- 18 hours ago
Connect with Deadline online!
https://www.facebook.com/deadline/
https://twitter.com/DEADLINE
https://www.instagram.com/deadline/
https://www.youtube.com/Deadline
https://www.facebook.com/deadline/
https://twitter.com/DEADLINE
https://www.instagram.com/deadline/
https://www.youtube.com/Deadline
Category
š
FunTranscript
00:02I'm now remembering Lisa over on the mic saying,
00:05and the mountain comes down! And now you run!
00:09That's right.
00:10It's coming for you!
00:11And everybody's looking around like, okay, they did it though.
00:14And the reaction really holds up and it works with the visual effects.
00:18They didn't really know what they were reacting to.
00:20We just had a spot off in the distance that we knew we were going to put the mountain.
00:24And it's one of those kind of things where everybody just kind of takes on faith that,
00:28okay, yes, there's going to be an exploding mountain back there eventually.
00:31Hi, I'm Hanalee Culpepper and I directed the finale block of Season 2 of Paradise.
00:36Hi, I'm John Wickworth and I am visual effects supervisor on Paradise Season 2.
00:40And we're here to talk about...
00:41Making the Paradise Season 2 finale, Exodus, on the process.
01:02So this was shot at Warner Brothers. This is Sinatra walking through the city that she has built as it
01:11literally crumbles around her.
01:13What was important to me and to the writers is we wanted to mirror the pilot.
01:18So that really great sequence of Sterling running through the town.
01:23He runs through the town in the beginning. You think it's this idyllic place.
01:26He runs through the town at the end of the pilot and you realize something is a little bit amiss.
01:32And so we wanted to mirror that in this episode.
01:34So we both had him running through the town, Sterling that is, running through the town as Xavier is escaping
01:40before it comes down.
01:42And then we had her walking through the town.
01:44And I purposely chose certain shots because I wanted them to be the exact same shot.
01:49I also love to reveal in the pilot when you saw all those horses, those toy horses, that it was
01:58there because that was something that was important to our son.
02:00And I was like, OK, we have to end this walking bit with her at that horse.
02:05And that's where I want her son to greet her and take her hand.
02:11And then they walk off into the into the sun together and then we flare it out and you go
02:16to white.
02:17One thing that was really important in this as well as the sun, there's the fake sun in paradise.
02:23And there's contrasting with the people who've been living in a bunker coming out and coming into the real sun
02:28and feeling that warmth on their hands and on their faces.
02:32And so I remember that the direction she had to walk because of when we shot it, the sun is
02:38in front of her.
02:39And I really wanted that sun just to be backlighting her the whole time.
02:43But that's why I ended up doing this follow and having her then turn so I can get her face
02:49at some point.
02:50And it was flaring. It was beautiful.
02:52And I remember John was telling me, OK, but you can't have too much flaring because then we can't see
02:59the effects.
03:00I'm like, but I want the flare. And so we found this nice.
03:04I think you actually told me just as long as you give me enough time just without the flare and
03:10you see it works so well that it's all flared out.
03:13And then she blocks it and there's enough for you to see all the work that you all did.
03:18It is a very chaotic moment. But once it's put in slow motion and with the music and with the
03:23sound design, it really is kind of a tender moment.
03:25My first version of this that me and my crew put forward, there was way more going on.
03:29We were bringing down large portions of the sky and, you know, I kind of forgot what we were doing
03:35there for an instant.
03:36And I remember Dan Fogelman was when he saw it for the first time, he's all, OK, we need to
03:40pull this like way back.
03:42And we did. I mean, just like a few few of these panels that kind of come in and the
03:46periphery almost in the first shot, you're kind of like, what is that?
03:49You know, and by the time we get to that side profile, you see, OK, no, this is this is
03:53the whole city that she has built coming around her.
03:56And I think something about just the, you know, the cinematography, the way it all came together for this this
04:01particular shot where she turns around.
04:03And every once in a while, all the departments are kind of firing on all cylinders and it all just
04:07kind of comes together.
04:09And this is definitely one of those times.
04:10I think twice.
04:13I think twice.
04:23It's just another day.
04:26It's just another day.
05:03This is one of the final shots.
05:05Where we do this pullback to end up back at Alex.
05:09One thing that this show does often is ending on a close-up of Sterling, of Xavier, because he does
05:14so much of this face.
05:16And so in the script, it was written that it pulls back from the campsite to reveal the, like, 100
05:22,000, I think it said, like, thousands of refugees.
05:26Pull back over the smoldering remains of paradise, past the mountains, the suburbs of Denver, then through the city of
05:35Denver.
05:35Then finally you find yourself at the airport, at the horse.
05:39And then we go through layers and layers of ground to finally get into the bunker.
05:45And so I storyboarded all that.
05:48It starts on the page.
05:49Everybody kind of reads the page.
05:50And everybody kind of filters it through their own brain their way.
05:53And then you did these great storyboards, which we took to our people at Onyx.
05:58And they filtered it through what they thought it would be.
