Much of the creative industry activities have been brought to a standstill by the Coronavirus outbreak. Popular productions such as the BBC’s EastEnders and Holby, and Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, have either been paused or scaled down. The filming of the upcoming films like James Bond and Mulan film has been postponed until 2021.

Much of the TV and Film entertainment impact will not be felt until next year, as filming of hit returning drama series including the BBC’s Peaky Blinders and Netflix’s The Crown and Stranger Things, have all halted, in addition to all major movie productions.

The creative industry keeps moving

The creative industry faces some clear setbacks and restrictions over the next few months. This article offers just some of the ways the creative industry is rising to the challenge, with self-employed professionals adapting services and utilising skills to make he creative industry accessible from the safety of clients homes.

This is not only an article to offer inspiration to our self-employed clients, but also offer the public ideas of things to do in self isolation.

 

Internet Streaming: The Modern way to promote a creative business? 

 

Internet streaming has been having a pandemic of its own over the last 5 years, with online TV streaming overtaking paid television in the UK during 2018. The Conoravirus pandemic is likely to be the final push needed to send the US and UK into a fully migrated streaming culture. Streaming companies such as Netflix and YouTube etc. are already experiencing an influx of usage. The CEO of a leading cloud provider, Tom Leighton of Akamai, recently confirmed this to Business Insider. He reported that they are experiencing a ‘50% increase in traffic' each day with usage during Q1 of 2020 already ‘double compared’ with the same period of 2019. A recent Nielsen report (A market research company) also ‘suggests that the crisis could lead to a 60% increase in content streamed’. 

Putting their increased profits to good use, Netflix is said to be ‘establishing a $100 million relief fund’ intending to provide financial aid people across the television and film industries effected by the current pandemic. 

 

How small creative businesses are using streaming to their advantage during self isolation?

Online Performance

 The Metropolitan Opera of New York are streaming full performances by the cast. In return, they have added an emergency campaign asking for donations from members of the public to recoup some of the losses they are going to incur at present Online Performance

Community groups like choirs are offering their services in the cyberspace. ‘Rock Choir’, a subscription-based community choir, spread across multiple locations in the UK has recently started offering daily ‘sing-alongs’ via ‘Facebook live. These are not only to its members but also to the general public, which will, in time, likely expand their reach and potential client base.

Singers including Rufus Wainwright have been posting solo performances recorded at home for fans, and on Friday the London Symphony Orchestra released details of Always Playing, a digital programme of concerts which will be streamed free on the LSO YouTube channel this month and next, replacing its scheduled performances at the Barbican in London. The Royal Opera House has also unveiled a selection of free ballets and operas available on its Facebook and YouTube channels.

Virtual Exhibitions

Though streaming services embody a large portion of the way creative individuals and businesses are adapting, the access to information and social groups are also proving to be a valuable lifeline for The Creative Industries.

 Museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago are ‘making the most of existing technologies’ by offering virtual access to their contents via their websites, again with regular links suggesting users become a member of their society or to donate.

The digital platform, Google Arts & Culture, has partnered with more than 2,000 cultural institutions from 80 countries, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Exhibitions feature works like Vincent Van Gogh’s “Terrace of a Café at Night,” from the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands, to modern art collections from the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan.

Irvin Lippman, executive director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art has just started a series of free online programs for children called “Keep Kids Smart with ART” to help families who can’t travel but want to foster creativity at home.

Virtual Karaoke, Bingo and Trivia

The six-year old Gaythering hotel in Miami has taken its weekly karaoke, bingo and trivia nights online.

The drag queen Karla Croqueta hosted a virtual karaoke night on Instagram on Monday, March 16 from 8 to 10 p.m., which drew 485 viewers. “We sang Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ and Salt-N-Pepa’s ‘Shoop’ and we could have kept going,” the co-owner Alex Guerra said. Virtual Trivia nights are on Wednesdays at 8 p.m., and Bingo nights are on Thursdays at 9 p.m., on the property’s social media channels.

Online tutoring  

Many self-employed musicians, personal trainers, cooks and artists are offering online tutoring. You only have to check your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram feed to see a plethora of self-employed individuals offering their services via the use of streaming services such as Skype, Facebook Live or Instagram live, to name a few.

Online music tutoring

World renowned Jazz Guitarist Julian Lage offering online one to one guitar lessons, via online tutoring platform Guitar Study

Online Dance Lessons

A Kent- based dance academy, Xtreme Dance Academy, has announced that they will be offering free online classes every day during the coronavirus outbreak, stating

"Now that dance schools are closed and children aren't getting access to dance and physical activities, and at a time when people are losing their jobs, we've decided to put all my dance classes online for free – anyone and everyone can get involved."

Online Yoga Lessons

The holistic-minded Soul Community Planet’s 49-room property in Redmond, Ore., typically offers weekly yoga and meditation classes in partnership with Namaspa Yoga & Massage; these have transitioned online through the Zoom app or Facebook live and are posted on the hotel’s Facebook timeline for everyone to use.

A Leeds-based yoga teacher is 'helping Leeds keep a positive head' with her free online yoga classes during the coronavirus, released everyday on Facebook.

Online culinary lessons and wine tasting

Silvia Grossi, executive chef of the 44-room villa, Il Salviatino, in Fiesole, near Florence, Italy, has taken to social media to host cooking lessons from her own kitchen.

She said that these are “easy recipes that can be created with ingredients most people already have in their homes — flour, spices, canned foods and eggs, for example.” Her Instagram stories are conducted in Italian and have had an “uplifting response,” she said. “It’s incredible how connected we are, even when apart.”

The wine educator Caroline Conner, who works with tourists in Lyon, France, is hosting free virtual wine tastings that meet through the Zoom app, for six people at a time. “I’ll talk them through how to write a tasting note, we’ll compare our wines and hopefully have a fun, distracting and social experience,” she said. Participants can sign up and see the complete schedule here.

Streaming is not the only way

Social media has also proved a powerful tool for creatives in recent days. This was seen when various illustrators have used their social voice to form ‘ private slack channels’ in which they can pool recourses, share information and network to build future communities for the industry.

 

Adaptation in the face of Adversity 

 Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the creative industries into a state of turbulence, few industries could adapt to this new world as quickly as a creative business/ individual has. Though the uncertainty it is likely new ideas will emerge, and new businesses formed.

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