Page 44 - Old Ratcliffian 2020 Edition

I’ve ever made. Change can be scary, but building props for staging), so we used
we should accept it, take action, and thrive. XR technology to create virtual worlds
Having left Ratcliffe fi ve years ago, many for our contestants to perform within.
things have changed, but the incredible We also used every corner of the lot; New
OR NEWS – we just drink more tea and go to bed (last used by Quentin Tarantino in Once
York Street, Little Mexico, Western Town
friends that I made at school never have
Upon A Time in Hollywood), and even
earlier! Here’s to the next fi ve years!”
Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Castle became
staging backdrops.
Richard Wallace (79): “As senior vice
president (TV and production) of Syco Some contestants were unable to travel
Entertainment, I spent lockdown with my to Los Angeles, so many performances
family in London, but I had the challenge were remotely directed in Australia, India,
of making preparations for the America’s and Taipei. It got complicated, but as
Got Talent live shows in Los Angeles. As always happens when an insurmountable
an executive producer on the show, my obstacle like COVID gets in the way, we
working Zoom day tended to run from 4pm were forced to think smarter. Those that
to 2am (or later), to refl ect the eight-hour did make it to LA were kept in a safety
time difference. In July, with direct fl ights bubble at the nearby Hilton Hotel, and
to the US barred to Europeans, I fl ew from separated from the production team (bar
London to Madrid, to Mexico City, and their own personal producer). This was our
then to Cabo, where I sat for 14 days to biggest hurdle; the rolling conversation
get ‘COVID clean’, in order to hop over the between the contestants and producers is
border into Los Angeles and join the crew. part of our regular process, from dropping
in on rehearsals to talking through creative
choices. Instead, we communicated via
Emily Hollis (15): “Lockdown has been Zoom or FaceTime, even though we were a
a whirlwind for me, as it has for many of matter of yards away from each other.
us. After graduating from the University
of Leeds in 2019, I was offered an Just to make matters even more
opportunity that I took as a stopgap until complicated, my boss (and star of our
I found my dream job. However, time went judging panel), Simon Cowell (pictured,
on, and it wasn’t until February 2020, left), had a horrifi c bike accident at his
when something changed in my life, that Malibu compound three days before our
I had the push I needed to hand in my fi rst show, putting him out of action
notice. Two weeks after moving home Normally, our show is broadcast live from with a broken back for the entire run.
from Manchester, COVID hit, and all of the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood (home of Nevertheless, in the end, we got the show
my plans suddenly came crashing down the Oscars), in front of a 3,500-strong on air. After fi ve months of prep and seven
on me. Luck and timing were not on my audience. We deliver a two-hour weeks of intense (sometimes fraught)
side. In life, we seem to set such high performance show on Tuesday nights and teamwork, we had the rest of COVID-
expectations of ourselves that, when an hour-long results show on Wednesdays, bound Hollywood calling us up with just
something goes wrong, we believe that both live at 8pm on NBC. However, COVID one question: ‘How the hell did you do
we’ve failed. Having so much time on my meant that we had to pivot rapidly, and that?!’. There was only one answer: ‘With
hands was a new experience, but one that NBC made Studios 22 and 23 at their great diffi culty.’”
I will cherish forever. Spending time with Universal Studios lot and neighbouring
family and friends (albeit virtually, with theme park available to us. The 400-acre
many a glass of wine), proved valuable, site was largely deserted, apart from us,
helping me to refl ect. It also gave me time and strict COVID rules and procedures
to help the vulnerable, by doing their made sure that the environment was
shopping, and by providing a friendly extremely safe.
voice down the phone for those who were
isolating. During lockdown, I was lucky Normally, I would spend show day
enough to be offered a job at Huel, a brand crammed into a backstage broadcast
whose mission it is to make nutritionally truck with 14 other people. In COVID
complete, convenient, affordable food, world, we sat separately in a room the
with minimum impact on animals and the size of an aircraft hangar, with a set of
environment, and whose culture is like monitors each, and strictly enforced
nothing I have ever experienced before. arrowed directions to navigate the room
We put people before profi t and, most and exits. Without a live audience, we
importantly, do the right thing. For my role, supersized Zoom technology to create a
I have moved to Berkhamsted, a beautiful virtual audience in wraparound screens
town in Hertfordshire, which is surrounded who watched from home as the show went
by wonderful countryside and is home to out, reacting and enjoying the action as
many great pubs! Looking back, leaving my if they’d been in the room. Similarly, we
previous job was one of the best decisions were unable to do ‘live’ creatives (such as
44 The Old Ratcliffi an 2020