Clement Virgo, director, EP, producer and co-writer of the The Book of Negroes, has seen the BET miniseries gain award show traction with two Critics Choice TV Award nominations–for Best Limited Series, and Best Actress in a Movie or Limited Series for Aunjanue Ellis who portrays Aminata Diallo, a girl forcefully taken from West Africa and sold into slavery in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War era. She goes on to become an activist in New York City, to experience a harsh freedom in Canada and face more peril upon her return to Sierra Leone. Late in life, she arrives in England where she is honored for her courage and high ideals.
Adapted from the 2007 novel by Laurence Hill titled “Someone Knows My Name” (published outside the U.S. as “The Book of Negroes”), this epic miniseries posed assorted challenges to Virgo as a director, writer and producer. From a directorial standpoint, he recalled the casting of Ellis was pivotal. “We looked at a lot of actors in Canada, America, South Africa, England, needing someone to play Aminata from around age 19 into her 60s. That required youthful sensibilities and the resourcefulness of an adult. It was a major challenge to find all that talent in one actress. Aunjanue auditioned and made an impression. She was one of those actresses working for years, always doing good work, opposite the likes of Denzel Washington. She had the chops but never the major opportunity. Once she got this opportunity, she lived up to it.”
The degree of difficulty was heightened by the need to shoot out of chronological order, meaning that there would be days when Ellis had to portray a 20-year-old Aminata in the morning and her 50-year-old counterpart in the afternoon. “She had to shift gears, everything within a very tight timeframe,” related Virgo. “She’d go from a young slave and then have to put on aging makeup to become a mature woman talking to Parliamentarians later that same day. Her role took talent and stamina. Her character is in almost every single scene.”
As a writer, Virgo said a prime challenge was distilling what was in Aminata’s head–described in detail in the novel–and reflecting that in quick images and scenes within the confines of a miniseries.
And as an EP/producer, Virgo observed that the challenge was telling an epic story with limited resources. “You have to mount the project for the budget you have–and somehow create the epic scope of the story.” Initially Virgo envisioned "The Book of Negroes" as a theatrical feature but he had to revise that thinking when economic reality set in. “Thankfully we’re in the midst of a renaissance for television. And it was great to turn this into a miniseries.”
However Virgo acknowledged that at first he wasn’t all that interested in the project as the prospects of dealing with slavery within the context of a period piece didn’t immediately appeal to him. “I didn’t feel like I wanted to go to that place,” he recalled.
But upon reading the novel, Virgo realized that the story was “more rooted in relationships, adventure and an extraordinary woman.” Virgo became enthused over "The Book of Negroes," with he and business partner Damon D’Oliveira ultimately optioning the novel.
Virgo’s career spans film and TV. On the former front, for example, he earned nominations for both a Directors Guild of Canada Craft Award and a Writers Guild of Canada Award on the strength of the feature film Poor Boy’s Game. Other feature credits include his debut film Rude, screened at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and Lie With Me, a 2005 love letter to the City of Toronto, Virgo diversified successfully into directing for TV with episodes of Soul Food, The Wire, The L Word, ReGenesis and The Listener.
Virgo’s first filmmaking splash was made with the short Save My Lost Nigga Soul which won Best Short Film prizes at the 1993 Toronto and Chicago international film festivals. Furthermore it received a Genie Award nomination for Best Short, and the Paul Robeson Award for Best Short of the African diaspora at the 1995 Pan African Film and Video Festival.
Catherine Haight
Earlier this year Catherine Haight received an ACE Eddie Award nomination for the pilot of Amazon series Transparent. It marked her second Eddie nomination from the American Cinema Editors, the first coming in 2013 (shared with fellow editor Robert Frazen) for the pilot of Lena Dunham’s HBO series Girls.
“Girls was my big break in terms of cutting full time. I had been an assistant editor for about 10 years, working on both TV and features,” related Haight whose 1st assistant editor credits include the theatrical films Cabin in the Woods and the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still.
Proving pivotal in Haight’s career ascent has been a working relationship with director Jill Soloway, dating back to their meeting through a mutual friend and collaborating on some workshop scenes. A few months later Haight edited the Soloway-directed short, Una Hora Por Favor, which they teamed on at Sundance in 2012. A year later they came together on Soloway’s feature directorial debut, Afternoon Delight.
