- 6 days ago
Director Reed Morano, cinematographer Colin Watkinson, and costume designer Ane Crabtree discuss the making of the hit Hulu series.
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00:00Hi everyone I'm Ashley Lee and this is Closer Look The Handmaid's Tale and with
00:09me I have Reed Morano, Colin Watkinson, and Anne Crabtree. Thank you so much for
00:13coming. So Reed start us off with what were some of the biggest pressures of
00:18debuting this world especially because this book has quite the following.
00:21There's so many fans of this book it's like a very iconic story and the fans
00:26are sort of like rabid fans there's an almost like cult-like in their worship
00:32of the book so that was a lot of pressure I think for all of us to figure out how
00:36to do it justice just because also Margaret's such an amazing cerebral
00:41intellectual and like trying to get in into her mind like if she were to be
00:46able to turn it into visuals what would that be like and there was probably no
00:51way to get into her mind per se but at least we were like if we take risks the
00:56way she takes risks in her writing and there's sort of like an irreverence and
01:01in her writing and if we were to do the same with the show and not take
01:06ourselves completely seriously all the time the way she also does just sort of
01:10use her as a model then maybe we could sort of come close and but it was always
01:17super stressful I think we're all of us to do that. Colin this when you're
01:22watching the show it definitely feels like there's always someone watching
01:26talk about crafting that mood and making sure that the audience gets that feeling.
01:31I mean we shot it with the intention that it was always inside Offred's head it was
01:39always supposed to be a point of view show which shows a particular lens that
01:43was just for Offred. We would do those wide close-ups rather than long lens
01:47close-ups because Colin and I felt like that makes you feel physically you are
01:52physically closer to the character with actual camera so then you feel like
01:55you're almost in their personal space in a way that can make the audience feel
01:59uncomfortable I think that was one of our main goals was to get us you know in
02:05Offred's space and in her world. You girls will serve the leaders and their
02:12barren wives. You will bear children for them.
02:19One of the coolest things about the show is the wings that Anne designed that once
02:27we would use that 28 millimeter lens and then you know Colin would get right up
02:31into the wings you really are most most literally in her personal space because
02:37no one can see inside there but the audience because the wings are great for
02:41light as well because they were like translucent so we just I mean it was a
02:46design from Reed and and and I just sort of benefited excellently from from that but
02:51what DP ever says that about hats or headgear yeah or a director and I think it's
02:56really cool that you guys decided to break rules with that it was really freeing
03:02for me to because it was terrifying to say that we're going to enclose everybody in
03:10some sort of headgear except for the commanders and their wives that's really
03:14unheard of as a whole entity of a show and then for you guys to be so open to
03:21that and to actually utilize it as a tool for intimacy it helped me it amazingly I
03:27think healthy actors and it broke new ground and also that that from like a
03:33performance standpoint the wings the that come out were so interesting too
03:39because the handmaids can't really express their innermost feelings to
03:44anyone they can only do it to themselves so it was interesting when the
03:47handmaids walk side by side I know we always found that within their confines of
03:53their wings when one is saying something the other one can react facially and the
03:59other one and nobody would see and so it's kind of like a great way to to
04:03sort of get inside the character's head you know aside from the voiceover
04:08there's a way to help them
04:13you can join us
04:16what do you mean us there's a network I don't know I'm I'm not that kind of
04:26person there's a great look from Lizzie in episode one when she's walking with
04:31off Glenn at the very start she kind of rolls around she rolls her eyes and it's
04:35and you know it's she can do that because she can't be seen and you feel
04:38like you're a part of it because of that you know it's like you're the only
04:41person no offense never gonna see it but no she's showing the audience what she
04:45what she really thinks you feel connected that way yeah it's a great way
04:50also to bring some light into what could be a very dark story which was also
04:54another one of our challenges and so getting to let the actors tell us a
05:01little bit about how they feel because of what they're it's like at the same time
05:05as what they're wearing is confining them it's also freeing them you know to to be
05:11able to have just that little bit of moment to themselves where somebody says
05:16something they think is ridiculous and they can just be like they can react to it you
05:20know I kind of also liken it to not that I have been in prison but to being
05:25imprisoned literally and and certainly physically and what you find is you find
05:31tiny freedoms within that prison to free your mind you know and I know that they
05:37could they could not hear as well either so that space of sound completely
05:41changed for the actors as well and I don't know it was an experiment I'm quite
05:48proud of we were nervous when we made that when we when you when because we
05:53were also trying to fight against the the look everyone's wardrobe looking to
05:57or actually just in particular the handmaids looking to puritanical but we
06:03couldn't help but like when and brought out the sort of design of the wings the
06:08minute that Bruce and I saw it we were like this is so and Lizzie and Colin is
06:14just so graphic for the camera that you couldn't deny it would be such a cool
06:18opportunity and then it was like I'm thinking like a DP and I'm like Colin
