Martin Ahlgren, ASC is no stranger to awards season or director Minkie Spiro–and sometimes he finds that the two go together. Last month, Ahlgren earned his third career primetime Emmy nod, two of which have come for work he lensed for Spiro.
The current Outstanding Cinematography Emmy nomination comes for “Judgment Day,” the fifth episode of 3 Body Problem (Netflix). Four years ago, Ahlgren received an Emmy nom for “Part 1” of the limited series The Plot Against America, also helmed by Spiro. Ahlgren’s very first Emmy nod came in 2015 for an episode of House of Cards (directed by Tucker Gates).
Ahlgren has enjoyed a longstanding collaborative relationship with Spiro. In fact, Spiro was instrumental in bringing Ahlgren into the 3 Body Problem fold. Ahlgren was doing some additional photography wrapping up a project in Australia for Spiro in 2020 when the director was in the running to take on episodes of 3 Body Problem. At the time, Ahlgren recalled, it looked like Spiro might get the gig and he was intrigued by the story. Ahlgren immediately started the first book and before he could finish the third and final installment, the DP got a call about possibly coming on board. Ahlgren was drawn not only to the opportunity to collaborate again with Spiro but also to work with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss who teamed with Alexander Woo to create the series based on the sci-fi novels of Chinese writer Liu Cixin. Benioff and Weiss famously created Game of Thrones which during its run won a staggering 59 Emmy Awards.
3 Body Problem springs from a fateful decision in 1960s’ China by a young female astrophysicist, Ye Wenjie (portrayed by Zine Tseng and in later years by Rosalind Chao). Her decision reverberates across space and time into the present day when the laws of nature inexplicably unravel, posing an existential threat to humanity which has to be confronted by five former scientist colleagues, known as the Oxford Five–Jin Cheng (portrayed by Jess Hong), Saul Durand (Joven Adepo), Auggie Salazar (Eiza Gonzalez), Jack Rooney (John Bradley) and Will Downing (Alex Sharp).
The narrative criss-crosses space, time and had the cinematographers–including Ahlgren, Jonathan Freeman, ASC, Richard Donnelly and P.J. Dillon–dealing with multiple locations and worlds. One of those worlds is within the confines of a VR video game, which may carry clues to what has happened and what may unfold next. Still, the main drama takes place in real everyday life. There’s a normality to that which serves as a stark juxtaposition to the VR world as aliens are on a 400-year trek to invade our planet. However the aliens’ impact is still felt by humanity ahead of any invasion as they can switch the universe on and off, and even place a digital countdown in one of the scientist’s field of vision–not to mention her psyche.
Freeman and Donnelly teamed to shoot the first two episodes of 3 Body Problem–“Countdown” and “Red Coast,” directed by Derek Tsang–which helped to set the visual language and tone for the overall series, recently picked up for seasons two and three. Freeman started on the first two episodes, handing the baton to Donnelly to complete them.
In an earlier SHOOT interview, Freeman noted that the 3 Body Problem producers did a marvelous job of “casting” the cinematographers–himself, Donnelly, Ahlgren and Dillon. Freeman observed that as a collective of DPs, all were “very much similar in our aesthetic approach to light, starting with a naturalism” that was attained in tandem with an expressionism. Beyond casting cinematographers who saw things similarly, continued Freeman, so too were they simpatico in their personalities and the way they worked with crews. “That’s fundamentally important,” noted Freeman, particularly for a show with “a big story” and “a long story” to tell. “You need a team that supports each other.”
Ahlgren wound up garnering the lone Emmy nomination for cinematography on 3 Body Problem, which tallied a total of six nods, including for Outstanding Drama Series. He credited Freeman and Donnelly with building a visual foundation for 3 Body Problem, noting that Freeman had prepped for many months, having already established a close working relationship and rapport over the years with Benioff and Weiss on Game of Thrones.
Ahlgren lensed the three middle episodes (4, 5 and 6) of 3 Body Problem helmed by Spiro. By that time, the VR world had become a smaller part of the proceedings so Ahlgren did not have to avail himself of the Freeman-designed “wall of light” nearly as much as it had been used in prior episodes. The “wall of light” proved integral in placing live-action characters into a virtual world marked by sophisticated imagery and visual effects, particularly in the initial work shot by Freeman and Donnelly.
Ahlgren benefited from getting a decent amount of prep time with Spiro for their three episodes of 3 Body Problem. This, said Ahlgren, afforded the opportunity for him and the director to get a grounding in theoretical physics which helped in their approach to the series. Even for items and aspects they weren’t going to shoot, an understanding of the physics involved in these elements translated into visually creating an underlying plausibility that aided in lending a measure of authenticity to the visuals. In this vein, Ahlgren said that working closely with production designer Deborah Riley proved invaluable.
