For Lesli Linka Glatter, being nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directorial Achievement In A Dramatic Series on the basis of the "Q&A" episode of Homeland (Showtime) is "an incredibly humbling, extraordinary and unexpected" honor. And a part of being humbled is rooted in her belief that "we're in a golden age of television. The quality of writing, directing and acting is pretty astounding today. There are so many good shows, so much provocative, visually exciting storytelling that to be among those recognized with a nomination is quite thrilling."
This is her second career Emmy nomination, the first coming in 2010 for the "Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency" episode of Mad Men, which also earned a DGA Award nomination that same year. For that matter, "Q&A" additionally garnered a DGA nom this past January, the third of Glatter's career. The first came back in 1991 for an episode of Twin Peaks.
Twin Peaks has been oft-cited as a catalyst for today's aforementioned golden age. Glatter recalled that though Twin Peaks was made for ABC, in some ways it marked the beginning of cable television because the show broke boundaries and attracted a following. The best shows on cable are cut from that same cloth.
Hearkening back to her Twin Peaks exploits, Glatter said that her attitude towards work has served her in good stead. "Before I was a director, I was a modern dancer and a modern dance choreographer. I got used to being paid no money. I would look at material and if I didn't relate to it, I just didn't do it. I'm glad I did that from the beginning of my directing career. Looking back, it had me doing only the most interesting work."
Over the years, that has translated into her directing episodes of such shows as NYPD Blue, Freaks and Geeks, Law & Order SVU, The West Wing, ER, Weeds, House MD, True Blood, The Good Wife, The Walking Dead, Justified, The Newsroom and now Homeland.
"Q&A" marked Glatter's first Homeland episode. She has since become a co-executive producer of the lauded series, directed the first two episodes of the upcoming season and at press time was in the midst of helming episode number 6.
Regarding what first attracted her to Homeland, Glatter observed, "I was supposed to direct in the first season but I was unavailable. When I saw the show, I was blown away. Usually I'm quick about solving mysteries, seeing what's going on beneath the surface of a series. But for this show, I had no idea if [character Nicholas] Brody was a traitor. The storytelling was so sophisticated without being manipulative, offering deep character studies along with great story plot development.
"I was grateful that they came back to me after I couldn't be involved in the first season," Glatter continued. "And I got to work with Henry Bromell, an amazing writer. It's bittersweet because Henry has since passed away [in March]. I came out of theater where the relationship with the writer is everything. Working with Henry was a joy; we were right in step together. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my career."
Bromell received an Emmy nomination posthumously in the Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series category on the strength of "Q&A."
Still, Glatter had some consternation when she first saw the script for "Q&A." "Thirty pages of the script were set in one room. Of course, I panicked at first. What am I going to do with the action confined to one room? There's nothing to hide behind. Everything is kind of stripped bare. But I soon realized that I had these amazing words from Henry–and in that room I had Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, two amazing actors. And we ended up taking the approach of shooting things as one piece. We had takes that were 26 minutes long. Claire and Damian were riveting. "
Now as co-executive producer and a director on Homeland, Glatter related, "I get to live here all the time. As a producing director, I feel like I'm the conduit to help the great directors who come in for their episodes. I want to give them everything they need."
Speaking of great directors, Glatter described the fellow nominees in her category as being "extraordinary. How do you pick one? I'm just happy to be invited to the party. It's a party I'm honored to be a part of."
Homeland scored 11 Emmy nominations this year, the others being for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actress (Danes), Lead Actor (Lewis), Cinematography (Nelson Cragg), Supporting Actress (Morena Baccarin), Supporting Actor (Mandy Patinkin), Guest Actor (Rupert Friend), Casting (Judy Henderson, Craig Fincannon, Lisa Mae Fincannon), and Sound Mixing (Larry Long, Nello Torri, Alan Decker, Larold Rebhun).
Top Of The Lake
Garth Davis–perhaps best known to some of SHOOT's readers for his commercialmaking exploits (which garnered him a DGA Award nomination several years ago)–has earned his first career primetime Emmy nom, shared with noted filmmaker (The Piano, Bright Star) Jane Campion in the Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special category for their work on Top Of The Lake, a BBC/Sundance TV miniseries which made its on-air debut in the U.S. this past March. Two months earlier, Top Of The Lake had gained its first stateside exposure with a screening in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival. The Emmy nomination was specifically for "Episode 5" of the show.
