By Robert Goldrich, The Road To Emmy Series, Part 4

The Road To Emmy is already paved with accolades for Fellow Travelers (Showtime), most notably a Peabody Award announced last month.

On the Peabody website, the rationale for the honor is shared. It reads, “Running all through Fellow Travelers, a limited series based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel, is the question of what it costs us–as individuals, as a community, as a country–to make parts of ourselves unknowable, inviolate, invisible. Set against the backdrop of the 'Lavender Scare' during the 1950s McCarthy era on one end and the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s at the other, this ambitious period drama is anchored by the decades-spanning affair between Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) and Timothy Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey). Along with their friends, who include a State Department secretary, an African-American journalist, and a stealth drag performer, the lovers are forced to wrestle with why and whether to keep their relationship–and their very identities–a secret. As Hawk finds pain and solace in the closet with a picture-perfect family and Tim rebukes his faith while thrusting himself into increasingly more radical politics, their love chains them to one another as they see the world and the queer community change around them. For chronicling a half century’s worth of LGBTQ history and anchoring it in a sweeping romance that makes us swoon and blush in equal measure, Fellow Travelers wins a Peabody Award.”

Immediately drawn to the project–for its story and the chance to work again with its creator/showrunner Ron Nyswaner–was Daniel Minahan as director and executive producer. The two first collaborated on an episode of Ray Donovan, with Minahan directing an episode written by Nyswaner. “It was one of the most remarkable experiences I had working on a series,” recalled Minahan. While the two looked to reunite, going back and forth on prospective projects, their coming together didn’t come to fruition–until some two-and-a-half years ago when Minahan got a call from Nyswaner and exec producer Robbie Rogers. They told Minahan about their plan to make a series based on Mallon’s “Fellow Travelers.” Minahan recalled Rogers confidently saying to him, “You’re going to do it.”

Minahan read the first two scripts and was sold. “I had never been so moved by reading a script before,” he assessed, describing the narrative as “familiar,” “exotic,” “terrifying” and “relevant” all at the same time. Minahan related to the story, having come of age himself in the 1980s as a student in New York. He noted, “It was a really intense time to come of age when suddenly everyone around you started dying.” That was “a hard place to go back to” with people being diagnosed with HIV and dying from AIDS. But Fellow Travelers was such “a great love story” that Minahan was compelled to embark on that trip.

Also stirring Minahan was the way Nyswaner wrote about spirituality, delving into Catholicism and the conflicts it presents for a gay person. Minahan could relate to that, having grown up Catholic. Nyswaner’s eloquence about spirituality struck a deep chord within Minahan who wound up directing the first two episodes. He would have liked to direct more of the series but a prior feature commitment precluded him from doing so. Luckily, he noted, they were able to recruit great directorial talent to come on board, including Uta Briesewitz, Destiny Ekaragha and James Kent.

A prime challenges posed by Fellow Travelers comes from it being a series, said Minahan, that “takes a big swing” with a scope spanning several decades of people’s lives. We see them age and grow–and we see our society evolve. Personal struggles mirror that evolution. Imagine for example coming of age in the 1950s like Laughlin or being closeted like Fuller, and reconciling that. Minahan knew that they could make the series work with the love story serving as “the throughline.” 

In many ways, the experience is life-affirming, observed Minahan as it shows “the way queer people will find each other and make lives against all odds.” In that vein, he kept reminding the cast that they “have to look for the moments of connection and joy.” Minahan noted, “That is what is going to carry this through” from one decade to the next.

And Minahan felt fortunate to have stellar talent involved in the world building needed to believably transport the audience through the decades, citing such contributors as production designer Anastasia Masaro, costume designer Joseph La Corte and cinematographer Simon Dennis. Minahan as a director and producer had earlier worked with the latter on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. 