06:23would kill us but like if we make it like a softbox it actually at all there
06:29were so many day exteriors remember in the pilot and we were like oh my god
06:32what are we gonna do but all the handmaids are in this beautiful soft
06:35light in there it helped because also I didn't want them to wear any makeup at
06:41all because it just felt nobody's allowed to have vanity and Gilead including the
06:47wives really so everyone had to be makeup free so really helped the
06:50handmaids out it's like you know we're making you all you know where are these you
06:55know like cloaks and Barnes on your head and no makeup but at the very least you
07:01could have this soft glow to them and so like all these beautiful shots that
07:05Colin did like they look like they're glowing from within kind of and it
07:10almost didn't happen like we almost in the original film they had scarves and we
07:15sort of played with that because I had a lot of different we tried so many and
07:19actually there were so many versions of that illustration much bigger the bones
07:24are much bigger of me they are but I love the illustrations the initial ones I
07:29think were from the New York Times that Bruce turned me on to so that those
07:35wings came from at least 50 references reference points and to think of it now
07:42without that it would be such a different show yeah you know yeah it would lose so
07:46much of the intimacy I think there was a lot of challenge to and shooting them
07:52like when we decided to make that commitment I know both Colin and I were
07:55kind of concerned because you can't there's so many walk-in talks in the
07:58show there's so many scenes where both where handmaids are walking along the
08:02street because it's almost the only time where they can speak candidly and just
08:06be together so for us it was like a big commitment to say we could never really
08:11shoot like a staggered two shot in the street of the handmaids because all we
08:14would ever see is you know the wings and the barns from the side and it forced us to
08:19come up with a whole bunch of other really creative angles it kind of sat in
08:23with our style in the end of singles wasn't it rather than yeah polluted
08:29singles yeah yeah everybody was always in their own frame yeah how did you all make
08:34the distinction especially technically between shooting scenes that are set in
08:38Gilead and shooting scenes that are set before Gilead existed when the world was
08:43still you know semi free and in this story Reed wanted Gilead to be you know
08:48Kubik-esque very formal tableau type frames and then the flashbacks were going to be
08:56sort of verite that was the original plan you know and then then we got and we had
09:01flashback within a flashback it's like how do we deal with that that we really
09:06mixed it up yeah yeah cuz in the pilot we have what that inception flashback I
09:12like to call it where you are in Gilead then you flashback to the red center so
09:19you're still sort of in Gilead but it's a flashback and then it within that
09:24flashback there's a flashback to pre Gilead when the world was as it is now and
09:30then after that it comes back to the red center flashback and then goes to another
09:35red center flashback then comes back to present day in Gilead and we were like
09:38hmm how do we do this he's gonna get this but actually people like follow along
09:44with it but I also just think audiences are looking they look they're looking
09:47for something that challenges them a little bit more and doesn't spoon feed
09:50them everything and to that end we didn't I didn't really want the flashbacks to
09:55have a particularly hugely different look but also because you were gonna know
10:01when you're in Gilead and you're in pre Gilead very well and so from a camera
10:06perspective we did like a very just the production as I don't know those colors
10:11alone would tell us where we were yeah it's very specific even if if you walked
10:15into our costume shop there was America as you knew it with pattern you said keep
10:22all the patterning and mix of colors we tried to add in words on clothes yes yeah
10:27which is tricky right because it can look really cuckoo if you're not careful but
10:30yeah words and jewelry and pattern was this you know very long rack of America
10:36and then there was sort of the in-between world and then all of Gilead were the
10:40solid tones and quite religious pious clothing but it was um I actually really
10:46missed that world when I yes I came to the States like we were all in this tunnel you
10:55know away from what was happening in the States I mean I can only speak for myself
10:59but I know that many of us felt the same and even the actors and I talked about
11:03it like not being not that I dress the way that I design but your brain goes
11:08there and that looks correct if you're there for seven months and so I came to
11:12the States really quickly for Christmas and it looks so crazy to me wow and the
11:17clothing looked really abstract and I felt like you know an alien in America sort of
11:23and yeah I thought that Gilead they fucked with my mind right they messed up my
11:29mind I thought that looked correct you know for at least a month yeah wow
11:35interesting and so this was shot last year the shoot began in September and you
11:40were there through November and you both of you were there through February because
11:45so much of this was shot before the election what was that like did anything
11:50affect you headlines before or after well I mean I think for for all of us like we were
11:56all very well aware of the campaign and like you know all the keys on the show were from America and we were
12:03working with a Toronto crew and you know it was a big topic for all the Canadians too
12:08they were very involved so we were all aware of what was happening and I guess we
12:12were I was expecting a different outcome and so we would sometimes sort of joke around
12:18about it like that's so funny like if that ever happened for our show because
12:23it would be our show basically that's not gonna happen but still and and I think in