Audiences have been captivated by Top Of The Lake with a storyline set into motion by a 12-year-old girl (Tui, portrayed by Jacqueline Joe) standing chest deep in a frozen lake. She is five months pregnant and won't say who the father is; soon thereafter, she disappears. So begins a haunting mystery that consumes a community. The cast includes Elisabeth Moss, Holly Hunter, Peter Mulan an David Wenham. The miniseries was created by writers Campion and Gerard Lee.
As for how he got the opportunity to collaborate with Campion, Davis recalled that he was coming off of a tough year during which a prospective feature film project fell through and his father died of cancer. "I spent much of the year not working, being by his side," related Davis. "So when I surfaced from that, my world was open, free but empty. Then Jane rang me out of the blue. She said she loved my work, and wondered if I might be interested in this adventure called Top Of The Lake. I took it as a sign; it felt so right. I loved the scripts; I was so at home in their worlds, and they were ambitious enough to make me extremely excited. I adore Jane's work, and felt this could be a real collaboration; not just a director for hire which is commonplace and very uninteresting to me."
Reflecting on his experience working with Campion, Davis shared, "Jane was very trusting and supporting of the collaboration…we both brought different talents to the project, and that was exciting to see it weave together. It was a joy to work with Jane; she really let me into her world, and was immensely wise. She really taught me to serve the story, and never lose sight of the bigger picture; to really consider how the characters and mystery could unfold and help advance the story. She was a gentle guiding light, and allowed me to be me."
Asked what was the biggest creative challenge posed to him by Top Of The Lake, Davis replied, "Ensuring we never gave the story away…so carefully designing the nuances in the story and ensuring the evolutions of the characters' arcs left the audience guessing who did it–but at the same time [having the audience] being deeply and emotionally engaged. It was the weave of the mystery thriller, with the deeply human journey of our characters that was so important to get right."
Regarding how his spotmaking experience informed his work on Top Of The Lake–and conversely what that miniseries now enables him to bring back to commercials–Davis observed, "I have over a decade of seriously complex commercial shoots and that was invaluable in this project. At times I was so up against the lack of resources with what I had to achieve…so my preparation and experience in how to get as much on screen in so little time paid off. You need to be inventive, and have great and accurate instincts in what is the best way to tackle a scene–and I owe that to my commercial career.
"I always bring drama to commercials," he continued. "I try to hunt out something deeper, create another world, and always respect and explore strong performances…I love the language of story, of characters, and how that impacts a performance. Drama gives you great experience in blocking scenes and knowing how to work with actors, dialogue and scene construction."
Earlier this year, Davis joined Reset–the shop founded by director David Fincher and managing director Dave Morrison–for worldwide representation, excluding Australia and New Zealand where Davis remains with his long-time company, Exit Films. The Emmy nomination represents Davis' first major splash in long-form television. He said of the Emmy nod, "Ultimately it just means your work is being seen and appreciated…so I am very grateful for that."
Top Of The Lake garnered a total of eight nominations, the others being in the Outstanding Movie or Miniseries, Editing (Alexandre de Franceschi, Scott Gray), Cinematography (Adam Arkapaw), Writing (Campion and Lee), Lead Actress (Moss), Supporting Actor (Mullan) and Casting (Kirsty McGregor, Tina Cleary) categories.
The Girl DP John Pardue too is a first-time Emmy nominee, gaining recognition in the Outstanding Cinematography For A Miniseries or Movie for The Girl (HBO), directed by Julian Jarrold. The telefilm dramatizes the obsession of director Alfred Hitchcock (portrayed by Toby Jones) with actress Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller). When his romantic overtures are rebuffed by Hedren, Hitchcock's behavior turns abusive and sadistic during their collaborations on the movies The Birds and Marnie.
