Synthetic Cinema International, the Rocky Hill-based film company, is usually flat-out busy making movies for, say, Hallmark or Lifetime — and is usually shooting those projects in Connecticut.

When the pandemic hit in mid-March, Synthetic’s filming came to a sudden halt.

Finally, come June, Synthetic started shooting again, first with a romance filmed primarily in Putnam and Woodstock and then a thriller in towns including East Lyme, New London and Ledyard.

Andrew Gernhard, Synthetic’s co-founder and producer, says that as far as he knows, their romantic drama/comedy “One Royal Holiday” was the first movie to go into production on the East Coast after the pandemic shut everything down. He believes that “Stalker’s Prey 3” was the second movie to be shot in Connecticut after the lockdown, following “One Royal Family.”

While the productions had to follow all the expected COVID safety protocols, one of the other big changes was the necessity of limiting the number of extras.

In “Stalker’s Prey,” they did use some extras — but only about 20 over two or three days. The extras were given COVID tests, had their temperatures taken and were kept away from the main cast and crew.

“One Royal Holiday,” on the other hand, needed more people. There is a big parade, for instance, that might normally feature 200 extras. Instead, Synthetic used green-screen technology.

“We got a bunch of extras, we put them in front of a green screen and shot them, then we had them change and shot them again,” Gernhard says. “We’re going to actually green screen them into different backgrounds and foregrounds.”

Digital sharks

“One Royal Holiday” premiered last night on the Hallmark Channel and will air multiple times through Christmas.

“Stalker’s Prey 3,” which just wrapped, is most likely to air in the spring of 2021 on Lifetime.

Synthetic shot the first “Stalker’s Prey” and its sequel in Niantic, Old Lyme and Mystic. 

In this new follow-up, the character Bruce, who survived the last film and is once again played by Houston Stevenson, goes to a new shore town where he becomes obsessed with another young woman.

For “Stalker’s Prey 3,” Synthetic shot scenes at Ocean Beach Park in New London, which stands in for a beach where all the kids in the movie go. Synthetic also filmed some shark attack scenes there.

A private house in Norwich and Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse become part of the villain’s island lair, where he keeps his deadly pet sharks.

“The sharks are all digital. We don’t have the big puppet shark, because (A) we don’t have the time but (B) we don’t have the budget,” Gernhard says with a laugh.

Scenes set in a high school and a police station were filmed in Ledyard High School, which was “tough because we had to shoot on their off days, because we didn’t want to interact with their students and we didn’t want their students interacting with us,” Gernhard says.

All the underwater scenes, meanwhile, were done at Vitale Aquatic and Tennis in Ledyard.

Making movies during COVID

“Making a movie is stressful because of all the moving parts,” Gernhard says. “This (COVID) adds, no joke, about 35 percent more stress. The logistics alone are insane. … It’s not fun. You know, (in the end), I don’t feel accomplished, I feel relieved. Because I legitimately have been a stress ball the entire time.”

Gernhard says they were lucky in that the screenplays for both movies “were originally written a little bit tighter and a little bit smaller, and a little more intimate anyway, and we did a slight rewrite to both to make them a little more COVID compliant.”

For instance, they tried not to have too many scenes set in public places.

On set, they adhered to the expected safety protocols: wear a three-ply mask; socially distance; do as much outside as possible and, if things have to be done inside, limit the amount of crew and cast involved. Everyone was tested multiple times a week and mostly stayed at their hotels or inns, tending to restrict themselves in terms of off-hours activities to outdoor pursuits like golf and jogging. 

A ‘Royal’ romance

Synthetic began filming “One Royal Holiday” in June mostly in Putnam and Woodstock, and Gernhard says, “At that point, (those towns) only had, like, 11 cases of COVID. On purpose, I chose that location, never mind that they have beautiful inns there.”

They shot at the Inn at Woodstock Hill and the Mansion at Bald Hill.

“That was our bubble. Our cast and crew and everything was up at these two inns, and that was it,” Gernhard says, adding with a laugh, “It was actually kind of a summer vacation.”

In “One Royal Holiday,” a nurse heading home from work not long before Christmas runs into people who need a place to stay during the oncoming blizzard. She brings them to her father’s inn, and it turns out they are the queen and prince of (the fictional country of) Galwick. As the nurse and the prince fall for each other, he learns to be a better person.

“One Royal Holiday” features a lot of Broadway actors. With Broadway closed for the foreseeable future, these talented but usually busy performers were available. In addition, Synthetic tried to limit travel for the movies because of COVID, and Broadway performers tend to live in or close enough to Connecticut to drive rather than fly to the locations.

“One Royal Holiday” stars Aaron Tveit, who was just nominated for a Tony for his performance in the stage adaptation of “Moulin Rouge!,” and Laura Osnes, who earned Tony nominations in past years for playing Bonnie Parker in “Bonnie and Clyde” and Cinderella in “Cinderella.” “One Royal Holiday” isn’t a musical, but there is some singing.

More to come

Synthetic has shot many films in southeastern Connecticut before, including “Holiday for Heroes,” which aired on Hallmark; and “A Very Nutty Christmas” with Melissa Joan Hart, and “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” based on Wally Lamb’s novel, both of which were televised on Lifetime.

While Synthetic couldn’t shoot any productions from mid-March through June, Gernhard — who is a Norwich native and Gales Ferry resident — says, “Even with a terrible year, I was able to expand my business pretty well.”

In addition to “One Royal Holiday” and “Stalker’s Prey 3,” Synthetic has another project coming up, although Gernhard said he can’t give details about it yet. He would say, though, that it will be filmed around here and “It is a new client for us, too, which is exciting.”

To watch

What: “One Royal Holiday”

Where: Hallmark Channel

When: Its schedule of air times includes 4 p.m. today, 8 p.m. Thursday and 10 p.m. Nov. 8

For more dates and times: Visit hallmarkchannel.com

What: “Stalker’s Prey 3”

Where and where: Probably next spring on Lifetime