Between the Lines
During the course of Episode Three production I was often reminded of my experiences directing in theater, and one of the ways in which I found parallels between the two is in unwritten action. A stage script contains strictly the dialogue spoken by the characters and the essential (required) elements of stage directions. There are no instructions on how the characters carry themselves, or when they stand and move about the room, or even the mood and tone with which they deliver their lines. Everything is subject to the director’s vision and the actors’ interpretations, which is one of the reasons why a single show can be produced so many times and still be a different experience (for better or for worse). I don’t have as much experience on film, but I do know that (for the sake of storyboarding and cinematography) the stage directions are much more abundant and precise.
Through three episodes of Alexander’s scripts, the production team has gotten more comfortable with the logistics of shooting and can spend more and more of their energies focused on their particular unique tasks. Having story cards, the camera operator can spend less time worrying about what the angle is going to be and instead think about which lens and cropping to use. Having shot setup lists, the director of photography and gaffer can spend less time figuring out where the lights will need to be and instead work with more complex setups faster and more efficiently. And having an experienced team to handle all these aspects of the shoot and keep the production rolling, I can partially step out of the producer role and put my energies towards the finer aspects of directing. One such aspect that I’ve been pleased to explore (in episode three particularly) is the non-central action of the story– everything that happens that’s not in the script.
Episode three, like episode two before it but very unlike episodes one and four, develops primarily through dialogue rather than action. From a production standpoint this is simpler, as shooting characters in conversation is easier than shooting characters in motion, but from a design standpoint it provides a different set of challenges. Looking back at all of Edge’s scenes throughout the episode, in conversation with both Blaze and Claire, he discourses on a broad range of topics without being required to DO anything, and never having necessity to move outside of the main areas of the house. There was still a lot he had to say, though, which meant a lot of photos and a lot of pages. The challenge for me in storyboarding, then, was to keep his character (and those around him) engaged and active without distracting from the conversation of the scene.
There was more to it than just filler, there was meaning. In his first scene with Blaze, Edge does very little of the speaking, which immediately says something about their characters’ relationship. To play off that, I drafted the setup where Edge would be the active one and Blaze would be talking and talking but not participating hands-on. The same is true of their second scene, and Claire is certainly better off for it. In her scenes with Edge, the conversation was more balanced between the two of them but was still divisible into Claire-centric topics and Edge-centric topics. I wanted to keep their non-central actions simple, so there are really only two elements to compliment their dialogue. When Claire is asking about Edge’s past she is exploring on the reader’s behalf, so for those portions I wanted to have her physically exploring as well, walking through the house and piecing together the whole of his life. When the conversation moves back towards her story, I chose to emphasize tea as her comfort, not only with the script but also as it appears on camera. Leaving the characters in the background while the teapot sits in the foreground, or cropping a shot at her hands around her cup rather than at her face—not only do these shots break up the monotony of talking heads, but they help to provide associations with who each character is (beyond what they say).
The scene in Yevgeniy’s house was much the same principle. In the conversation between he and Marion, the only scripted action was the reveal and draw of the silverware-drawer pistol (scripted because its integral to the conversation of the scene). For this scene I wasn’t going to do a lot of closeups and object-shots like with Claire and Edge, mostly because that was already done on the opening “montage” for this scene. Instead I would focus on the characters as I would during a normal scene, but keep them engaging in ‘trivial’ activities to prevent the scene from stagnating. Marion remains fairly static in the scene as a status choice: if she can break into his house and confront him without lifting a finger, it gives her more leverage in the power balance. Yevgeniy, on the other hand, is quite mobile and active, not just to make the scene interesting but also to contrast with his stern, stoic demeanor in the office scenes. He’s always got something to do, from setting down the bat to putting on pants to pouring a glass of wine, his motions in the scene directly reflect the levels of tension and respect between himself and Marion.
Which isn’t to say that such is always the case. For the opening scene between Claude and the Trio, the actions of the scene were thoroughly detailed in the script because there was such a back-and-forth between the dialogue and the action. For the scratcher catchers scene, the central action was enough to keep the brief scene consolidated into a small area, and just moving characters to and from, in and out of the truck was enough to keep it dynamic. And the brief scenes with the Nazarovs (sisters and brother alike), a few close-ups of some of their objects brought some diversity but the scenes were so short it wasn’t much of an issue. So there’s a bit of everything in this episode, which is how we like it. Just wait until you see what we did in the next one.
Forest as Katrina's stand-in while the shot is setup
Don't mess with the cameraman
Our first shoot with a live monitor took some setup...
...but was a huge help in setting up complex shots.
Flynn watches the crew in action
More opportunities for sitting than a normal shoot
The man at his craft
The boys show off their guns