And last year, Soloway approached Haight with Transparent, which has gone on to earn assorted accolades, including a DGA Award earlier this year for series creator Soloway on the basis of the “Best New Girl” episode. Soloway has not only directed multiple episodes of the show but additionally serves as EP and writer.
“One of the first attractions of Transparent was being able to work with Jill again,” said Haight. “It’s a working relationship that I adore. The series itself is a hundred percent what I want, appreciate and like. I remember reading the first script and I just loved the show’s honesty. It was funny, heartfelt and all that good stuff.”
From an editorial standpoint, Haight noted that Transparent cinematographer Jim Frohna deploys “a unique, sort of documentary shooting style, with cameras often roving and moving about. There’s not your typical, traditional coverage of characters, which makes it more creatively exciting and challenging for me as an editor. You have to come up with creative solutions to help tell the story, weaving everything together. That’s why the ACE nomination meant a great deal. A lot of people don’t know exactly what we do in editorial. For your peers to see what you do and for them to recognize what you’ve contributed to a show is very gratifying.”
As for what’s next, Haight at press time was getting in gear for season two of Transparent.
Richard Toyon
Production designer Richard Toyon’s range of Emmy contending work this year spans the inspired offbeat comedy Silicon Valley from co-creator Mike Judge (known for Beavis and Butt-Head, and the feature Office Space), and Oscar-winning (12 Years a Slave) writer John Ridley’s breakthrough, thought provoking drama series American Crime (ABC).
“What drew me to Silicon Valley was not only that the script was funny but I liked the underdog quality of the story,” said Toyon who also cited the creative challenge and allure of creating a Northern California high-tech community in Los Angeles. “Hooli is a fictitious company in Silicon Valley similar to Google with global reach. Most of the tech companies have a campus-like atmosphere with clusters of buildings and pedestrian space in between. In Southern California, though, it’s car culture-oriented–so campus areas have parking lots in the middle. I proposed to Mike Judge that we consider a university campus with a newer look to it and we ultimately decided on Cal State L.A. which just renovated its main campus quad. There hadn’t been much shooting there since the renovation so it had a new, fresh, original feel.”
As for the interior of Hooli, Toyon selected the office space of ad agency TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles. “It’s a broad interior that used to be a warehouse–the two spaces, Chiat/Day’s interior and Cal State L.A.’s exterior meshed really well.”
Beyond the challenge of setting, Toyon noted that Silicon Valley requires “telling the story in a technologically accurate fashion. You have to be tech accurate, lend a realism that helps the comedy which relies heavily on the story. As a production designer, all the small details, the people themselves are essential in creating a reality that rings true.”
Toyon captured the truth of Silicon Valley as evidenced by his earlier this year winning the Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Award for Best Half-Hour Single-Camera TV Series. This marked his second career Excellence in Production Design Award win and third nomination. Toyon earned the Production Design Award in 1998 in the TV Movie or Miniseries category for From the Earth to the Moon, and was again nominated in 2006 in the Single-Camera TV Series category for Las Vegas.
In ‘98, From the Earth to the Moon also garnered Toyon a primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or a Movie. From the Earth to the Moon, incidentally, was Toyon’s first full-fledged production design gig.
In sharp contrast to the comedy of Silicon Valley is the all-too-real drama of the aforementioned American Crime from creator/EP Ridley. The series explores racial and ethnic tensions and the role discrimination and prejudice can play in criminal investigations, the legal system, media coverage and people’s perceptions. The stories delve into the hearts and minds of victims’ family members as well as those accused of violent crimes. Toyon worked on the pilot and first five episodes of American Crime.
Earlier this month, Ridley told an L.A. Film Festival audience that the case of the Central Park Five–in which five African-American youths were falsely accused, convicted and imprisoned for a heinous assault in NYC in 1989–initially sparked his contemplating a movie or dramatic TV series dealing with issues related to crime and race. The more recent impetus for what is now American Crime, said Ridley, was the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., in 2012.
Ridley knew of Toyon’s work and reached out to the production designer. With tight schedules, the only time they could meet was around midnight at pie shop/restaurant Du-par’s in Southern California’ San Fernando Valley. “We sat in the pie shop and talked. The show John envisioned was very cutting edge, topical and interesting in its honest exploration of race relations and different cultures,” related Toyon. “It was creatively worthwhile and viable. We made a nice connection, I pitched some ideas to him and then we went on to do the pilot.”