12:28the shooting of it it didn't really for me I always someone had asked me recently
12:33what what was I hoping to convey prior to the outcome of the election with the
12:39show and I feel like for me I just wanted to raise awareness about what how women are
12:45treated in other parts of the world because this is actually we're so
12:49sheltered here in America and the you know as markets always said this story was
12:54based on everything she put into the handmaid's tale has happened in another
12:59country or is happening in another country somewhere in the world and you
13:04know so I wasn't it's one of those things we're like oh it can never happen to me
13:08but I hope people learn something from this and then interestingly we had
13:13finished shooting pretty much episodes one through three and then we had the
13:17election on on the 8th of November and the following morning I went into the
13:21edit and watched the assembly of both episodes two and three we had already
13:27done we are I had already done the director's cut of episode one and that
13:32was very strange to watch episodes two and three after the election results
13:37because I was totally blindsided by that and it was just overconfident I suppose
13:45and it everything I watched there were scenes that really played very
13:51differently for me then they did even in the shooting because I you know it
13:57became so much more personal I remember you saying after that when you watch that
14:00those episodes that day how it affected you how they seemed a little bit different
14:05everything felt it felt a little bit Twilight Zony and it was probably weird
14:10being in Toronto too because everyone there was very walking around kind of on
14:16eggshells around all of us and feeling kind of feeling our sort of pain yeah and you
14:23know there's scenes that never that I knew were important when we did them like for
14:28example when offered is outside the gates of the Waterford house in episode two
14:33where offline leaves her there and you hear her talk about Anchorage is now the
14:37capital of America and so on and so forth and when I watched that I just
14:43started bawling and what fundamental human right do you think people in the US
14:49take for granted the most there's a million I think but I can only be
14:54reminded of current events and I can give you a giant sack full of women's rights you
15:04know that are being affected right here right now today and I don't even want to
15:12be specific because it's so overwhelmingly I'm so overwhelmingly aware that you know
15:18as a parallel to our story not to sort of make everything about the show but it's
15:23it's such a mirror and such a parallel time and so to be a creative person to
15:30experience that it's quite poignant and heavy painful and beautiful it's all those
15:36things like because we've given birth to something that is I believe quite
15:42important not for this year you know as as Margaret Atwood's book over so many years
15:48years is important it will have I believe resounding effect for not just
15:54women but for people in America and for people whose rights have been taken away
15:58and I mean I am someone the very being of who I am besides being a woman being
16:05multiracial and you know having immigrant parents it's you know it's all of
16:10those things make me quite aware of this story and it affected me you know in 86 and in 90 when
16:19the film came out but I think that just talking about the previous question I want to say that the
16:25world really did change for many in November and certainly for me in Toronto and certainly with
16:32the actors and we just kind of tried to focus on the script and be very centered to tell a really good
16:41story but there were moments when and you've probably heard it in the press from the actors
16:47that you know they were reading these lines I'm reading those lines to try to support them in the
16:53clothing and I know that my work changed after November because I was so angry and I didn't know
16:59how to get involved beyond a women's march in Toronto but I threw it right into the clothing
17:04and not selfishly because the story was actually starting to evolve as well midway through the
17:12season and I threw it into tiny little secrets for characters that I probably can't speak about but
17:20that gained power over time and it was sort of my way of kind of in my tiny way rallying against what
17:27was happening because you want to do something you know yeah and you know what's interesting about
17:32that too is the end of episode three you know I think as written it was sort of it could have been
17:38played in many ways it could have been played as a moment where we feel pity there are a series of bad
17:46things that happened to women in a row what is the end of episode three um off Glenn in the hospital yeah and I think that you know depending on whoever did it it could have been a very sort of like oh no feel bad for this person moment and I think there is an element of that that you can't deny but one thing that's for sure is and somehow I do think there was a little bit of like we all had kind of we knew what needed to happen
18:14uh before you know before November but we did shoot that before then um but we always had I had this thing about like she should get angry because I wanted to leave people with a sense of empowerment and not leave you can't have like so many moments in a row where people are just being put down you want to you want to leave the audience feeling like um don't take anything for granted but also don't lose hope and
18:44like you know make them recognize that the that you know these women are not going to they're not going to take it so there is this sort of ability that we have with the show to to empower people you know and maybe take that into their own lives and and you know not just sit back and let things happen to them to show resilience right in the face of being trampled yeah
19:09great thank you so much for such a wonderful conversation
19:12thanks
19:13thanks
19:13thanks
19:14thanks
19:14thanks
19:14thanks
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