The Kardashian family is making it easier to keep up with their lives.
While some reality shows and movies have delayed production because of the coronavirus, Kris Jenner and the rest of the Kardashians are coming up with ways to deliver the content their fans so desire. Keeping Up With the Kardashians' executive producer Farnaz Farjam tells Elle that in the early days of the pandemic, she and the momager began to brainstorm ideas that would allow them to continue filming while also ensuring the health and safety of all involved. After some contemplation, Jenner proposed that the stars film themselves.
At first, this sounded simple enough, but Farnaz reveals that making the switch from a crew to self-recording has been a "big to-do."
"If Kris gets annoyed and walks out of the camera angle, it's not like we can follow her and continue shooting. She has to come back onto the screen and explain [why she walked away]," she explains. "It's less fly-on-the-wall, because we have to give them direction and they have to be more informative with us… But because this is the Kardashians and they're entertaining regardless, it will be a fun watch for people."
Initially, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian would record their footage and share it to an album, but the production team realized this wasn't feasible since people are going to get "sick of seeing" the low-quality footage.
So Farnaz says they initiated plan B: "She hired a director of photography and a technician, who put on a precautionary hazmat suit and configured brightly-lit rooms in Kim's self-described 'minimalist monastery' mansion and in Khloé's Calabasas home. There they set up phone-friendly tripods, which were carefully cleaned with sanitary wipes to combat the transfer of any germs. The family waited 24 hours before entering the rooms to further avoid any potential COVID-19 contamination," Elle writes.
Difficulties aside, this new form of recording has surprisingly led to a new candor with the family, which fans will be able to witness. Farnaz says, "Sometimes you'll hear them mumbling under their breath, ‘Who knew a camera person's job would be so hard?!'"
The only other change in their production has been the introduction of new iPhones. According to the EP, a showrunner exchanges new iPhones for the ones containing the footage. In total, the Kardashians record around 16 hours of footage, although it varies by family member.
Unsurprisingly, Kourtney is the family member to record the least, as "she's trying to take a detox a little bit from her phone," according to Farnaz.
On the other end of the spectrum is mother-of-four and lawyer-in-training, Kim Kardashian. The EP teases a large amount of the footage will come from the Kardashian-West home, including Kim's efforts to homeschool North West and Saint West. She says, "Watching Kim juggle four kids will be really relatable. No matter how big her house is, four kids is four kids. It's a lot."
In addition, Farjam promises viewers will be able to witness how Khloe's ex Tristan Thompson "definitely stepped up" and showed "a way more mature side of himself" during these difficult times.
The show returns in September, but for now fans can watch all their favorite episodes here!