Corona Virus cancellations

[Pete Cofrancesco]

No point playing the blame game or fuel the xenophobia paranoia. As I understand it theses outbreaks start in poor third world areas of the world through no fault of their own. Given the amount of travel these days their problems quickly become our problems. Times like these we should be thinking of ways to support and help one another.

[Paul R Johnson]

Yet another cancellation this morning - an audio and video recording of an opera in a church. The extra equipment bought for it also arrived this morning too. Damn! This year seems to be lots of purchases for jobs that aren't happening, and an almost total loss of income. Luckily, I find purchases from previous years income, not loans - thank goodness.

[Chris Hurd]

Inevitable Note from Admin -- I have withdrawn from public view several posts in this thread which were primarily political in nature, or just incredibly poor advice, or made in very bad taste.

I have edited the thread title from "Coronavirus" to "Corona Virus Cancellations."

Please try to stay on topic. Please keep in mind that I will not tolerate political grandstanding on this forum.

No, the Corona Virus is not Obama's revenge nor is it a liberal conspiracy to overturn the 2016 election.

Yes, it's a good idea to follow whatever guidelines that have been established by your local / municipal governments.

Meanwhile, we're still open for discussion. However, when the bullshit meter pegs over to offscale high, then I have no choice but to get the scoop shovel going.

Please put the conspiracy theory crap on social media where it belongs and reserve this forum for helpful, intelligent discussions related to our business.

Please and thank you. Carry on.

[Chad Whelan]

2 April wedding reschedules the last 2 days. Fortunately it was easy to simply move the date and I was available. Season starts here in New England May/June. It really hurts to think about what that will look like if this all continues and government forces these cancellations due to attendance numbers, etc. I totally get it and this is a great short term approach to limiting this virus, just hope it works! :)

[Patrick Tracy]

The mortality rate may seem low but it could be an order of magnitude higher than normal flu. And the transmission rate is high. If it infects 20% of the US it could kill half a million people. If it spreads too fast it will overwhelm the health system.

I work on an hourly basis at two universities doing audio, video and stagehand work. Their event schedules have been essentially wiped clean for at least the rest of this month and possibly for the rest of this school year. Some events will get rescheduled but some are tied to a specific cohort of students. The work I'm losing now can be only partially made up.

[Danny O'Neill]

We have a 12 week old people lock down in the UK coming up now. Seems the period they feel will be of the most impact.

In those 12 weeks we have 6 weddings.

1 has already gone for a new date next year

1 bride is flipping between 'its on' to 'Oh F'it lets just cancel the lot' and then back to it's on.

The rest are playing it by ear.

We have reduced our balance payment terms to 7 days prior from 30 so we dont have to refund too much. If the wedding takes place in the next financial year we want the money in that year to keep things simple.

[Paul R Johnson]

We're taking a few chances - we're going into closed venues and getting stuff from our stores into the venues so that if the production happens at the last minute, we have time to do them. My lighting guy remarked that we can actually do things properly too. Neither of us are getting paid for two full days work each, and hopefully, we'll recoup it later. I suspect that things will be totally dead - then, when the brakes are taken off, everyone will want instant productions - and I don't want to say no, we've not got the time.

[Josh Bass]

Ive had a few cancellations (most of my work is crew on corporate/ENG/events/commercials), BUT, now these medical PSA shoots re: virus prevention are popping up. It’s all very surreal.

[Paul Mailath]

my business is dead - wedding & commercial has dried up completely. weddings are a max of 5 people, funerals 10 (not sure if you have to count the deceased) it's a fun time.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I knew all my theater work would be canceled or postponed but I wasn’t anticipating all my legal work to cancel (which is like 5 people in a room). I haven’t had a job in 3 weeks with no end in sight. I’m starting to look to see if I can get any job even if it’s mowing lawns or delivering packages.

[Paul R Johnson]

I've decided to use my pension, not due to be touched until 5 years from now, for day to day living. Our Government have agreed that self-employed people like me will be given a grant of 80% of our earnings - based on 3 years tax submission records - based on your profit, before tax, NOT turnover or invoice totals. This will be paid in June, and will be March, April and May's figure. It's not going to be mega money, but will be handy. We're expecting the Government to of course ramp up tax in the future to recover all the money they are paying out, but hopefully we can recover and deal with this.

Of course - some people have circumstances that make the plan bad for them. Those that have perhaps minimised what they pay themselves to avoid paying too much tax, and this has come back and bitten them, because it's based on what they told the Government they earned - but it is what it is.

I've still got a contract standing for November, which hopefully is long enough away to go on, but nothing at all up till then still.

[Colin McDonald]

After a lot of indecision in the days before, I finally went ahead with my last video shoot on Friday 13th (don’t start me) and did a brief audio session a couple of days later.

Since then, everything has shut down and I have haven’t been out the house.

[Nigel Barker]

I'm currently self-isolating with mild COVID-19 symptoms so looking for things to do I dropped in here for the first time in months. I'm glad to see many familiar names still around. It's 5 years since I last shot a wedding but I still maintain an interest.

Ironically enough my partner & I were due to get married on 10th April (her birthday so hopefully easier for me to remember the double anniversary in years to come - or big trouble if I ever forgot:-). It was only to be a small family wedding with siblings, children & her parents & no video or professional photography. Initially the restrictions would have prevented her elderly parents attending. Then it could take place just with the pair of us, the celebrant plus two witnesses. Finally it cannot take place at all. We were relieved to be honest as it would have been annoying to have the expense of the venue without the fun of all the family attending. They wanted us to rebook but as it's uncertain when restrictions will be lifted we could be in the same situation again with another cancelled wedding date in 3 months or 6 months. We finally had a brilliant idea & when the world has returned more or less back to normal we will fly down to Gibraltar & get married there like John & Yoko then hold a family party when we get home. It will be fun, romantic & cheaper than paying for a wedding venue & registrar.

Good luck to everybody & keep safe. This is going to be a year that everybody remembers for the rest of their lives. It’s probably the nearest thing to being at war that most of us will ever know.

[Roger Gunkel]

Our last wedding was three weeks ago and all weddings through to August have been cancelled or postponed except one on May 30th. Apparently the venue is not closing and are hoping the pandemic will be over by then. The couple want to postpone, but have been told by the venue that they will lose their pre payment through breach of contract.

We now have no work income although I get the minimum state pension which is not enough to cover both of us and our monthly outgoings. Hopefully we can hold off payments for long enough until the government support comes through in June.

Roger

[Donald McPherson]

I think a lot of people will be struggling by June. But it must be a big operation to organise all those payouts. The banks should be involved in (very) low-interest loans to keep the loan sharks at bay.