As for the challenges posed to him by the pilot, Toyon recalled, “Even though the story was set in Modesto, California, we shot in Texas. John and I traveled to Modesto, drove around and got a real sense of the place and the flavor of what was happening there through many layers and social strata. We then tried to carry that all over to Austin, Texas. That was a major challenge for me–taking that look and feel and somehow capturing it in Austin. Both communities are flat, and combine the urban and rural. But the differences in local building materials and other aspects meant I had to be extremely careful about all the details being just right so we could do full justice to the story.”
Toyon’s production design credits over the years include the feature American Pie 2 and such notable TV fare as United States of Tara, Hung, and Ben and Kate.
Howard Cummings
Production designer Howard Cummings has enjoyed a long-standing and ongoing collaborative relationship with director Steven Soderbergh encompassing television and theatrical features, the latter including The Underneath, Contagion, Haywire, Magic Mike and Side Effects. Like the expansive range of these features, so too is Soderbergh and Cummings’ TV work creatively diverse. This TV fare has also earned accolades for its production design, starting with the HBO telefilm Behind the Candelabra which earned Cummings his first Emmy nomination and win in 2013–in the Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie category.
Behind the Candelabra also won Cummings in 2014 his first Excellence in Production Design Award from the Art Directors Guild. And earlier this year, Cummings picked up his second Production Design Award nomination for the Soderbergh-directed The Knick (Cinemax). The Knick nom came for Best Production Design for a One Hour Period or Fantasy Single-Camera Television Series.
For Soderbergh, Cummings went from the lavish excess of Liberace in Behind the Candelabra to a period piece miniseries, The Knick, about a surgeon in 1900 in a hospital on the Lower East Side. The Knick is in Emmy contention this year and Cummings explained that Soderbergh wanted a look and feel true to the era but with a tinge of modern sensibility. “It’s the gilded age of 1900 but it’s also at a point when the gilded age is starting to fade,” explained Cummings. “A new modernism is coming in so both of these worlds are in our project.”
Cummings added, “Steven directs, shoots and edits–and he works in a way to bring the 1900s to life as authentically as possible. I do whatever I can to contribute to that. I remember after the first five minutes of The Knick thinking, ‘thank God, I’m not living in 1900.’ At the same time, he brings a modern sense to it–in for example the way it’s shot, using a lot of available practical light. The look isn’t romanticized. If there’s an oil lamp in the scene, it’s lighting the entire scene–it’s an unromantic, unsentimental version of the 1900s. I remember Steven telling me that if he could make this a black-and-white series, he would–but no one would fund that. Still I wanted to give that black-and-white feel. The one place I could control completely was the hospital setting. I wanted to do everything white, black and gray to reflect Steven’s vision. I also went to our costume designer Ellen [Mirojnick] to see what she was doing with the clothes to blend into this setting.”
Cummings thoroughly researched hospitals circa 1900, uncovering documents, reports and photos from the Presbyterian Hospital in New York during that time. Based on what he saw and read, Cummings made the rooms quite large, with the spacing of beds based on the actual history. “Steven kind of smiled when he saw what we had set up,” said Cummings. “He started using 18mm lenses–which you never see on TV–to best take advantage of the space we created. Many shots deployed an 18mm lens.”
Yet with all the preparation and research, Cummings noted that Soderbergh is always open to improvisation. “He’ll notice a prop and see that it can help tell the story of an entire scene. I’ve seen him make a scene all about a prop. You always have to be on your toes with him. That’s why it’s so important for me to be on top of the props and pieces of set dressing so they are realistic–and potentially creatively inspiring because of that realism.”
Other recent endeavors for Cummings include the soon-to-be released, Gregory Jacobs-directed feature film Magic Mike XXL for which Soderbergh served as DP, editor and an exec producer.
This is the fifth installment of a 14-part series that explores the field of Emmy contenders, and then nominees spanning such disciplines as directing, cinematography, producing, editing, animation and visual effects. The series will then be followed up by coverage of the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony on September 12 and the primetime Emmy Awards live telecast on September 20.