Asked about his biggest takeaway or lessons learned from his experience on Fellow Travelers, Minahan said the greatest gift he left with was being part of ”a really loving family.” Minahan observed, “We’re like gypsies in film and TV. You create a family, move on, create a family, move on.” Yet there’s a permanence to the family nurtured by Nyswaner and Rogers. “These are people who treated everyone so respectfully, with so much love.” From the department heads to the actors, “we all remained close. It’s a testament to the people who created the show.” 

Minahan added, “We were doing difficult things, creating painful scenes but the takeaway was it doesn’t have to hurt…You can get better work out of people by treating them respectfully and with love.” That’s not always the case in this industry. Working on Fellow Travelers was a “special” experience and “we’re all trying to find more things to do together.”

Minahan is a three-time Emmy nominee–including for Outstanding Drama Series in 2017 for House of Cards, and Outstanding Television Movie in 2019 for Deadwood: The Movie. In 2018 he won the Outstanding Limited Series Emmy for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. 

Jeff Russo
Composer Jeff Russo is also no stranger to Emmy Awards season. He is a five-time Emmy nominee–four of them coming for Fargo, including a win for Best Original Dramatic Score in 2017. His other nod came for the telefilm Oslo.

And while he didn’t earn an Emmy nomination for The Night Of, that miniseries to which he contributed wound up winning five Emmys in 2017–and it connected him with creator/showrunner/director/writer Steven Zaillian, an Oscar winner for the Schindler’s List screenplay. Based on the positive experience of their collaboration on The Night Of, Zaillian reached out to Russo for the miniseries Ripley (Netflix), one of the projects that currently has the composer yet again in the Emmy conversation.

Indeed the serial killer Tom Ripley–the character created by novelist Patricia Highsmith–has returned, but in an iteration that is quite different from previous narratives, including the high-profile feature The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Andrew Scott portrays the title character in the miniseries, a fraudster in New York who goes to Italy to locate a rich dilettante whom he ends up killing and then assumes his identity, leading to more murders and schemes.

Russo didn’t have to be asked twice by Zaillian to take on Ripley. “Steve is an extraordinary filmmaker. Anything he does I want to be a part of,” affirmed Russo.

Russo got involved early on, writing and then re-writing music based on Zaillian’s feedback. Russo recalled that his initial efforts might have been a bit too romantic in feel and tone. Zaillian kept pushing him in the direction of underscoring that Ripley is a psychopath. Russo said that Zaillian advised him to “ignore the beauty of what we’re seeing.” That’s taken care of by the cinematography. Juxtaposing that beauty with what is in Ripley’s head made for a more interesting character study.

Russo hadn’t seen the 1999 movie or any other past depictions–a fact that Zaillian liked. “He didn’t want me to be affected or moved by the movie,” related Russo. “He’d say, ‘We’re doing a totally different version, much closer to the book.’” And they had some eight hours of miniseries to take a deep dive into Ripley’s psyche.

While the scripts sparked his composing, Russo honed in on the work and often went in different directions upon seeing cuts of the miniseries episodes. “Steve is the kind of filmmaker who wants to show me everything,” said Russo who received all eight episodes in various degrees of execution. “They were all on the operating table at once–and that’s when I started really getting into it,” shared Russo who added that episode seven might cause him to go back and revise music he did for the first two episodes. Having a real sense as to where things were going in a later episode at times led to reconstruction of what he had done in prior installments. Seeing the end result and working backwards isn’t a typical way of working in television but it proved worthwhile for Ripley. Russo noted that you can work backwards in that manner on a two-hour feature but it’s uncommon for a director/producer/writer to have all eight episodes in some form of being finished–and the composer having access to all of them.

Ripley also entailed a challenging balancing act for Russo. “It was complicated considering I had to write the triumph of the serial killer basically–having to celebrate the victory of the psychopath while trying to hang onto my own normal empathy.” That tension, though, served to make the work better.

Among the lessons learned from Ripley and Zaillian, observed Russo, is the importance of silence in telling a story. “Music is as important as the silence which precedes it or the silence that comes after it. Sometimes music is subtle and understated. Sometimes it needs to really speak.”