Pardue was immediately drawn to the project. "I read the script and the chance to recreate scenes from The Birds and Marnie [both shot by Robert Burks, ASC] was a dream come true–to be able to immerse yourself in Hitchcock cinematography." Pardue said he and Jarrold wanted to capture that style and flavor, a slightly Technicolor look, while also shooting the overall drama in the style and way they envisioned. "We had to shoot it all in 24 days so there was the logistical aspect of getting it all together. Making it work was having a great director who's very visual, to share that journey with him and getting the support of a remarkable team around you."
This marked the first time Pardue worked with Jarrold. The DP related that his prior lensing of the feature film Resistance, a 1940s World War II period piece directed by Amit Gupta, in part prompted Jarrold to gravitate to him to shoot The Girl.
Pardue went with a mix of 35mm film, deploying the ARRICAM Lite, and digital, using ARRI's Alexa camera, for The Girl. 35mm captured Hedren's screen test and the replicated scenes from Hitchcock's movies. The lion's share of The Girl, though, was lensed with the Alexa, with Pardue cognizant of shooting so that the film and digital scenes blended naturally.
Pardue took painstaking measures to recreate the Hitchcock look, studying photos from the sets of Marnie and The Birds as well as of course, those films themselves, and utilizing vintage lights and lighting gear.
Being nominated for an Emmy "means a lot," particularly being part of such a stellar field, related Pardue who cited as an example Behind The Candelabra which was directed and shot by Steve Soderbergh. Pardue, who splits his time between the U.S. and U.K., plans to be in Los Angeles for the Emmy Awards ceremony. He said upon hearing he was nominated, he was both gratified and surprised. "At first I didn't believe it," he recalled. "I had forgotten that it had been entered in the competition."
American Horror Story: Asylum
Nominated in the same category as Pardue is Michael Goi, ASC, who earned inclusion on the strength of the "I Am Anne Frank (Part 2)" episode of American Horror Story: Asylum (FX Network). Unlike Pardue, though, Goi is no stranger to the Emmy nominees' circle, having been nominated twice before for his cinematography–last year for an episode of Glee and back in 2008 for an installment of the sitcom My Name Is Earl.
Goi also has four ASC Award nominations to his credit, including two earlier this year–one for the pilot of The New Normal, the other for the same now Emmy-nominated episode of American Horror Story: Asylum.
Of his latest Emmy nomination, Goi finds the recognition "enormously gratifying. It's an indication that my peers, cinematographers whom I have enormous respect for, consider work I did on a particular show as outstanding. That in and of itself is the prize for me."
And it's a prize he shares with others, perhaps most notably American Horror Story creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. "Working with them has been a dream come true for a cinematographer," assessed Goi. "You wait your entire professional career for that experience. The difference for me on American Horror Story than many other shows I've done is that I'm not as concerned about lighting for a setting or atmosphere just solely for the purpose of establishing a space for the actors. My main concern is getting inside the characters' heads and reflecting how those characters are seeing moments in their lives. When I read the scripts for American Horror Story, which are beautifully written, my focus is on how does that character's experience feel to me and how do I translate that visually."
Goi also cited the episode's director, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, as helping in that quest. Goi has shot almost all of the series on 35mm film but noted that he is given the creative latitude "to go off into other territory and to use tools that aren't normally used in the production of a TV show today. It's artistically freeing. You can free your imagination to create imagery that ultimately the purpose of is to emotionally affect the audience, to depict what the character is seeing."
For example, in this nominated episode, Goi deployed 1970s standard def video cameras to reflect a character's distorted view of what the idyllic family would be like. Goi created a weird '70s sitcom version of the perfect American dream that was anything but.