Among the prime takeaways for Ahlgren from his experience on 3 Body Problem was the importance of realism–even for scenarios that are extraordinary. “Working with Minkie is always a bit of a visual adventure. We are drawn to finding ways of telling the story with the camera, composition, and exploring different avenues. Dan [D.B. Weiss] and David [Benioff] almost have an aversion to camera trickery. If you get too special with something, it wouldn’t feel right to them. For this, that is the right instinct. We are dealing with something that is quite extraordinary and fascinating. We’re dealing with an alien invasion even if the books are written in a way that deals with it in a more seriously scientific way. With the show, keeping the camerawork and photography grounded is essential. It lends a certain realism that makes what happens more relatable.”
Zachary Galler
Cinematographer Zachary Galler just earned his first career Emmy nomination on the strength of “Little Miss Hasting,” the first episode of Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+). He lensed multiple episodes of the limited series, including the very first two which were helmed by Sarah Adina Smith who won the DGA Award for “Her and Him,” the second episode. Among the other installments of Lessons in Chemistry shot by Galler was “Poirot,” for which Millicent Shelton earned an Emmy nod for direction.
Set in the early 1950s, Lessons in Chemistry–based on Bonnie Garmus’ best-selling 2022 novel of the same title–follows Elizabeth Zott (portrayed by Brie Larson), whose dream of being a scientist is put on hold in a patriarchal society. When Zott suffers a tragic loss only to later be fired from her lab, she accepts a job as a host on a TV cooking show, Supper at Six, and sets out to teach a nation of overlooked housewives–and the men who are suddenly listening–a lot more than recipes.
The Emmy nominations for Shelton and Galler are just two of 10 earned by Lessons in Chemistry. The others include Outstanding Limited Series, lead actress for Larson, supporting actor for Lewis Pullman, and supporting actress for Aja Naomi King.
Galler recalled being initially drawn to Lessons in Chemistry for its story and the people involved. “It was a dream for me to work on a period piece with Brie Larson,” he related, adding that a prime early challenge was “trying to find the right tone for the period piece. We tried to not look at the past through rose colored glasses.”
Galler explained that he and Smith from the outset wanted a period piece that did not feel nostalgic. Instead they wanted the story to feel current and fresh given that so many elements of the series, the characters and what they’re experiencing, are relevant and carry parallels to what’s happening today.
In that vein, Smith, Galler and production designer Catherine Smith set out to create a period piece through settings which the DP described as “a comprehensive world where the actors had freedom to move around, for the characters to live in that world” so that their performances could be best felt by viewers. While true to the time period, said Galler, it was important that the world being fashioned could draw viewers in–and that was best achieved by the actors themselves. For example, noted Galler, in the first episode, characters took long walks down hallways as they went in and out of chemistry labs. It was a way to better bring viewers into this world and not let them go. The audience was experiencing along with the characters.
In line with this and helping to get the right feel and tone from the get-go with the first couple of episodes, Smith and Galler wanted the actors to determine where they were going to be within their environments. The idea, shared Galler, was “to let the camera react to that instead of planning too much before hand. One of the main lessons that Galler learned from his experience on Lessons in Chemistry was the value of how these choices fit to the story in a more immediate, subjective way than if “we had shortlisted the whole thing with a rote plan.” Learning to observe with the camera and react to the actors brought another dimension to the narrative.
Galler gravitated towards the ARRI Alexa LF with Canon K35 lenses. “We wanted the show to have a beautiful naturalism,” which is something that Alexa captures quite well. The Canon K35s, he continued, “have a really soft contrast to them,” also lending that desired naturalism to the proceedings.
As for what’s next, Galler at press time was working on another Apple show, Your Friends and Neighbors from creator/showrunner Jonathan Tropper with a cast featuring Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet.
Among Galler’s prior credits are the Hulu miniseries The Act starring Patricia Arquette and Joey King, the indie feature Piercing, and another Apple series, Extrapolations.
Kara Talve
The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Peacock) scored two Emmy nominations, both in music. Composers Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve were nominated for Original Dramatic Score for a limited series. And Zimmer, Talve, Walter Afanasieff and Charlie Midnight are nominees for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics on the strength of the song “Love Will Survive,” sung by Barbra Streisand.
These are the second and third career Emmy noms for Talve–and they all have been in collaboration with two-time Oscar winner Zimmer (The Lion King in 1995, Dune: Part One in 2022). Talve received her first Emmy nod, in tandem with Zimmer, in 2023 for an episode of Prehistoric Planet.
