By Robert Goldrich, The Road To Emmy Series, Part 6

Michael Waldron, head writer on Loki (Disney+), is no stranger to awards season. In 2020 as a producer/writer he was part of the contingent that earned Rick and Morty a primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. And earlier this year on the live-action front, Waldron was a member of the ensemble that garnered two Writers Guild Award nominations for Loki–in the Drama Series and New Series categories. 

The WGA nods join recognition for Loki that has also come in the form of nominations spanning such competitions as BAFTA, the SAG Awards, the Visual Effects Society Awards, the Art Directors Guild and Costume Designers Awards and the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards.

Loki stars Tom Hiddleston who reprises his Marvel film role as the mercurial villain Loki (aka the God of Mischief). The TV series, which takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame, has varied elements. There’s a buddy comedy vibe as Loki–who in many respects is created from scratch for the Disney+ show following an adjusted timeline from Avengers: Endgame–is paired with a brand new character, a celestial time control agent named Mobius (Owen Wilson). There’s a mix of absurdity, charm, action-adventure and serious overtones to what unfolds, making for a unique brand of story with a different, distinctive visual palette to match. The cast also includes Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Tara Strong, Sophia Di Martino, Sasha Lane, Jack Veal, DeObia Oparei, and Richard E. Grant.
 
Among the keys to the first season success of Loki has been the team of artisans assembled for the show, perhaps most notably director Kate Herron. Waldron recalled, “I was in the room when Kate pitched to Marvel and, like them, was blown away by her presentation. She and I were speaking the exact same language, both visually and from a story perspective, from the very beginning. I think it was a great collaboration because we are both fairly young and this was our first shot at the ‘big time’–we were united in wanting to make Loki the best show anyone had ever seen. She gave us the incredible perspective of fresh eyes at a time when I was just beginning to revise all the scripts, and her keen insights streamlined both the plot and character journeys.”

In turn, Herron brought in gifted talent to help bring Loki to fruition–including cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw. Waldron related, “Autumn was hired by Kate, and my primary job with her was to stand in awe. She is a visual genius but also a great storyteller herself, and she deserves a lot of credit for making my long scenes of dueling dialogue feel cinematic and vital.”

Waldron found creative inspiration not only from collaborating with Herron, Durald Arkapaw and others, but also from Loki himself. Herron observed that a prime lesson learned from the show was “mostly a reinforcement of something I already knew (yet rarely adhere to) but: The earlier you can identify and understand your characters’ emotional journey, the better. We knew early on in the writers’ room that this would be a story about Loki learning to forgive, accept, and ultimately love himself. That clarity made the show–which seems pretty complex at first glance–surprisingly simple to write.”

Not so simple was reconciling the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a bureaucratic organization in the Marvel universe. Located outside of space and time, the TVA was tasked with preserving the Sacred Timeline and preventing the creation of branching timelines. Waldron related, “One of our writers’ biggest challenges was defining the nature of time travel within the show. We had to know what the TVA’s ‘laws’ of time were so we could know how and when they were being broken; this required weeks of work spent drawing squiggly lines on whiteboards. Then, once we had a shared institutional knowledge of how the TVA perceived time, we had to figure out how to communicate that information in a way that the audience would, hopefully, not fall asleep trying to understand.

Keeping things lively and engaging is paramount for Waldron who alludes to his recent project exploits. “I think everything you work on informs your subsequent work in one way or another. The fact that I’ve written on three Multiverse projects in a row [Rick & Morty, Loki and the box office hit feature Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness] means, practically, that I’m very easily bored of the Multiverse–and so I have to keep digging to find interesting new ways to explore the concept. For both the audience’s sake and my own.”

George Steel, BSC
The Survivor (HBO) marked the first time that BAFTA Award-winning (Peaky Blinders) cinematographer George Steel, BSC collaborated with Oscar and DGA Award-winning (Rain Man) director Barry Levinson. They came together on a profoundly moving project, one which tapped into Steel’s affinity for history. 

