After eight hours of virtual teaching I felt like relaxing, but instead I reworked this scene.I repainted the crowd and added the subtle warm glow in the center. I did this to get the colors to tie in better with the shots of Earth that surround the shot.
Since I was working on the shot anyway I also added a waving motion to the flames coming off the end of the virus. That added the extra spark of life to the scene that was needed.
When adding the shot back into the final edit, I made sure the asteroid lined up with the virus hitting the flat Earth in the next shot. I wouldn’t have considered these edits if I hadn’t just started rethinking every aspect of this one moment.
After this was cut into the film I did zone out on the couch and watch a remake of Stephen King‘s, The Stand. This is the one film I have seen recently that seemed to portray the COVID pandemic. The virus in the film however was 99% deadly so it was harder for society to ignore and minimize.
It is surprising that all the film productions though taking COVID precautions on set, portray the world as if COVID does not exist. This enforces the gaslighting from the white house and media that the pandemic is over. Everyone is returning to life as normal as cases spike once again.