00:00 [Walkers growling]
00:01 Go away!
00:03 I can genuinely say we are doing the Bass Roose story
00:07 at a scale that is mind-blowing.
00:09 The scope of this production has been just awe-inspiring for me.
00:12 It's so great, man.
00:14 It's a story of the American West told in a very real way.
00:19 It's breathtakingly brilliant.
00:21 ♪♪
00:27 Here we go!
00:28 ♪♪
00:30 Action!
00:33 Whether it's the hair, the makeup, the script itself,
00:36 the most rewarding element is watching hundreds of people
00:40 come together from a place of passion,
00:43 so desirous to get the story right.
00:46 The production design on this show
00:48 is absolutely breathtaking.
00:49 It's an epic show.
00:51 It's a show about an incredible time period in our history.
00:54 It was really cool from the sets to the costumes.
00:57 It wouldn't have felt as authentic without it.
01:00 [Gunfire]
01:01 The audience has a connection.
01:03 They feel something's going on.
01:05 You're living it. It feels so real.
01:09 You will follow me, and you will fire.
01:12 We're tasked with filling the brain
01:15 with all of this gorgeousness of all these different cultures.
01:18 There was Native Americans with African Americans,
01:21 with Chinese, with white.
01:24 Every culture was amongst each other.
01:26 They were all thrust together in the idea of the melting pot
01:29 that America likes to hang its hat on,
01:31 and it was a really unique time in the country for that.
01:35 Black, white, or red, we all just meant.
01:41 Let's go to our engines.
01:42 Watching and finishing.
01:44 Let's go!
01:46 They really go all out to make it as authentic as they can.
01:50 We have a Civil War consultant.
01:51 We have a Native American consultant.
01:53 We have different people that are experts in the field.
01:56 Start right here.
01:58 The representation in this show of American Indians
02:02 is so vital and important.
02:03 Taylor Sheridan and the folks at 101 Studios
02:06 are very supportive that we get everything accurate.
02:10 We did a lot of research into the actual towns
02:12 that we shot in -- Fort Smith, Fort Worth.
02:14 They are able to literally take a photograph from the 1800s
02:20 and make it real right now.
02:22 The set that we're in right now, the Reeds Farmhouse,
02:24 this didn't exist before this show.
02:26 This is a house that Bass Reeves
02:28 would have built for his family.
02:29 When we first see it, it's very, very simple.
02:32 And then as the story progresses,
02:34 Bass begins to make more money.
02:36 The look of the interior begins to change.
02:38 Look at this set.
02:40 It's wonderful to work in.
02:43 You walk onto a set like this,
02:45 and you're immediately transported back in time.
02:47 The sets are really, really cool.
02:49 They're just sprawling.
02:50 Dundee Carnival, Saturday and Sunday.
02:53 Fort Smith is the epicenter of commerce
02:56 in this region at that time.
02:57 There's tons of photos of the period,
02:59 so we were able to recreate storefronts
03:01 that probably have never been seen before.
03:03 Every can, every flower bag,
03:05 every box has some sort of history to it.
03:08 There's not an inch of these towns
03:09 that's not covered with something
03:10 that would have been there.
03:11 ♪♪
03:15 The courthouse was an interesting one.
03:17 Judge Parker was known as the hanging judge,
03:19 so he had a reputation for being a man of very little leniency.
03:22 If you were a criminal, you were gonna pay for it.
03:24 In his office, we definitely tried
03:26 to offer a lot of that personality to it.
03:28 It's very strong. It's very robust,
03:30 just like the man was himself.
03:33 "Hell on the Border" was a dank basement
03:35 beneath the courthouse.
03:37 It was a place where the worst of the worst were put.
03:40 It wasn't a place where human rights were thought of.
03:42 You got stuck in a hole in the literal hell.
03:44 I filled it with all these sort of dramatic shapes,
03:47 creating a very unusual jail.
03:50 We wanted to fill it as grimy and as down as possible,
03:53 and I think we achieved that.
03:55 ♪♪
04:01 They searched high and low, like, all over the world
04:03 to populate the spaces that our characters
04:05 find ourselves living in
04:07 to make it feel like a lived-in space.
04:09 It was definitely a challenge making all this stuff,
04:11 which is effectively 100 years old,
04:13 if not more, look brand-new again.
04:15 You know, this is a world where,
04:16 even though it is a period piece,
04:17 this stuff was brand-new to these people.
04:19 The scale of this show is massive.
04:23 We have 15,000 pieces of clothing.
04:26 If you see my shop here,
04:28 you'll see every corner of the shop has research.
04:31 The more we see it, the more we just get
04:33 completely engulfed by this world,
04:35 and that's when the magic happens.
04:37 You first walk into the wardrobe warehouse,
04:39 and you're just in awe of what they've tailored.
04:41 The hats they build, the boots they build,
04:43 the entire costume they build with period fabrics,
04:47 and everything is so specific.
04:49 It's been incredible.
04:50 And let's cut. Let's go again.
04:52 Let's cut. Go again.
04:53 Go again.
04:55 It's mind-blowing just to see and meet
04:57 so many good people, talented people,
05:00 smart people, noble people,
05:02 really just wanting to do the best they can
05:05 to put this story together and doing it so beautifully.
05:08 Whether it's costumes or production design
05:11 or our animal team sourcing period-appropriate saddles,
05:15 the textures, the materials that we're using,
05:18 there's been so much effort that's gone into this.
05:20 It was important for us to really make the show feel epic,
05:24 and I think we have achieved that,
05:26 and it's what is deserving of the legacy of Bass Reeves.
05:30 ♪♪
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