Based on the book “Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano” by Alan Haft, The Survivor stars Ben Foster as Harry Haft who survives both the unspeakable horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the gladiatorial life-or-death boxing spectacle he is forced to fight in with his fellow prisoners for the amusement of his Nazi captors. Haft, though, remains driven to survive by his quest to reunite with the woman he loves–from whom he was separated during the Holocaust. After a daring escape, he makes his way to New York where he makes a name for himself as a boxer, even landing a bout with the great Rocky Marciano. Haft hopes that the press coverage he gets as an athlete may help him find his lost true love–she will realize that he is still alive as he continues to believe that she too has survived.

Haft is still tormented by the Holocaust. In an earlier SHOOT Chat Room interview, Levinson talked about the lasting impact of such a horrific experience and what Haft had to struggle with to start life anew. “By today’s standards, we look at what happened and now know about post traumatic stress syndrome,” observed Levinson. “You’re told to get on with your life but it’s not that simple. To survive is one thing. To live is quite another.”

Besides his love of history, Steel was drawn to The Survivor by its inherent sense of purpose. “It’s important to make films like that, to remind people where intolerance leads you. That’s always a timely message. It was a great script.”

Levinson shared in his Chat Room interview what caused him to gravitate towards Steel. “When I was trying to find a cinematographer, I looked at George’s work and found it interesting. But more importantly when we spoke on the phone a few times, I got excited by his thoughts. We only had 34 days to shoot the whole movie, dealing with different time periods, boxing. It was a pretty tight schedule. But I never felt rushed because George was able to design what we needed for the scenes in a tight space of time. He was extremely efficient.”

Steel recalled that the door to The Survivor opened to him thanks to Jason Sosnoff, a producer on the film. Sosnoff had been impressed with the period piece work Steel had done on Peaky Blinders, an acclaimed BBC gangster family epic series set in 1900s’ England. This led to Steel connecting with Levinson.

Levinson and Steel juxtaposed color lensing of Haft in America after World War II with flashbacks to concentration camp scenes shot in black and white. Steel explained that the color tests of the Holocaust era were “almost too horrific.” Black and white was less jarring and differentiated the time periods. The black-and-white scenes had the feeling of found footage. The post WWII era deployed desaturated color. And when we reach the 1960s, more color is in the images.

While Levinson credited Steel with achieving the task at hand within a tight schedule, the DP noted that the director also played a vital role in making it all doable. Steel said of Levinson, “He’s not afraid. When he’s got it, he’s got it. He will do two takes and move on. You rarely get that with younger directors.” In that vein, Levinson had coverage but not a manic reliance on it, according to Steel. Levinson, for instance, would do a twoshot in which the actors would act and that is how the scene would live. Steel loved the profound “simplicity” of that. 

At the same time Levinson was always open to new approaches and concepts. “If you had a good idea, he would entertain it,” said Steel, noting that Levinson’s brand of collaboration was open, honest and marked by a sense of humor.

Steel further observed that Levinson has the classic filmmaking sensibilities of someone who’s older. “I’m 48. Barry is 80 now,” said Steel, who related that The Survivor reminded him of the American films he admired from the 1970s shot by the likes of Gordon Willis and Owen Roizman. Steel added that there aren’t a lot of cuts in The Survivor, which gives it a kind of documentary feel. “It feels more real. You’re not interrupting the performances.”

Steel went with the RED digital camera for The Survivor, paired with different anamorphic lenses, black and white as well as color LUTs. Handheld work was prevalent in the mix, he added.

Chronicling brutal inhumanity on one hand, The Survivor was made by people coming together and caring, observed Steel, noting that a split crew of British, American, Hungarian and Serbian united to bring the film to pass. The Survivor, continued Steel, served as a reminder of “how well people can work together, can get things done. It doesn’t matter where you’re from.”