While receiving an Emmy nomination is a high honor, Talve affirmed that this year’s Television Academy recognition is especially meaningful given the subject matter of The Tattooist of Auschwitz–and its story in which humanity at its best springs out of the worst inhumanity imaginable, reflecting our capacity to find hope even under the most dire circumstances. The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a love story that unfolds during the Holocaust and remains intact over the ensuing decades.
Based on the best selling book of the same title by Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz centers on the true story of Lali Sokolov, a young Slovakian Jew taken to Auschwitz, the Nazis’ biggest concentration camp, in April 1942. With a proficiency in multiple languages and having befriended a tattooist upon arriving at Auschwitz, Sokolov got the chance to become a tattooist, charged with inking identification numbers onto fellow prisoners’ arms. As a tattooist, Sokolov led a marginally better yet still harrowing life. In July 1942, Sokolov tattooed the arm of another prisoner, a young Slovakian woman, Gita Furmanova, and it was love at first sight. They endured great adversity and peril but maintained a relationship through intermittent encounters at the concentration camp. Defying all odds, they helped keep each other alive–physically and in spirit. The couple married after World War II and moved to Australia. Still the brutality they experienced and witnessed at Auschwitz continued to haunt them as they persevered and fashioned a life together, having a son and being able to still experience the joy derived from a deep sense of family.
We get to know Sokolov initially when he is in his 80s, recently widowed, some 60 years after he met Gita. The elderly Sokolov (portrayed by Harvey Keitel) connects with a novice writer, Morris (Melanie Lynskey), to whom he tells his story in the hope that she will be able to share it with the world. In recounting his life to Morris, Sokolov faces the traumatic ghosts of his youth and relives his memories of falling in love in the most horrific of places. Through these recollections, we meet Sokolov as a young man (played by Jonah Hauer-King) and Gita (Anna Próchniak).
Talve is part of a collective of composers, Bleeding Fingers, for which Zimmer and Russell Emanuel are co-founders. Through this connection, Talve was afforded what she regards as “the honor” of working with Zimmer on select projects and over time they have developed what she describes as a unique “musical language that we talk to each other in.” Making this “amazing way of communicating” all the more special, said Talve, is that Zimmer is such “a masterful storyteller in music. I learn from him. At the beginning of this project [The Tattooist of Auschwitz], he said something profound in our first meeting: ‘If we are sentimental, we will fail.” I didn’t know what he meant by that until we dug into the score and what we really wanted to do. The score was abstract and never illustrative. We let the stories and images speak for themselves. When the music starts to tell you how to feel, that’s a problem–especially for a story like this.”
It’s far more impactful to let the audience’s humanity kick in, giving them the room to experience and feel. At the same time the score had to reflect wide ranging feelings and emotions, striking a balance in a story that is dark and disturbing yet somehow light and hopeful, driven by the love that Lali and Gita found within the stark, desperate confines of a concentration camp.
Talve found the creative process within Bleeding Fingers nurturing and supportive. She credited Emanuel with pairing her and Zimmer together originally. Additionally, Emanuel provides another set of invaluable ears, “hearing everything we do before it goes to the client. He has a vast knowledge of every genre of music and how to make things sound great. That’s the great part about Bleeding Fingers. As a collective, we get to inspire each other, pop into each other’s rooms and talk about each other’s music. You’re surrounded by talented people who fuel your inspiration.”
Speaking of inspiring, Talve was ecstatic that Streisand consented to record a brand new song for The Tattooist of Auschwitz. “Love Will Survive” served as the end title accompaniment for the show, and it marked Streisand’s first ever recording for a TV series. “Love Will Survive” was composed by Zimmer, Talve and Grammy winner Afanasieff, with lyrics by Grammy and Golden Globe nominee Midnight. “To hear her [Streisand] telling Lali and Gita’s story in her voice,” said Talve, was so stirring. Streisand has a rare voice that can bring such emotion to a piece, continued Talve, adding that Midnight brought such poetry to the lyrics.
Overseeing the series were executive producer Claire Mundell and director Tali Shalom-Ezer. Talve said these two women up top were “absolutely incredible” and that their care for and commitment to the story permeated the production, giving motivation and a sense of purpose to cast and crew. “I had never seen an executive producer and director dig that deep,” related Talve who benefited from Mundell and Shalom-Ezer’s feedback on the score as it was being crafted. Their efforts made for a better final product on all fronts, right down to the soundtrack.
“Our job as storytellers and composers is to keep telling stories like this, to remind us that love is the only cure for evil. This is the perfect story to highlight such a moral,” related Talve who has a deeply personal connection to the narrative. When her grandmother was nine years old, the Nazis invaded Paris. They arrived at the family’s apartment with a list of those to be taken to Auschwitz. By a fluke, the youngster was not on that list. Through a fire escape, she made her way to her piano teacher’s flat. The teacher, a Christian, pretended the nine-year-old girl was her daughter for the duration of the war.
