This past summer, I got the chance to be part of the project Love After Lockdown – the first Toronto-based dating series. I was brought on as a crew member of a very small production team where I experienced firsthand what goes into making a show and loved every minute of it. From the production side of things, where I was helping organize sets to watching the rigorous editing process, I learned what it actually takes to turn hours of footage into an exciting final product.
The goal of the show was to help Toronto singles find a match post-lockdown when the world of dating had completely changed. We shot last July with a team of eight people and our shooting location was a restaurant in mid-town Toronto that was kept empty for the daters, so they had the whole place to themselves.
The contestants were all incredible people; part of my job was reviewing applications and although there were so many great applicants, I could immediately tell the applicants who stood out and were going to shine on camera. My favourite part of the entire experience was getting to know the daters and see them open up as the show progressed. A lot of the drama that surrounds dating shows has to do with the terrible things cast members say when they think the cameras aren’t rolling, but that was not the case on the set of Love After Lockdown. The daters I met were just as cool and funny on screen as they were off it. Watching other young people like me push themselves out of their comfort zones was actually very inspiring – something I did not expect to come from working on a reality dating show.
We shot in the evenings in order to make the dates look and feel more natural for the daters. Downtown Toronto in the summer at night is really beautiful, so I really enjoyed whenever I got to help the crew get B-roll for the show of sunsets and city lights. When the daters arrived, I had to make sure they were comfortable and always tried to hype them up before their date. I was very impressed by them because first dates are nerve-wracking as it is and walking in front of a camera as you meet someone for the first time must take a lot of courage. The nerves always settled a few minutes in and once the daters started getting to know one another they said they eventually forgot the cameras were there.
One of the juiciest parts of working on the show was filming the contestant’s confessionals. If you’ve ever seen The Bachelor or Love Island, you know that the confessionals are some of the most watch-worthy parts of the show because it’s where we hear about the dater’s honest experience of their date. On Love After Lockdown, it would often happen that a guy felt the date went amazing and wanted to see their date again, while the girl felt that they would be better suited as friends – this made for some confusion at the end of each date when we had them sit down together and ask if they wanted to see each other again. Bruised male egos aside, however, the daters were all very respectful to each other and many even ended up going on second dates. Even if they didn’t find their match, all the daters said they were for their experience on the show as it inspired a lot of reflection about what they’re truly looking for in a partner. After months of quarantine, I was personally grateful to get to work with an incredible group of creatives to make something we were all proud of.
With Valentine’s Day coming up, Love After Lockdown truly makes for the perfect watch. You can check it out on YouTube.
