Saturday’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony was cause for celebration for assorted artisans, including a couple of cinematographers and production designers recently interviewed by SHOOT, a prime example being Jonathan Freeman, ASC, who won his third Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series, this time for the “Golden Days For Boys and Girls” episode of Boardwalk Empire (HBO). His prior two Emmys were also for Boardwalk Empire episodes–for “Home” in 2011 and “21” in 2012. Freeman also has a fourth career Emmy nomination, bestowed in 2014, on the strength of his lensing of the “Two Swords” episode of Game of Thrones (HBO).
Earlier this year in an installment of Chat Room, after he received the nom for “Golden Days For Boys and Girls,” Freeman reflected on his work for that particular episode as well as what the overall Boardwalk Empire series has meant to him.
“The episode [‘Golden Days For Boys and Girls’] is unique to what we have established in previous seasons on Boardwalk Empire,” related Freeman. “We jump from 1924 to 1931, nearing the end of prohibition. Seven years from the last time we saw our characters. As well, there was a new ‘flashback’ structure, recounting Nucky Thompson’s youth. Since this was the first episode for the final season to establish this, we had to consider whether we treated the flashbacks with a different look. In the end, we decided to keep it subtle, since we didn’t want to lose the ability to transition from present to flashback, without being obvious.
“As well, seven years on, our main characters lived in contrasting worlds. Nucky was in vibrant Cuba, Chalky White was on a prison gang in a bleak West Virginia woods. We cut between this two worlds; one a sunset soaked paradise; the other, a winterized hell. That combined with new flashback structure, set a tone for how the new season would be different.”
As for what camera he deployed on “Golden Days For Boys and Girls,” Freeman went with the Panavision Platinum and Primo Primes–Primo 11 to 1, Promo 4 to 1. Freeman was involved with Boardwalk Empire for its first two seasons and returned for this past final year. He is grateful to have had the opportunity to shoot film for his full run on the series. “Each year,” he recalled, “the question was asked if we should consider switching to digital. We would shot comparative tests, and each year decided that film was too integral to the look of the show to abandon. We were grateful to HBO for supporting us in our vision.”
Regarding his entire Boardwalk Empire experience, Freeman shared, “I’ve been very fortunate to work on great HBO productions such as Boardwalk. The most important thing for me was the opportunity to create with some of the most talented and generous people I have had have ever worked with. From the inspiring direction, brilliant writing, stunning production design and costumes, amazing cast and crew, and a very supportive producing team who managed to put every dollar on the screen. As a DP, you could go to work each day knowing you were going to capture something unique.”
Gary Baum
While Freeman is three for three in terms of Boardwalk Empire nominations turning into wins, DP Gary Baum has had to wait to receive his first Emmy–a wait that finally came to an end last night when he won for Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-camera Series category for the Mike & Molly (CBS) “Checkpoint Joyce” episode directed by Victor Gonzalez, It was one of two nominations he earned this year in the category, the other for the “Con-Troversy” episode of The Millers (CBS) directed by James Burrows.
Overall, Baum has seven career nominations, never winning the Emmy until now. “Checkpoint Joyce” marks the fourth consecutive year that Baum has secured an Emmy nom for Mike & Molly. However, this past season at the same time marked a departure from the norm for Baum on Mike & Molly. On the previous seasons of the hit show, Baum deployed Sony F23 cameras. However this past year he switched to the newer Sony F55 with a 35mm sensor. He explained at the time, “More and more we’re incorporating certain visual effects into the show.” Baum reasoned that the F55 will prove helpful in this and other respects.
In this year’s The Road To Emmy series, Baum told SHOOT that the F55 has proven to be “an important upgrade for us in terms of lenses. We’ve been able to use the Panavision 11:1 cine lenses, the same lenses used on their film cameras. The sensor of the Sony F55 is very close to the size of 35mm cameras. This has afforded us a little more of a cinematic look in terms of falloff and depth of field. Another breakthrough is we all went to a file-based situation, using Sony SxS cards, making things a lot easier for editorial. All in all this has afforded visual effects and post more flexibility, using a larger format and having a higher rate of pixels.”
The “Checkpoint Joyce” episode had Mike (Billy Gardell) having to arrest Joyce (Swoosie Kurtz) when she refuses to take a breathalyzer test at a DUI checkpoint. “We had a mix of interior and exterior work—some of the car photography had Swoosie Kurtz on stage,” recalled Baum.
“And we had a string of cars, lights and the checkpoint outside. We shot our own plates and blended the two. The good part was we were able to photograph our own plates rather than have it done by a second party. We were able to adjust everything to exact specifications.”
This is the second year that Baum has scored a pair of Emmy nominations. The first time was in 2012 for the 2 Broke Girls pilot and the “Victoria Can’t Drive” episode of Mike & Molly.
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.
Last night, Cummings won his second career Emmy Award as the “Method and Madness,” “Mr. Paris Shoes” and “Get The Rope” episodes of The Knick earned him–along with art director Henry Dunn and set decorator Regina Graves—the TV Academy honor for Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Period Program (One Hour Or More).
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. For The Knick, 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 in a Road To Emmy interview. “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.”
Richard Toyon
Production designer Richard Toyon’s range of Emmy contending work this year spans the inspired offbeat comedy Silicon Valley (HBO) 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).
Last night, Toyon–along with art director L.J. Houdyshell and set decorator Jenny Mueller–won an Emmy for Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Program (Half-Hour or Less) on the strength of the “Sand Hill Shuffle,” “Homicide” and “Adult Content” episodes of Silicon Valley. This marks Toyon’s first Emmy win. He has three career nominations, the first coming in 1998 for his initial full-fledged production design gig, From the Earth to the Moon in the Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or a Movie.
In an installment of this year’s The Road To Emmy series, Toyon said, “What drew me to Silicon Valley was not only that the script was funny but I liked the underdog quality of the story.” He 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.”
