by James Fletcher
Set in the world of contemporary ballet and slated for a 2022 release, the new Australian youth drama The Red Shoes: Next Step brings together a stellar cast of young actors – headlined by award winning dancer Juliet Doherty and The Conjuring 2’s Lauren Esposito, dancers and a dedicated team of filmmakers including Producer Tanya Esposito (The Legend of the Five) and director Jesse A’hern who completed the coming-of-age drama under significant hurdles thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns faced across two states.
With government bodies scrambling to design and refine safety protocols regarding the worsening pandemic, and the general sense of distress spreading throughout the community, the Red Shoes production, already a complex set catering to an ensemble cast, professional dance troupes, choreographers and a full production crew, found itself in an unpredictable no-mans-land of red-tape and paranoia while having to navigate fluid policies, personal safeties and sudden cancellations.
“I think one of the biggest impacts was that we had a group of our dancers from Brisbane, which we had to leave behind on a week’s notice,” explains Jesse A’hern who co-directed the film alongside Joanne Samuel, reflecting on the difficulties the pandemic brought to the shoot. “They had spent months with Daniel Gaudiello, our choreographer, actually learning all the choreography. So, we had to find 15 young dancers down here in New South Wales, on a week’s notice and have them learn all the choreography… And they did. They even slept on the set and were absolute legends.”
But while the practical attributes of managing a film set during such uncertain times tested both cast and crew, the film’s producer, Tanya Esposito offers her own insight into the difficulty of scheduling and executing a feature film during a national health crisis.
“I’m actually from Victoria,” she tells us from Sydney, as she awaits permission to be able to return to her home. “We had a crew of seven in Victoria. There was a couple of costume crew, our choreographer came from Queensland and the rest were all from NSW. We left Victoria on a moment’s notice because we thought that we would end up delaying production if we didn’t get into NSW in time.
“We got into NSW a couple of weeks earlier than planned, and everything was going dandy till probably about the end of the second week of filming, and that’s when things started to turn nasty in NSW and from that point it was difficult.
“We had to work with unclear directions from everyone’s interpretation of the policy orders. We were constantly in contact with NSW Health to get clearances for shooting. We reduced our crews; we were Covid testing all the time; all our cast and crew tested every three to four days.
“We had absolute closed sets. People from interstate were operating in ‘Covid bubbles’ right from the outset.”
Another major issue faced were the demands the pandemic was taking on the film’s budget, an aspect of Australian film production that filmmakers traditionally compromise on well before cameras are even loaded. And with her budget now being forcibly redrawn to assure safety protocols, set restrictions and cast and crew health at the forefront, the unpredictable nature of the ‘new normal’ was a challenge the producer drolly decries as one she “definitely would not choose to do again.

“Yeah, it certainly cost us a little bit more,” she replies when asked about the financial impact felt by the production. “We were able to manage to keep it on track and the reason why, I think, was because we had pre-planned to shoot in a COVID environment anyway, so the cost of the additional sanitization, PPE and all that was already factored in.
“The biggest cost was dealing with the changes in locations. But, that was something of a double-edged sword as well, because even though we had been cleared by NSW Health and the police to shoot, a lot of the locations were very nervous. Either they didn’t want to seem to be going against their own internal policies or it was simply the optics.
“Particularly when you rock up with a film crew. Even with a reduced crew you’ve still got 30 people. There are cameras, there are lights, catering… and they didn’t want the community thinking they were doing something wrong.
“It was a lot of seeking new locations on two days’ notice. Half of us were scouting while half of us were still shooting, and that changed our spending somewhat. It went from a five-week shoot to a six week shoot, which was probably the biggest stretch.
“But in saying that, you would get some locations that were actually cheaper than what we’d costed-up before production. Some locations cost more, a lot of the locations cost less.”
While The Red Shoes sits in the can ready for distribution in 2022, its successful completion, accomplished under extraordinary obstacles, should serve as inspiration, if not a blueprint in demonstrating that film productions can operate and succeed under Covid restrictions. Even with conflicting State policies and malformed Federal guidance, the Australian film community being what it is, continues to function as a safe space for creatives and filmmakers alike.
“There are a lot of producers out there calling each other,” Tanya Esposito muses. “I get calls either from crew or other producers asking, ‘How’d you do this? What did you do? Who do you talk to?’
“It is difficult. I’m not sure I would recommend shooting at the moment, particularly in the center of Sydney, with how things are traveling at the moment. We were really lucky, we finished filming just before that second batch of the LGAs locked down, and things have just seemed to have gone from bad to worse here in Sydney.
“The only things I would suggest is to be in constant contact with NSW Health, and that in itself is a full-time job. Just getting your call answered on the line is at least an hour, an hour and a half wait every time.
“And contacting the police about any locations you’re going to, making sure they understand that you’re able to film. That was a real learning curve as well, because the police would seem to be getting different messages from NSW Health than what we would be getting and they can often interpret things differently. So, it was a real learning for all of us, but yeah, it’s an absolute minefield.
“I’m very, very grateful we finished when we did. Put it this way, it’s caused me to colour my hair today, to get rid of all the grays.”