Art & Crafts from The Ankler

In a conversation moderated by four-time Emmy-nominated cinematographer and director Michael Goi, ASC, three of the creators behind Disney+'s Andor — costume supervisor Kate O'Farrell, production designer Luke Hull and composer Brandon Roberts — detail how they collaborated with creator Tony Gilroy to build the world of his acclaimed Star Wars spinoff series. The two-season drama, set prior to the events of Rogue One, follows Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he grows from smuggler to a stalwart of the rebellion. For O'Farrell and Roberts, working on a Star Wars show was a dream come true, while Hull was drawn in also by Gilroy's desire to shake up storytelling in that universe. Hull's memory of Gilroy's initial pitch: Join up “if you want to be a pirate and do something different with it.”

In a conversation moderated by Emmy-nominated editor Michael Ruscio, ACE, three of the pros behind FX's Say Nothing — creator and writer Joshua Zetumer, director Michael Lennox and cinematographer Stephen Murphy — delve into the process of crafting the haunting historical drama. Adapted from the nonfiction book of the same name by Patrick Radden Keefe, the scripted series conveys the complexity of the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Lennox, a Northern Ireland native, originally thought the Troubles were a story that he — like anyone from the area — knew in full. But his experience on the series opened his eyes to many of the details and horrors from the traumatic period. “We know what happened in the late '60s to the present day, but I didn't quite know it to this depth,” he says. “I felt that this could be an important piece of television which asked some really profound and tough and interesting questions, and I wanted to be part of that.”

In this episode recorded live on May 8 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, production designer François Audouyon (whose credits include A Complete Unknown) moderates a conversation with three of the creators behind Amazon Prime Video's 'Étoile': production designer Bill Groom, choreographer Marguerite Derricks and director of photography M. David Mullen, ASC. For the comedy set in the rarefied world of professional ballet, the team cast 20 professional dancers in both Paris and New York — not to mention as many as 80 SAG-AFTRA dancers for company class scenes — and shot primarily on location and in real theaters in the two cities. "I said to our producer, if we can't go to Paris and find locations to shoot in, we should all be fired," Groom says. "But we ended up building so much there, because Paris is a really difficult place to shoot.

In this episode recorded live on May 8 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, director Jennifer Arnold speaks with three of the creators behind Netflix's American Primeval: director of photography Jacques Jouffret, ASC, makeup department head Howard Berger and sound designer Wylie Stateman. The limited series follows the battle for control of the American West in 1857 through the eyes of a mother (Betty Gilpin) and son, on the run with the help of a steely mountain man (Taylor Kitsch). “Brutal, dirty and grimy,” Jouffert says, is what director Peter Berg wanted for the 19th century Western, and the three artisans share how they delivered, shooting in changeable weather and light at 10,000 feet, creating authentic indigenous looks and developing a distinct sonic signature for cold wind.

In this episode recorded live on May 8 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, ASC speaks with three of the creators behind Peacock's The Day of the Jackal thriller series: director and executive producer Brian Kirk, costume designer Natalie Humphries and director of photography Christopher Ross. The series follows the cat-and-mouse saga of an assassin (Eddie Redmayne) and a British intelligence officer (Lashana Lynch), a twisty tale that leans into the legacy of British spy novels but with a modern edge. When creator Ronan Bennett told Kirk he wanted to set the series "in a world where everybody lies about everything all the time,” Kirk recalls, “I was immediately attracted to the prospect.”

In this episode recorded live on November 12 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, director Patricia Riggen speaks with four of auteur Steve McQueen's collaborators on his World War II drama Blitz for Apple Original Films: production designer Adam Stockhausen, editor Peter Sciberras, and supervising sound editors James Harrison and Paul Cotterell. The film recreates events from Germany's devastating bombardment of London in 1940-41, while also following a mother and son trying to find each other amid the mayhem. “We have to keep retelling these stories, because we keep making the same mistakes,” Harrison says. “We have to keep reminding ourselves of the terror of the past.”

In this episode recorded live on November 12 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, Michael Ruscio, ACE, speaks with three of the creators behind director Jacques Audiard's Emilia Pérez: composers/songwriters Clément Ducol and Camille and editor Juliette Welfling. Netflix's spectacular Spanish-language musical drama, which centers on a Mexican drug kingpin who transitions to live as a woman, is a genre-bending “phantasmagoria,” as Camille puts it. Welfling, a longtime Audiard collaborator, “learned that he was even more crazy than I thought,” she says. “Please, Jacques, stay crazy!”