Talve’s grandma passed away a few years ago. Talve inherited her piano which was brought over to the U.S. from Europe. “That’s the piano you’re hearing throughout the score [for The Tattooist of Auschwitz],” revealed Talve who cited the musical instrument’s sonic connection to the 1940s. The piano hadn’t been tuned and Talve doesn’t every intend to tune it. She wants the piano to “keep its original DNA, a witness to everything that happened during that time period. It’s such a special instrument.”
Peter H. Oliver
“No good deed goes unpunished” is a cynical adage which comes to life in Baby Reindeer (Netflix). It happens when a struggling comedian, Donny Dunn (portrayed by Richard Gadd), performs an act of kindness for a vulnerable woman, Martha Scott (Jessica Dunning), sparking a suffocating obsession which threatens to wreck both their lives.
However, with punishment comes reward–actually awards–as this unique, Gadd-created exploration of stalking and buried traumas, based on his own autobiographical one-man show, was named Best Breakthrough Limited Series at the inaugural Gotham TV Awards in June, and a month later earned 11 primetime Emmy nominations, including for Outstanding Limited Series, Lead Actor (Gadd), Supporting Actress (Gunning), Directing (Weronika Tofilska) and Picture Editing (Peter H. Oliver and Benjamin Gerstein) for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
Oliver actually cut all four episodes directed by Tofilska. Gerstein wound up helping him out on “Episode 4” for which they were nominated. Oliver noted that Gerstein “very kindly came on for a few weeks at the end of the edit. We had spent longer than expected setting Baby Reindeer up and I had another job, the Netflix limited series Eric, to go onto. Weronika and I had worked through the first four episodes and so Benjamin helped in the fine cut with episode 4. I think he did a great job of catching up with where we were up to with watching the rushes, receiving notes from executives and sitting with Weronika and Richard to get the episodes finished.”
As for what drew him to Baby Reindeer and how he got the gig, Oliver recalled, “I was working on a documentary and my agent Kate Watson phoned me to say she’d received a script she thought I’d love. When she told me the title I thought it was a Christmas fluffy drama and thought that was strange as she knows I like the dark stuff (I come from a comedy background but also love working on drama with darker elements like Doctor Who, Skins, Inside No. 9 and This Is Going to Hurt)!
“Later that day,” continued Oliver, “I received the first four scripts [for Baby Reindeer], and that was it. I didn’t get much work done for the rest of that day and my wife complained that I was on my phone all evening, but I had to binge read all the episodes. I loved the mix of comedy and drama, how we followed Donny through his life, his painful past and how he depicted Martha as a lost soul rather than someone bad.
“I emailed my agent late at night pleading with her to get an interview, which she did. On the morning of the interview I had booked out a room at work and got well prepared beforehand, but then someone started a meeting in that room and I had to run around to find another room. My notes fell all over the floor and when I joined the interview on Zoom I was late and there were lots of faces waiting for me! I also forgot Donny, the lead’s name, and thought it was all over. When my agent called a week later to say I’d got the job, I danced around the room.”
This marked Oliver’s first professional dance with Tofilska. “I hadn’t worked with Weronika before but from the first days rushes,” recalled Oliver, “I was very impressed by the colors, the framing, the pace and how she thought about how it was all coming together. She had a clear direction but also left choices for the edit suite. She worked brilliantly with the actors and I could see that what wasn’t being said, and the actors’ reactions, were just as important as what was being said. The cast gave me subtle differences in performance in each take which helped me to nuance the journey of each episode. Weronika was great to work with and I’d love to work with her again in the future.”
Oliver observed, “The biggest challenge for me whilst editing Baby Reindeer was knowing that it was based on Richard’s life story. I wanted it to be true to what he had gone through. Hard decisions had to be made with some great scenes being taken out and everything really earning its place within the series. There were also some really funny moments and emotional moments that had to go or be shortened, but I think it was for the benefit of the show in the end.”
In terms of lasting impressions from his experience on Baby Reindeer, Oliver shared, “I was very impressed by how Weronika and Richard worked together to find the show they wanted to make. We had long discussions and took our time on scenes to make sure the pacing was right, but we would also keep trying new ideas.
“I loved,” continued Oliver, “how much we went back to the rushes even just before we locked an episode to double check we had the best performance for what we were trying to convey. I came away realizing to keep going back to the rushes and that even an extra pause or a different reaction can affect the whole episode.”
(This is the 15th installment of SHOOT’s weekly 16-part The Road To Emmy Series of feature stories. Creative Arts Emmy winners will be covered on September 7 and 8, and primetime Emmy ceremony winners will be reported on come September 15.)