06:01And we made a previs.
06:02And then once you get to set, things are a lot easier to do in the computer than they are
06:06to do on set.
06:07And we have a great drone team on this show.
06:10And the drone guys show up.
06:11Every time the drone guys show up, we know that we're going to do something fun.
06:14When I was designing it, I wanted it to pull back like this.
06:18And John told me it really would help if we did this as far as the level of detail and
06:25everything that we needed for visual effects.
06:26It was first staging, this drone kind of going pretty level with people.
06:31And they were holding the drone.
06:31I remember that.
06:32They were holding it like a camera and dragging it through the people.
06:35And then I just remember standing by the monitor.
06:38At some point when they started going, I just remember yelling at them, go, go, go.
06:41And they took the drone as fast as they could and as high as they could.
06:46And I wanted to go right past the flag because of my gun with the wind homage.
06:53And I remember that, as I see this, the flag was not blowing.
06:58And it was like it would blow.
07:00But then when I would roll, it wasn't blowing.
07:01And you have to just move on.
07:03Right when the camera starts to tilt is where we took it over to really kind of get out of
07:08the camp and to traverse the space between where the people are and the top of the mountain.
07:16In the computer, we literally folded the environment like a taco because we had to move the camera in such
07:22a way to get to the top of the lip where Dan wanted the pacing to end for that.
07:28It ended up being kind of just like a very weird exercise in making something look like we're going a
07:34very long distance.
07:35But in reality, the camera is not going as far as you think it's going.
07:38It's very there's a lot of weird like perspective things happening just to kind of get to the top of
07:43that that crater.
07:44But, yeah, there was this this scene evolved heavily from from the first storyboards to what's on the final.
07:51Yes. Between the conversations we had, we ended up with the pullback, then go down as we go past the
07:56bunker.
07:57So you could really look down into that crater through the city.
08:00And then once you get to the airport, we'd come down because I also felt like the audience.
08:06I'm one of the few people who do not know the legend of the blue horse.
08:09So I knew there'll be other people like me who won't realize that just seeing that horse tells you that
08:13you're in Denver.
08:14So I wanted to come back down so we could read a sign that said Denver airport as we go
08:18past the horse.
08:19And then I wanted to connect that to going into the ground to Alex, because I think originally it was
08:24written as a as a cut.
08:26Yep.
08:33Alex was something that was being designed. I don't even know when it began.
08:37When I started on my block, the shell was already there made of wood.
08:41And what was cool is even though Alex was already built when I started, still there was a lot of
08:47thought going into what's it look like.
08:50And so I remember sitting with Yasu and we're looking at the lights and they weren't symmetrical.
08:55And he was like, is it not symmetrical? I'm like, we have time. Let's make it symmetrical.
09:00I agree. And so that's why you have the four and the one.
09:03So it's symmetrical. And then working with Blair.
09:06Yasu is our DP, in case we didn't say that.
09:08And working with Blair, our special effects to figure out, OK, what should the smoke do?
09:12How does it move? What smoke should we use?
09:15I can't remember. Is it guys on the ends pulling it open, right?
09:20It's not even, it looks so automatic, but you have, yeah, you have the special effects team that are pulling
09:26it open.
09:27They thought that we were going to add to this, but once we saw it in camera, it's like, this
09:30looks really good.
09:32So Kevin Bird designed it. And I think one of the things that's cool about it is the real quantum
09:36computers are generally vertical hung.
09:39And since we have this really wide aspect ratio, he just did this horizontal design.
09:43I think just with the way our show is shot, I think this looks amazing.
09:47And the set, everybody would walk into the set and be all, wow, this is pretty impressive.
09:52Lots of selfies.
09:54Is this your first Emmy nomination?
09:57This is. This is my first Emmy nomination.
09:59Oh, and my first Emmy nomination.
10:01And as a director, you don't often get to, you work with your HOD so, so much, but you don't
10:10get to be around other directors while you're working.
10:12So it's just nice to be honored by your peers because you realize, OK, I am working at a level
10:17of work that I have been working to.
10:20I just said work three times.
10:22That's a lot of work.
10:22But I've been working towards my whole career, right?
10:25You want to, you want to get to a certain level.
10:27So it was truly an honor to have my peers recognize their work in this way.
10:30It was a great honor.
10:32And we're in, TV has evolved so much.
10:35You basically have to be a feature film level now to be, you know, to be on top in television.
10:41So to be recognized at that level.
10:43And the first round is voted by your peers.
10:45So that's, that's, you know, that feels good.
10:50Thank you for watching Deadlines The Process.
10:52I am only the second black woman to ever be nominated in this category.
10:57So that was pretty historic, too.
11:00Were you the first white guy to be nominated in your category?
11:02I don't think so.
11:02Probably not.
11:02Long line.
11:04Very prestigious line.
11:06I don't think so.
11:06I don't think so.
11:07I don't think so.
11:09I don't think so.
11:09I don't think so.
11:10I don't think so.
11:12I don't think so.
Comments