In the second of four episodes recorded live on November 12 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, Rob Legato, ASC, speaks with four of the talents behind Wicked, Universal Pictures' epic musical adventure. Cinematographer Alice Brooks, ASC, editor Myron Kerstein, VFX supervisor Pablo Helman and supervising sound editor John Marquis discuss how they collaborated with director Jon Chu to create an eye-popping spectacle that also conveys the intense bond between Ariana Grande's Glinda and Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba. The goal, Brooks says, was to tell “the most beautiful love story ever told between these two women, these two best friends.”

In the first of four episodes recorded live on November 12 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, Michael Goi, ASC, leads a conversation with three of the creators behind The Wild Robot, the $300 million global blockbuster from DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures. Composer Kris Bowers, visual effects supervisor Jeff Budsberg, and supervising sound editor Leff Lefferts reveal how they conveyed the evolution of Roz — the film's titular robot — as she is "stepping beyond her programming and becoming more human," Bowers explains. Adds Lefferts, "We're telling a lot of emotion and a lot of story."

In the last of four special episodes recorded live on August 1 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, Joel D. Catalan, CAS — a sound re-recording mixer who was Emmy-nominated for the NatGeo series Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey — sits down with two of 2024's Emmy contenders in the category of outstanding sound editing for a comedy or drama series (one hour): Brian J. Armstrong, MPSE, is nominated for FX's period drama Shogun, and Tim Kimmel, MPSE, got nods for two Netflix shows: sci fi epic 3 Body Problem and animated adventure Avatar: The Last Airbender. The two sound supervisors reveal how they collaborate with showrunners to balance music, dialogue, action and strategic silence, frequently deploying what Armstrong calls “addition by subtraction.”

In the third of four special episodes recorded live on August 1 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, Mona May — the costume designer behind iconic films including Clueless and The Wedding Singer — sits down with two of this year's Emmy contenders in the category of outstanding period costumes for a limited or anthology series or movie: Lou Eyrich is nominated for her work on FX's Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, and Safowa Bright Bitzelberger got the nod for Netflix's Griselda. Eyrich shares how she recreated New York high-society looks from the 1950s to the '80s, while Bitzelberger recalls conjuring the fashion aesthetic for a much grittier milieu during some of those same years: the Miami drug underworld.

In the second of four special episodes recorded live on August 1 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, Jeannine Oppewall — a four-time Oscar nominee for art direction on films including L.A. Confidential and The Good Shepherd — sits down with two of this year's Emmy contenders in production design: Glenda Rovello is nominated for her work on Frasier, from Paramount+ and CBS Studios, and Gianna Costa got the nod for the MTV reality series RuPaul's Drag Race. Costa describes the “seat-of-your-pants thinking” that powers a fast-moving competition show, and Rovello recalls how the innovative set design of the original Frasier informed her decisions on the reboot. They also share how playing with color and making room for movement help set the stage for great TV storytelling.

In the first of four special episodes recorded live on August 1 at the American Society of Cinematographers Clubhouse in Los Angeles, Nicole Hirsch Whitaker (Netflix's One Piece) sits down with three of this year's Emmy-nominated directors of photography. Dana Gonzales got the nod for FX's Fargo; Richard Rutkowski for Apple TV+'s Sugar; and Gary Baum for Frasier from Paramount+ and CBS Studios. These three veterans share their career paths, creative inspirations, aesthetic hacks and the bond they share with directors. “You want to meet people that you could stay and make films with for the rest of your life,” says Gonzales. “Whatever you can do to create that kind of energy and synergy and shorthand, you're going to excel, and that's the dream.”

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, based on a book by Heather Morris, follows the true story of Lali and Gita Sokolov, who fell in love as prisoners at the notorious concentration camp. The action moves between the chilling world of Auschwitz and Melbourne, Australia circa 2006, when Morris meets Lali (Harvey Keitel) and learns his history. “It's an inspiring story of love and survival in the darkest place on earth,” says Claire Mundell, who produced the Peacock limited series. Mundell, interviewed by cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker (Netflix's One Piece), reveqls how the project came together, from securing the IP rights to convincing Barbra Streisand to make her first-ever original song for TV, “Love Will Survive.”

