The New Normal — a documentary recounting the measures taken by the University in response to the COVID-19 pandemic — premiered last month on the Big Ten Network.

The short film highlights and documents the journey UI researchers underwent while developing a saliva based COVID-19 test — a task they had six weeks to tackle and complete. The documentary interviewed administrators, researchers and students for a wide array of perspectives. 

The documentary is just under 25 minutes and it focuses on the 2020-21 academic year, when the University returned to operations following the height of the pandemic. Its title, “The New Normal,” alludes to how mass COVID testing and an online learning format became the accepted culture on campus as a response to the pandemic. 

University Division of Public Affairs staff members Kaitlin Southworth and Adam Rahn produced the documentary over the course of the last two years. 

Southworth, the director of video production for the Big Ten Network Campus Programming unit, said the idea for “The New Normal” arose in January 2021. 

“It really became apparent to us that our saliva test was having a major impact on our community and that this pandemic was going to be a significant moment for the University,” Southworth said. “We didn’t know, at the time, what the rest of the pandemic would look like or turn into … but we knew we had to tell this story and preserve this moment in time.”

Southworth said they wrapped up production in the spring of 2022 — but with editing, receiving rights and other more technical aspects, it took just a little over two years for the project to come to fruition.

“It was a real eye opening experience, and it was probably one of the biggest, most complex stories that we’ve ever done,” Southworth said. “We wanted to pull back the curtain for our audience and really show how this test came to be.”

The saliva-based test developed at the University, named SHIELD, was intended to replace the then-standard nasal test. Researchers sought to create a test that could have results ready for students and community members within a couple of hours while still prioritizing accuracy. 

The test had to be developed quickly — so the University created a team of researchers from across disciplines and backgrounds to come together to promptly address the issue. In just six weeks, they developed a test that would be administered to the entire campus.

Southworth said that one of their goals while creating this film was to highlight the unsung heroes of the research journey.

“SHIELD (is), in reality, hundreds of people across campus, and we really wanted to highlight that by talking to a wide spectrum of them so we could show the scope of this journey and give (the individuals) that may not have been known some recognition that they may not have otherwise,” Southworth said. 

According to a press release sent by the University, after its initial launch and FDA authorization, SHIELD “was available to be distributed to schools, businesses and communities across the U.S. and internationally.”

SHIELD was adopted by Rako Science, a New Zealand based company, and it “touched every aspect of New Zealand society,” Director Dr. Stephen Grice said to the University. 

Further exploring international borders, Southworth and Rahn’s team traded footage with a New Zealand documentary team creating a similar documentary during production.

The documentary premiered on May 23 on the Big Ten Network, airing right before the second game of the Big Ten baseball tournament between Illinois and Indiana. It was also posted on the University Youtube channel after the premiere for viewers to watch on demand.

According to Southworth, the main intention of the documentary was to display the importance of teamwork — even from vastly different areas across campus — to inspire viewers and other campus communities to keep aiming higher no matter the challenges faced. 

“We just really hope that the documentary is a reminder of how far our campus has come, and how we can accomplish anything if we work together and we cooperate with one another,” Southworth said.  

[email protected]