumed Franchise and the biggest box office are filmed here – 300: Rise of an Empire. Sylvester Stallone made five films in Nou Poiana, including Rambo: the last blood.

Frequent COVID-19 testing of everyone entering the studio’s big yellow arc has helped keep business going during the pandemic.

Ivaylo Grancharov, usually in charge of the Nu Boyana Film School, runs the test site in a small white trailer that sits in a parking lot while the school is closed. It tests people who come to prepare daily, and on Fridays all employees – nearly 400 – are surveyed.

The studio was mostly closed in the first few months of the pandemic. They did one commercial in the spring, filming it across continents using wireless technology, with a director in Los Angeles, the client in France, and the production crew in Sofia.

Yariv Lerner, president of Nu Boyana, says he had to make a lot of changes to safely reopen it last summer. “We had to reconfigure the entire studio … from where people enter how they walk how people react, put sterilization stations in place, check temperatures at the gates, and close all the parking lots because we didn’t want people just to stand up and walk randomly and all that kind of maintenance.” .

The changes have cost more than $ 350,000 – and the studio has accumulated more than $ 3 million in debt for salaries and maintenance.

In June, they shot their first big movie – until death With Megan Fox. Actors Hero Tiffen and Kate Beckinsale have been in Nu Boyana since June as well.

“We had four movies and about seven commercials, which we were able to do from June through December, which kind of saved the company,” Lerner says.

But the COVID protocols have complicated the way movies are filmed. One movie that just finished filming in No Poiana is called distance, He had a big wedding scene – it was tough to manage with so many extras in the set.

“It was kind of like misleading things,” says Lerner. “The actress was entering, all the additions were clear. We were shooting the actress and obscuring where she was going. Then we would capture the exact same scene with the extras, the actress wouldn’t be there. Stick that scene together.”

The Bulgarian government has designated No Boyana as a primary business, so international talent and staff can attend the studio. About 70 Americans did so under strict protocols. They get tested for COVID 72 hours before they board a plane, then again when they arrive, then quarantine, and then they test again.

And while they have identified some positive cases in No Poiana, Lerner says these cases have been contained by all of the safety measures in place.

The biggest problem now? Get insurance.

“It doesn’t exist,” says Lerner. “They are still working out how to secure things. It will take a year or a year and a half before things get back to normal. A lot of companies will be out of business by that time.”

But Nu Boyana keeps moving forward. The Legend of Sinbad Sonya red And The night fell The latest in the Gerard Butler series – all in the planning stages.

The horror and thriller was filmed during the last visit Abyzou Im Wiseman and Nick Bloodborne’s tournament was underway. It is rooted in Jewish mysticism, occurring in a Hasidic community.

On this day, the cast and crew were filming a scene in a car. Both actors in the car were wearing masks, taking them off only when the cameras started spinning

“Everyone seems to follow the rules,” says Jonathan Younger, producer, writer and actor. Abyzou He is also the co-chair of Millennium Media. “We all want to keep working, and we all want to keep working.” He notes that the number of people allowed in rooms in No Poiana and around the phases of sound is restricted – and that in addition to regular Covid testing, people in and working in offices undergo frequent temperature checks.

Bulgaria on Monday began the latest in a series of lockdowns related to the pandemic. Meanwhile, widespread vaccinations are underway. Lerner says that while he prefers to vaccinate people against COVID-19 on their own, the studio is considering how to proceed – that “at some point I think it will be required.”

For the time being, they are continuing their new normal lives.

Nina Gregory edited and Kelly Wessinger produced this piece for the radio.