Goi is now part of an American Horror Story: Asylum ensemble which scored the most Emmy nominations this year, a total of 17: Outstanding Miniseries or Movie, Single-Camera Picture Editing (Fabienne Bouville), Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie (Jessica Lange), two Outstanding Supporting Actor noms (James Cromwell, Zachary Quinto), Supporting Actress (Sarah Paulson), Main Title Design (Kyle Cooper, Ryan Murphy, Juan Ruiz-Anchia, Kate Berry), Makeup (Eryn Krueger Mekash, Kim Ayers, Silvina Knight, John Elliot), Prosthetic Makeup (Mekash, Ayers, Knight, Mike Mekash, Hiroshi Yada, Christopher Nelson, Christian Tinsley, Jason Hamer), Hairstyling (Monte C. Haught, Natalie Driscoll, Janis Clark, Michelle Ceglia, Stacey K. Black), two Outstanding Art Direction noms (one for "I Am Anne Frank, Part 2," the other for the "Welcome To Briarcliff" episode), Sound Editing (Gary Megregian, Steve M. Stuhr, Jason Krane, Christian Buenaventura, Timothy A. Cleveland, David Klotz, Andrew Dawson, Noel Vought), Sound Mixing (Sean Rush, Joe Earle, Doug Andham), Costumes (Lou Eyrich, Marcy Lavender) and Casting (Eric Dawson, Robert Ulrich).
Goi's earlier alluded to ASC Award nominations came in 2005 for his work on Judas and in '99 for The Fixer.
Ethel
In contrast to first-time nominees like Davis and Pardue, DP Buddy Squires this year earned his 10th nomination, the latest being for Ethel in the category of Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming. Ethel is an intimate portrait of Ethel Kennedy, the widow of U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy. Ethel was directed by her daughter, documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy (whose work includes the Emmy-winning Ghosts of Abu Ghraib). Moxie Firecracker Films–founded by Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus–produced Ethel in association with HBO Documentary Films.
Squires–who won the Nonfiction Program Cinematography Emmy back in 1998 for the National Geographic special America's Endangered Species: Don't Say Good-bye–said that the greatest challenge Ethel posed to him was "keeping up with the Kennedys–Ethel, her children and grandchildren, and others. With the exception of the interviews, nothing was set up to be filmed. When the family wanted to go sailing, I'd jump in the sailboat with them, deal with the salt spray, kids jumping into the water off Hyannis Port. When Ethel went to church, I had to be discreet, respectful of her space and moments there. And being with her at Arlington Cemetery was a daunting task. You don't want to disrupt those genuine moments but at the same time you want to get as interesting, as complete and powerful a coverage as you can."
Having access to Ethel Kennedy, related Squires, "was an amazing opportunity. She is an extraordinary woman. It was a privilege and a gift to spend time with her and the entire clan. They're interesting, warm, smart, thoughtful, funny people. When Rory calls you and says you can come up to Hyannis Port for five days and talk to mom and my siblings, you jump at the chance."
Squires' cinematography meshed with family photos and home movies to shed light on the life of the Kennedys and Ethel's resilience, humor, grace and amazing spirit which have remained constant through difficult times, most tragically the assassination of her husband in 1968; six months later, her youngest, Rory, was born, giving Ethel her 11th child to raise.
"I'm very honored to be nominated," affirmed Squires. "I'm proud of the film, which has an astonishing five primetime nominations, a huge testament to the power of the film." The other four noms are for Directing for Nonfiction Programming (Rory Kennedy), Writing (Rory's husband, Mark Bailey), Editing (Azin Samari), and Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special,
Squires shot the documentary with his Panasonic Varicam. "It still delivers great images and the one I used is tape based." He lensed Ethel on tape but has used the Varicam on other projects deploying tape and working digitally, linking the camera to a digital recorder for several projects directed by noted documentarian Ken Burns. At press time, Squires was shooting on Varicam for a Burns film on country music. Squires also used the Varicam on Central Park 5 for Burns. "A lot of Ken's work is a hybrid of film and digital material. But the Varicam is still often the go-to camera for me. I often find that the Varicam is the most versatile and dependable digital camera for my work. In my looking at other cameras, it seems that there's a trend toward large sensors which have their place but they aren't necessarily always the best for a lot of documentary work."
Squires other recent primetime Emmy nominations for cinematography include such Burns' fare as Prohibition (for the episode "A Nation of Drunkards") in 2012 and The National Parks: America's Best Idea (for "The Scripture of Nature" episode) in 2010. All the way back to 1986, Squires as a producer shared an Oscar nomination with Burns for The Statue of Liberty.
Click here to read The Road To Emmy, Part 1.
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