Speaking volumes is Russo’s body of Emmy-eligible work this season. In addition to Ripley, Russo is in the FYC running with Fargo (FX) Bosch: Legacy (Prime Video) and Star Trek: Discovery (Paramount+).

Shelly Westerman, Payton Koch and Patrick Howe
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) is made possible by a family of collaborators. Among those in that family are editors Shelly Westerman and Payton Koch, and production designer Patrick Howe. All three are bandied about in today’s Emmy chatter in that their work on the season three episode titled “Sitzprobe” garnered nominations this year for an American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Award as well as an Art Directors Guild (ADG) Excellence in Production Design Award. This makes it two straight years that Only Murders in the Building has earned ADG and Eddie Award nods. Additionally Howe has an Emmy pedigree on the series. In 2023, he won the Emmy for Outstanding Production Design for a Half-Hour Narrative Program. Editor Westerman too has an Emmy history but for another show–The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story in 2018.

The bond between Westerman and Koch is particularly nurturing going back to their time together in the Ryan Murphy universe. Koch served as an apprentice and assistant to Westerman. When Westerman got the gig to edit for season two of Only Murders in the Building, she brought Koch into the fold. “I saw him get better and better” on Only Murders in the Building, related Westerman–so much so that they shared full-fledged editing credit on the season two finale. And for the current Emmy-eligible season three they not only cut episodes in tandem but individually as well. The same mix of teaming and going solo continues on season four.

Koch said that sticking with Westerman was “the best decision” he could have made. They had drifted apart for a stretch during the pandemic but when Westerman reached out, Koch responded, knowing full well that Westerman was “the type of person who could be a mentor to me and lift me up.” 

The editors find creative inspiration in each other and are further buoyed by the dynamics of the show. While the core of the series remains the trio of Charles (portrayed by Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez), they all have room to grow as they take on new murder mysteries, navigate new paths and interact with new characters. On the latter score Meryl Streep (as Loretta) was added to season three as were such new wrinkles as a Broadway musical setting where Charles, Oliver and Mabel had to deal with twists and turns from behind, above and all around the stage in the quest to solve a mystery.

Westerman described working on Only Murders in the Building as “pure joy. You’re on a show with these crazy talented actors, comedians and writers. From the top down, showrunner John Hoffman treats everyone with respect, kindness, love…There’s joy and positivity on every level.”

Koch said it’s been “mind-blowing” for this show to be “my first solo venture as an editor” and to get to work with the performances of “legendary comedic actors.”  Koch added that he’s got “a little bit of impostor syndrome going on.”

Bringing in performers such as Streep in season three and then Eugene Levy in season four has brought great fun and dimension to the series. The changes from one season to the next have helped to keep the work fresh and been a tremendous treat for the editors.

Production designer Howe, who came aboard Only Murders in the Building for season two, said the show has evolved over time, sparked by such season three elements as the introduction of the Broadway musical setting. Howe started in theater design and found it gratifying to return to his original work. His training in the theater dovetailed nicely with the plot development for this past season. From a production design standpoint, there was also the opportunity to renovate Mabel’s apartment at the Arconia, a fictional upper West Side building in New York.  Bringing new looks to Mabel’s residence after two seasons as a crumbling, deteriorating space was a delicious creative proposition for Howe.

“This being a comedy, it’s an overall warm, sweet happening or experience. Audience members enjoy being in the company of these characters,” said Howe, adding that even for a comedy, though, you need to design serious scenery. He stressed that the scenery still needs to be realistic and to a certain degree, subtle,” supporting while not taking anything away from the story. Howe noted that some 99 percent of what viewers are seeing is built on stage.

Howe credited his primary team members with making invaluable contributions, including art director Casey Smith and set decorator Rich Murray. Howe had worked earlier with Smith on Godfather of Harlem. And Murray has been with Only Murders in the Building from its inception. Howe noted that like him, Smith and Murray were originally trained as theater designers. This helped immeasurably in bringing a Broadway musical to the TV series.