Nina Ruscio
When taking on season 2 of The Flight Attendant (HBO Max), production designer Nina Ruscio had big shoes to fill. For season 1, production designer Sara K. White earned her first Art Directors Guild (ADG) Excellence in Production Design Award nomination. That first season gained critical acclaim and so the bar was set high for the second season.

Ruscio was drawn to the challenge. Normally she wouldn’t be enamored with a show that was already so well established. But The Flight Attendant was different as the protagonist Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) would in season 2 go through what Ruscio described as “such a reinvention of her life,” moving to L.A., looking to overcome inner demons and striving for something better. Ruscio thus viewed it as akin to being “a brand new show with the depth of it having already been vetted.”

Ruscio’s high caliber work and a collaborative relationship with director Silver Tree helped open up the production design opportunity on The Flight Attendant. Ruscio had worked with Tree on Shameless and through that positive connection got an interview with the powers that be on The Flight Attendant including creator/EP Steve Yockey. Ruscio recalled connecting with Yockey immediately, admiring his collaborative nature and orientation of “reaching for higher ideas.” She was particularly drawn to how the show “lent itself to thinking in a way that was beyond the normal a-plus-b-equals-c logic.”

Ruscio in a sense built on and against what White had created in season one, a prime example being Bowden’s hotel suite/mind palace (in which we gain insights into Bowden’s thinking, the inner workings of her mind). For season 2, though, Ruscio created a mind palace that was distinctly different from that in the first season. Ruscio saw Bowden “smoothing off the hard edges of herself” as she intended to become a sober and more positive human. So in turn, Ruscio took some of the edges off Bowden’s environ, curving off the corners, sort of a metaphor for her journey and intended progression as a person.

Bowden’s bungalow also sheds light on the inner person. Seemingly home to an idyllic atmosphere and vibe, to which people seem to aspire, the bungalow in actuality has a happy shallowness to it that masks and glosses over the truth.

Connecting to story and character with her work in these ways is of the essence to the production designer. Ruscio said lessons learned from her experience on The Flight Attendant reaffirmed for her the importance of aiming higher, digging deeper, never lowering your standards. That commitment and love of your work and art are what “make your experience transcendent.”

As for what’s next, at press time Ruscio was embarking on another collaboration with Tree–Fatal Attraction, a limited series for Amblin Entertainment and Paramount+.

Laura Fox
Laura Fox is in the Emmy conversation for her production design on The White Lotus (HBO). Boding well in that regard is that earlier this year she picked up her first career ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nomination for her work on the series. Nominated along with her were art director Charles Varga, set designer Marissa Zajack, and set decorator Jennifer Lukehart.

The job that Fox and colleagues did was remarkable, converting select interiors of the Four Seasons Maui into a TV set. While the exteriors were camera-ready, not so the hotel’s inner trappings. “The emphasis is not in your room but your view,” explained Fox in describing the the hotel itself. Thus she inherited rooms done in a neutral palette, not vibrant enough for the series storyline which centers on guests on a week’s vacation at a sumptuous resort in Hawaii. She was tasked with making the environs cinematic, a departure from the banal reality–while restricted from painting any rooms or altering the pale wallpaper throughout. Through calculated redecoration Fox and her team converted the interiors to reflect the floral spirit and motifs of the Hawaiian Islands as well as the eclectic personalities of the show’s characters. 

Dovetailing with the characters was key to the Mike White-created series which–as it follows various resort guests and employees–becomes a social satire of sorts. Darker dynamics emerge over the course of a highly transformative week in supposed paradise. 

Yeoman work was done to convert one of the Four Seasons’ ballrooms as well as varied main rooms–including a presidential suite which was transformed into the Tradewinds where the series’ Mossbacher family (including parents portrayed by Steve Zahn and Connie Britton) stayed.