Shogun always meant a lot to Michael Cliett, who has fond memories of watching the 1980 miniseries with his dad as a kid in Japan. So the Emmy-nominated visual effects supervisor leapt at the opportunity to work on FX's lavish adaptation of the James Clavell novel. Cliett speaks with host Rob Legato, the Oscar-winning VFX legend behind Titanic, about creating an authentic representation of Japan in the year 1600. “Everything had to be grounded in reality,” Cliett says, including the show's brutal violence, from a chain shot cannonball massacre to multiple beheadings. The goal is for his painstaking work to be “invisible,” Cliett says. “The last thing I want is for the audience to be thinking about the fact that they're watching a visual effect.” Transcript here.

Guy Ritchie's stylish crime series The Gentlemen brings together British entitled aristocrats to Thai underworld killers in a power struggle over drugs, land and money. To build the world where these characters collide, Ritchie turned to production designer Martyn John and costume designer Loulou Bontemps. The duo spoke with Jeannine Oppewall, the Oscar-nominated production designer behind Seabiscuit and L.A. Confidential, about the “amazing creative rhythm” and occasional aesthetic skirmishes with their “maverick” auteur. Says Bontemps. “He always wants to be surprised and he loves to be challenged.”

“Jon's very opinionated and combative, but not in a bad way,” says Gotham Chopra, who likens the Bon Jovi frontman to an elite athlete. “Really smart, strongly opinionated — but at the end of the day, respects talent and allows people to do their job.” And Chopra's job, as EP and director of Hulu's Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story, was to pack the iconic glam-rock band's four decades of monster hits and personal challenges into one docuseries. Moderated by award-winning editor Michael Ruscio, Chopra and editor-producer Alex Trudeau Viriato discuss their interviews with Bon Jovi, his current bandmates, former guitarist Richie Sambora and musical mentor Bruce Springsteen. Of Bon Jovi himself, Chopra says, “He would kick me out of his dressing room occasionally and be like, ‘Get the fuck out of here'. . . Over time, he also realized, ‘In order for us to get where we want to get . . . I'm going to have to let you in.'”

”It was a celebration of us being back together,” says first-time Oscars showrunner and Executive Producer Raj Kapoor. He's talking about the instant classic showstopper “I'm Just Ken” that electrified audiences during the 96th Academy Awards, but as he notes, he's also talking about the joy of returning to the movies. During this intimate conversation also with choreographer Mandy Moore and led by the inimitable Debbie Allen (who choreographed the Oscars a record 10 times), Kapoor and Moore share innumerable backstage tidbits that bring to life how they pulled off the “glamorous Hollywood take” on the Oscar-nominated song with the help of Ryan Gosling. (Just how many Kens can you fit on stage? 64!) Plus how Kapoor kept the show moving, brought energy to the production and just how John Cena ended up in that modesty pouch. 

On a December weekend, costume designer Holly Waddington (earlier credits include War Horse) missed a slew of holiday parties after getting called to meet Yorgos Lanthimos about Poor Things. She spent days in a mad dash, preparing imagery based on the script and eponymous novel. What she ended up pitching involved “strange Japanese dolls with these clothes [in which] the proportion of the cloth is far too big for the scale of the doll.” The surreality of the aesthetic that made it onscreen is discussed by Waddington, and the movie's hair, makeup, and prosthetic designer, Nadia Stacey (both took home BAFTAs on Feb. 18), who join host Mona May. The trio dive into the visual influences of the film, working with Emma Stone, and the challenges of creating Dr. Baxter's offbeat look. Transcript here.

While Oppenheimer production designer Ruth De Jong and director Christopher Nolan were location scouting in New Mexico, site of the world's first nuclear test, they heard that Russia had invaded Ukraine. “It was at the beginning when everyone was like, well, is this going to be World War III?” recalls De Jong, who “felt a responsibility” given the gravity of the film's subject matter and Russia's real-time threats to use nuclear weapons. That commitment to portraying the physical reality of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was also put into practice by costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, who joins De Jong in a conversation with host Jeannine Oppewall, an Oscar-nominated production designer. The trio discuss everything from the film's absence of “visual noise” to the challenge of straddling worlds in both black-and-white and color to the one hat on the entire set, worn by a single character.