The entertainment world continues to strive to get back on its feet.
It is no secret that productions around the globe will start to shoot only to be shut down within weeks when a crew member tests positive for COVID-19. And, today’s announcement that Broadway will officially be dark until the summer of 2021 took the air out of us.
The pandemic frankly is a bummer when it comes to working in the industries of film, television, and music. If you are a producer you know the difficulties of trying to get your staff back on its feet from a zoom meeting and on to a set or a stage. It is mind-blowing enough in your home base camp. But what if the script requires an exotic location? Or shooting from another state even? The infamous White Paper contained some great information but shared very little on scouting locations away from home camp.
Up until a few months ago it seemed like production coordinators doing crew travel plans would of thought it was impossible. Searching for hours on the internet just to see if you can fly to a state or an island without a mandatory quarantine is exhausting. But modern technology is helping make a difference and helping entertainment get back to work.
“It is the nature of the tech industry, which is disruption,” says CEO and Founder, Peter Wells, of DragonSlayer. “I literally saw the pandemic as the biggest disruption of our lives. I felt there ought to be a way I can help get travel back on its feet. It is too big a part of our lives. It is to big a part of our work. I put a lot of thought behind it and thought what would it take for me to get back on an airplane.”
With DragonSlayer launching and becoming one of the most sophisticated applications for travel professionals the sluggish time is about to peak. The website and Android-friendly platform delivers the right information at the right time to facilitate safer travel decisions. Using proprietary analytics 124 countries and 50 states are diligently ranked for travel professionals and consumers in an order that is pandemic approved. In a world, in the midst of lockdown protocols, the latest information on the reopening of states and the growing list of countries is accurately marked. There are customized listings of risk tolerance with unique filtering options that are crucial during this year.
The desktop tech is truly bringing confidence back to the world one travel destination at a time. Reinstalling the confidence to travel again is the biggest component that makes DragonSlayer a unique product in the entertainment industry.
“For all the questions that might come up you basically can have the answers for what it would cost to have drinks out at bar one night,” says the tech leader who is out to prove that the re-launch of DragonSlayer will revolutionize the market.
While some may try to just visit unfiltered websites like Expedia to book they will only find themselves trapped in a situation that in an ever-shifting COVID-19 landscape is not welcoming. Cutting corners and trying to fly by the seat of your pants during production just is not an approachable tactic in 2020 and for the foreseeable future. It won’t help your show budget and it won’t make your crew happy at the end of the day.
“I know that some people are not going to travel until there is a vaccine. Whether it is for health reasons or age, or just fear. There are just going to people who say I love travel, but I am not going to travel until this is over. Then there are people on the other end of the scale who want to be fearless. The people in the middle are different grades of risk aversion. I simply am trying to help those in the middle who may choose to travel and who will make smart safe decisions,” says the developer. “They want to know what to expect when they actually go to St. Lucia, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Croatia, or Tahiti. These are all places open now. There is a whole bunch of different protocols on how to get there. There are testing requirements and there are a whole bunch of things that may or may not be open once you get there.”
Currently, DragonSlayer provides production heads, travel professionals, and consumers a quick way to identify global destinations that still require quarantine and help them learn more about their local conditions upon arrival.
“There is nothing worse than getting to a country for a shoot and not knowing what are the current regulations,” discusses Wells, who points out the desktop tech is fully developing a crowd sourcing tab so users can share up-to-date travel tips. The growing community referred to as Travel Slayers will utilize DragonSlayer technology to keep up with borders reopening and sometimes spontaneously closing everything from hotels and attractions.
As stated on the website, “Our mission is to provide both travelers and their trusted travel advisors with centralized, real-time information to regain the confidence to book their next trip. Travel professionals play a key role in the travel industry’s recovery. We believe that our intuitive platform can unite the industry by enabling all to share their insights and ensure accuracy.”
Hours of production office research can lead to simply a feeling of being overwhelmed and potentially leading to a potentially horrible travel experience. The world is moving again and those who are doing it vigorously are doing it by relying on the technology built by Wells and his team. Any other way could end up being simply unacceptable.
Here is to getting film crews and small concerts back to work with smarter and safer groundbreaking technology.
Cover Photo by Chris Murray on Unsplash
Socializing From Home with Sensible Socialite is a column focusing on communities and individuals thriving during the pandemic.