Fox laid much of the groundwork while quarantining at the hotel for 14 days upon arrival. She had yards and yards of fabric shipped to the Four Seasons to help remake the look and feel of the settings, in the process creating a brand new settings, including the Hibiscus suite. During quarantine, she couldn’t meet face to face with her art director–even though both were staying at the hotel. Instead they shared pictures via text and email with one another. Even after the required quarantine, the COVID pandemic had cast and crew pretty much living in a bubble there for some three months during production.

“I will never have an experience like that again,” said Fox, noting that the novelty of living and working in a hotel with collaborators–yet in a “weird camp pandemic isolation” while trying to make something together–proved to be unique, at times even joyful and gratifying. Fox added that the circumstances made her appreciate all the more the talent and dedication of her colleagues, “the joy of the work and of your job.”

The White Lotus adds to a body of production design work for Fox which spans TV, lauded music videos and features–among the latter being The Eyes of Tammy Faye which this year earned two Oscars–Best Leading Actress for Jessica Chastain and Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling.

Zoe Sakellaropoulo
Production designer Zoe Sakellaropoulo is a nine-time Directors Guild of Canada Craft Award nominee, the last three coming in 2019, ‘20 and ‘21 in the Comedy or Family Series category for The Bold Type. (She won back in 2011 for the TV series Being Human.)

It was through The Bold Type that Sakellaropoulo was recommended for Ghosts (CBS), which has her in this season’s Emmy contenders mix. David Bernad, executive producer on The Bold Type, is friends with the showrunners on Ghosts and suggested Sakellaropoulo for that comedy series. This got the production designer’s foot in the door, leading to an interview and she wound up getting the gig, assuming the production design mantle after Claire Bennett had done the Ghosts pilot. Two houses in Los Angeles–one for the interior, the other for the exterior–were used for that pilot, which was done months before the show got picked up by CBS.

Thus Sakellaropoulo was tasked with building the actual haunted mansion on set–a lived-in, immediately identifiable environment with off-kilter decor. The estate further establishes the show’s tone and develops the main characters of Samantha (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) who face the unique challenge of turning the premises into a bed and breakfast while cohabitating with the ghosts.

The mansion itself is a character–a bit time worn and disheveled–that reflects the ghost characters from different eras. Rather than a pristine setting, the mansion is a mix of time periods–from old vintage, broken decor to a big screen TV in the case of the room in which a Viking ghost resides. The master bedroom has a broken down fireplace as well as items which Sakellaropoulo described as “previously loved and used, no longer in top shape. We embraced that. A lampshade could be ripped, crooked, drapes could be shredded. It kind of made the settings more poetic.” 

Layers of eras gone by brought an eclectic, even charming feel to the proceedings, dovetailing with the nature of the ghosts themselves–and the storylines, with episodes traveling back and forth from the present to expansive past eras.

Once designed, the huge estate set was built in some eight weeks–with crews working seven days a week pretty much ‘round the clock. Sakellaropoulo said this was far from conventional designing for a sitcom. Rather the production designer had feature film scope and sensibilities in mind. The second floor of the mansion was finished prior to the ground floor. This was not one house on stage but rather two separate, ambitious side-by-side sets, designed for select revamping. “I don’t like to walk away from my sets. I like to watch them grow,” said Sakellaropoulo, noting that for season two she kept “improving and tweaking” the sets. “You never have enough time to do it all in one season.”

The production designer added that Ghosts is a special show in terms of working environment and esprit de corps. “The cast is lovely, the whole team from showrunners to producers to directors. All are very warm, happy to be there, love their jobs. There’s a really great ambience on set like I’ve never seen before. There’s a chemistry on the show. Everything gelled and worked together.”

This is the sixth installment of a 16-part weekly The Road To Emmy Series of feature stories which will explore the field of Emmy contenders and then nominees spanning such disciplines as directing, writing, producing, showrunning, cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, music, sound and visual effects. The Road To Emmy Series will then be followed by coverage of the Creative Arts Emmy winners in September, and then the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony that month.

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