Yet when asked what his biggest takeaway has been from Only Murders in the Building, Howe said it’s not so much the design aspect. Rather it’s the unique combination of people who work on the show, starting up top with Hoffman who’s “nice, kind, thoughtful and respectful of everybody’s work and their selves.” This makes, continued Howe, for “a friendly, inviting and inspiring work environment.”

Howe succeeded season one production designer Curt Beech who laid the foundation for Only Murders in the Building. That foundation started with each lead character’s apartment in the Arconia. Each apartment shed light on its inhabitant. Mabel’s apartment, for example, was close to the Arconia’s original plan in that she didn’t have the resources to enhance it. Charles’ place, though, had been revamped with higher end art displayed, reflecting his financial wherewithal. And Oliver’s abode showed at the outset that his success as a stage director was of yesteryear. His apartment had what at one time must have been nice expensive furnishings but over time had become quite outdated.

Jabbar Raisani, Marion Spates
Visual effects maestros Jabbar Raisani and Marion Spates have developed a shorthand over time, and with award-winning results including three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Special Visual Effects–two for Lost in Space in 2018 and 2020, and one for Stranger Things in 2022. Spates separate from Raisani scored an Emmy nod for WandaVision in 2021.  And Raisani garnered an additional Lost in Space nomination in 2022, and came up twice an Emmy winner as part of the team on Game of Thrones in 2013 and 2015.

Now Raisani and Spates are in the current Emmy conversation for Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix) as VFX supervisors, with Raisani also serving as a director and exec producer. He became a lead EP for the much anticipated season two. Raisani is now teamed with EP Christine Boylan in running the show.

Raisani was a fan of the animated Airbender series and heard while working on Lost in Space that Netflix had gotten the rights for a live-action reimagining of the narrative. He recalled thinking, “I don’t know how the heck they’re going to make this show but I wanted to be a part of figuring it out.”

Once he got the gig and entered development, he recruited Spates to help in the “figuring it out” process. “We had this juggernaut of a show,” said Raisani, noting that “the visual effect clock” was running, elevating the challenge for the ambitious project.

While daunting, Spates observed that he and Raisani had the comfort of relying on the animated series to help establish the new show’s tone, spirit and visual language. They had to make the distinction, though, of when to find the live-action approach and shots to most closely match sequences from the animated series–and when not to lean too heavily on that dynamic. It’s a challenging balancing act.

Raisani related that though the animated series was a source of inspiration, the new show had to be grounded in reality, “something living and breathing in today’s reality.” They studied real-world photography in terms of environment and creature creation. “We didn’t want it to feel animated. We wanted to make it feel real and physical–our reality.”  

Avatar: The Last Airbender follows Aang (Gordon Cormier), a boy who’s the only one capable of mastering all four elements (air, water, fire, and earth). Aang awakes from a 100-year slumber to discover he’s the only surviving Airbender. The world is being threatened by the dictatorial Fire Nation, which wiped out every other Airbender and has set out to take over the Earth and Water Nations. With the help of new friends Katara (Kiawentiio), a waterbender, and her brother Sokka (Ian Ousley), Aang looks to repair a sorely divided world.

Spates noted that he and Raisani’s aesthetic relative to visuals “naturally align,” and when there is an occasional difference of opinion, Raisani is open to discussion and is always “good about letting the entire team be part of the process.” While Raisani has the final VFX say, he at the same time empowers his collaborators, said Spates. 

Part of that empowerment, continued Spates, is the work-life balance that Raisani tries to achieve for his team. Although the effects process and problem solving can be daunting due to the creative nature of ambitious projects, Spates said that Raisani strives to make the work fun and is conscious of everyone’s quality of life, realizing that talent needs rest in order to be energetic and focused to do their jobs at an optimum level. This leads to talent banding together in a more meaningful, productive way.

