How Goodfellas Studio’s Content Production Status Map is helping brands and content creators navigate production restrictions across the country

• With the lockdown gradually opening up, and different cities and states following different guidelines and restrictions, it was getting difficult to track the rules for content creators.
• To tackle this problem, Mumbai-based content production studio, The Goodfellas Studio has launched a content production status map.
• The tool offers comprehensive information to track content production capabilities and limitations across 22 states and 37 regions in India affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Ridhesh Sejpal, Co-founder, Goodfellas Studio tells us.

The months of Covid-induced lockdown brought about huge changes in terms of consumer behavior and how brands market to them. While the production of ads came to a complete halt, many brands realized the potential of effective content marketing.

The lockdown became a time when people stuck in their homes became hungry for fresh content, thereby making content marketing an effective way of reaching out to an engaged set of audiences. We saw many examples of really good content being created, both by brands and influencers that resonated with the audience.

Now, with the lockdown slowly lifting up, brands are still excited about coming up with fresh content, to keep people engaged. However, with different cities following different lockdown rules at different times, it has increasingly been difficult for people to keep track, thereby making the entire process challenging.

That’s when Mumbai-based content production studio, The Goodfellas Studio, came up with the idea of launching a content production status map. The aim of the tool? To offer comprehensive information to track content production capabilities and limitations across 22 states and 37 regions in India affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

We recently caught up with Ridhesh Sejpal, Co-founder, Goodfellas Studio to understand how this tool can be beneficial for brands and the larger challenges that the content market ecosystem is facing currently.

Excerpts:

Q) You have recently launched India Content Production Status Map. Tell us a bit about the offering.
Our new India Content Production Status map helps brands, media agencies and content creators navigate production restrictions across the country. With the coronavirus pandemic impacting the industry all across, we wanted to create a tool to help understand the restrictions in each market and help make production decisions.

India Content Production Status Map uses the data we have collected via content creators and highlights the types of productions that are possible around the country- from post-production and animation to full-scale productions. It is thrilling to see so many states opening back up. But we can see it's still going to be a long time until things are completely back to normal - especially in some regions. We're continuing to keep this map updated, adding information like localized guidelines and other important dates or data for each region.

Q) How is it beneficial for marketers and content creators?
This tool not only helps them make better production decisions, but also gives an exposure to a lot of states outside the regular go to cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi & Bangalore where you mostly see production happening. For eg. States like Kerala, Himachal Pradesh & MP are more shoot ready than the other regions. We have laid out detailed data for every region with links to the regional Film Shooting guidelines. These are also supported by the latest updated Govt. lockdown rules.

Besides this we also have collated useful links and resources for best shooting practices during Covid-19. These including creative ideas & solutions, global case studies as well as podcasts and videos providing insights on content production during and beyond this pandemic.

Q) Why was there a need for a tool like this? What kind of challenges have brands and marketers been facing so far that can be solved by the tool?
Post the Covid-19 sucker punch there's a constant confusion on shooting guidelines across the country and brands, agencies & content creators are clueless about where they can shoot and to what extent. So something like this helps bridge the knowledge gap and also guide the creators to the right region and vice versa.

Besides this, the Covid-19 guidelines and SOPS are extremely decentralized across the country. The virus spread is continuously fluctuating and so are the guidelines in different states. This makes it confusing to keep track of the lockdown guidelines all across. We intend to get all this info in one place and keep updating it regularly.

Q) What are some other larger challenges in the content marketing space and how are you addressing them?
The pandemic will change how we do content production forever. Creators, Studios and networks are confronting how they can safely resume filming, a process that involves bringing together large groups of people in confined spaces for extended periods. Now, imagine making a romantic comedy in which no one can kiss, or an action movie in which the villain stays six feet from the hero.

On top of this, the government has passed the order that only 33% crew will be used currently and strict safety guidelines to be followed on set. So everyone is trying to shoot in residential spaces, on their iPhones with remote direction and approvals over video calls. Besides this the markets are low and the budgets have taken a hit. With the month of April, May & June being a wash out, everyone is trying to make survival possible within the budget clients have.

Now, more than ever, we need diversity in storytelling and execution. As we figure out how to continue telling emotionally affecting stories under restrictions, we are taking new risks, and using unusual tools to tell stories.
Our tool aims to calm this chaos and confusion by giving people 1 stop point for all the answers. May it be SOPs for content creation, or be quarantine guidelines for a particular region or be tips & tricks for remote creative workflow - it is all here in one place. And the best part is - its crowd sourced information. By the creators and for the creators!