Key to the success of Avatar: The Last Airbender is the talent assembled, including outside vendors who are often part of ongoing collaborative relationships–a prime example being colorist Siggy Ferstl of Company 3. “We’ve now done 36 episodes of television together” between Lost in Space and The Last Airbender, noted Raisani who has worked in tandem with Ferstl to develop a unique pipeline for integrating color and visual effects. Ferstyl has been able to complete some of the VFX work as part of the color grading process, a workflow that can save time and bring an immediacy and interactivity to the proceedings.

In addition to the aforementioned Emmy recognition, Raisani has four Visual Effects Society (VES) Award nominations, winning in 2019 for Lost in Space. He was also a nominee for Lost in Space in 2020 and ‘22, and Stranger Things last year.

Ondrej Nekvasil
The Emmy winners’ circle is not foreign to production designer Ondrej Nekvasil who was honored in 2001 for the miniseries Anne Frank: The Whole Story. While that work took us back in history, we fast forward to today to find Nekvasil generating buzz for a trip of a different variety, as he’s helped fashion a fantasy world in The Wheel of Time (Prime Video).

Nekvasil has the first two seasons of The Wheel of Time under his belt. The series right out of the gate centered on five young villagers whose lives changed forever when a strange and powerful woman arrives, claiming one of them is the child of an ancient prophecy with the power to tip the balance between Light and Dark forever. They must choose whether to trust this stranger–and each other–with the fate of the world before the Dark One breaks out of His prison, and the Last Battle begins.

Based on a series of novels by Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time is always turning as cultures, ethnicities, communities and architecture from one era to the next mesh–layers built on top of older layers. For a production designer, this is an inspiring proposition as Nekvasil had the opportunity to blend varied real-world architectural styles to create fantasy settings and hybrid cultures. “With the cyclical passage of time,” observed Nekvasil, “cultures are built on top of the old while still being influenced by the old. I get to mix and mesh all this.” It’s a process, he said, that “gives a realism to the fantastical.”

His core compatriots on that front for the current Emmy-eligible second season included art directors Janek Hak and Marco Trentini, as well as set decorator Beatrice Brentnerova. They were all entrusted with evolving the show in accordance with the narrative. As an example, Nekvasil noted that reaching the White Tower in the first season was akin to the holy grail, a place where issues could be addressed and problems solved. The Tower was shiny, full of light and expectation. But as the second season unfolded, the realization set in that the White Tower wasn’t quite the nirvana it was cracked up to be. Suddenly things aren’t as shiny, glossy and hopeful as they were the first season. We discover that there’s something amiss, that the world isn’t always so nice. A darker tone takes hold, there’s more aging in the set–and for that matter, the costumes. This contrast from the first season to the next of The Wheel of Time marked an important transition facilitated by the acumen of Nekvasil, Hak, Trentini and Brentnerova.

Nekvasil and Brentnerova enjoy an especially close-knit creative bond, having worked together for about a dozen years, spanning such features as Underworld: Blood Wars and the Bong Joon Ho-directed Snowpiercer, as well as the TV series Missing. Having a history with Brentnerova “helps a lot,” assessed Nekvasil, adding that they even at times include “small props visible only to us,” serving as almost like “a little joke between us.” Their shorthand and shared sensibilities contribute to the creation of worlds that support and advance the story and its characters. The production designer further noted that he and Brentnerova open up a dialogue with the lead actors, getting a sense of what items on set would help them in terms of their performances and/or simply make them more comfortable. 

The settings, stressed Nekvasil, had to be more than pieces of past civilizations. They had to look lived in with a vitality in the present moment, making the small set decoration touches all the more essential. 

Nekvasil was attracted from the get-go to the sense of adventure in The Wheel of Time. He described it as “an epic story” in which the characters aren’t stereotypically black-and-white good and bad. This gray area is what makes the whole concept of the original books so special–and a conscious effort was made to reflect that in the series.

(This is the fourth installment of SHOOT’s weekly 16-part The Road To Emmy Series of feature stories. Nominations will be announced and covered on July 17. Creative Arts Emmy winners will be reported on September 7 and 8, and primetime Emmy ceremony winners will be covered on September 15.)

MySHOOT Profiles