A mixed martial arts (MMA) drama adds to the recent mix of projects for director Adam Davidson. The MMA-themed story told in DirecTV’s Kingdom–-for which Davidson directed two episodes, including the pilot (titled “Set Yourself on Fire”)–has generated Emmy buzz. And looking to the upcoming TV season, Davidson has directed an episode of Starz’s Flesh and Bone while also helming the pilot and two other episodes–and serving as co-executive producer–of Fear the Walking Dead, AMC’s companion series to the apocalyptic The Walking Dead.
Flesh and Bone and Kingdom represent decidedly different approaches to their protagonists–ballet artists and MMA athletes, respectively. Davidson explained, “Both shows have to feel real in order for the stories to work. For Flesh and Bone, the showrunner felt it was important to get real ballerinas who could act because there’s no way to fake ballet dancing. By contrast for Kingdom, we felt we needed actors first who we could make into fighters.”
Helping on the latter score was Greg Jackson, a preeminent MMA trainer with a gym in Albuquerque. Davidson visited Jackson in New Mexico and learned some valuable lessons which helped to shape his approach to Kingdom. Jackson’s expertise also benefited the actors who got a dose of realism regarding the athletes they were portraying.
“Greg was an advisor for the writing and when I went to see him, I saw a great deal–what guys had written on their lockers, where they lived, their living conditions, how they prepared for a fight,” recalled Davidson who was co-EP on the pilot and the following episode of Kingdom. “Six to eight weeks out, a fighter knows who his opponent will be. There’s intense physical and mental preparation. Guys get into incredible shape, they start watching film and learning their opponents’ moves and weaknesses. By the time the fighter enters the cage, the fight is no longer against the opponent. The fight is against themselves. They have to face their fears, to adapt, adjust and deal with adversity. This bell went off in my head. I found my way into the story. Every character metaphorically speaking is in a cage–all facing something, whether actual fighters or not. That became the touchstone for the visual motif I was gong for. I put every character in a cage in some manner, shooting through something in the foreground or background–it didn’t literally have to be a cage, it might be a piece of fencing. There was one scene where the cage was a lifeguard tower on the beach. Even the parole officer, the bureaucrat, is in his own cage, a closeted life where he’s repressing his sexual appetites. We put him in a big building with nothing happening, against a backdrop of cubicles.”
In a recent SHOOT Chat Room column, cinematographer Sidney Sidell described Kingdom–created by Byron Balasco–as “a very visceral show centered on a family of MMA fighters. It’s very real life, edgy, gritty, 95 percent hand-held. There’s no glamour. It’s about the gritty world these people live in.” Sidell landed the Kingdom gig in part due to his prior collaborative relationship with Davidson; the director and DP had teamed on the CBS series Intelligence.
Limited time and budget were two of the prime challenges Davidson faced on Kingdom. “You have to be creative,” he affirmed. “The pilot episode ended with a huge event fight where the youngest son goes after a big win which would put him at the next level. We needed to feel like the event was at a place that attracted about 2,000 people. I knew we could only afford 100 extras, if that. I dove into researching MMA and discovered that the ‘smaller’ events are in these smaller promoter venues. The cage is about four feet off the ground. I took the perspective of being in the audience, the perspective of the trainer, coach, brother and father who are part of the fighter’s team but outside the ring. They generally are looking up at the cage. So I found a place that had an interesting ceiling. For the TV audience, if you sense that the ceiling goes on for a good distance and I add sound, your mind will assume that the entire arena is filled. It’s juxtaposing elements to your advantage. We set it in this hotel conference space which is where fights take place–juxtaposing this kind of glitzy feeling, the jeweled lights, with the brutality happening beneath it, creating a visceral experience with the illusion that a lot of people were there to watch.”
Davidson said his work directing episodes of the Texas football drama Friday Night Lights helped get him the opportunity on Kingdom. “I played football throughout college and was an All American–that combined with my Friday Night Lights work drew them to me for Kingdom,” said Davidson. “In Friday Night Lights, the sports was a backdrop to the lives and the characters. Friday Night Lights was much more than a football show–and that’s what they and I envisioned for Kingdom. It’s not about martial arts; it’s about the characters, their lives, their choices.”
The cast of Kingdom includes Frank Grillo, Mattt Lauria, Kiele Sanchez, Jonathan Tucker and Nick Jonas.
Davidson’s work over the years has won an Oscar and the Cannes Palme d’Or while also earning a DGA Award nomination. The latter came in 1999 for the “Under the Influence” installment of Law & Order, the first TV episode he ever directed. Eight years earlier, Davidson won a Best Live-Action Short Film Oscar for The Lunch Date, originally meant to be a run-up to his thesis project at Columbia University. Prior to the Oscar, The Lunch Date copped the Palme d’Or.
From Law & Order sprung extensive TV directing credits spanning such series as Rome, Treme, Deadwood, True Blood, Turn, Hell on Wheels, Big Love, Hung, United States of Tara, Grey’s Anatomy, Community, Entourage, About a Boy, Dexter, Six Feet Under and Lost. Davidson also served as producer/director on Made In Jersey, Lie to Me and Shark.
Entertainment is in his DNA as the son of Tony Award-winning director/Los Angeles Theater Group chief Gordon Davidson and publicist Judi Davidson. Adam Davidson even took acting classes with Stella Adler–not so much to be an actor but to understand them on a deeper level, an understanding reflected in–and which has enhanced–his directorial endeavors.
Lensing Transparent
For cinematographer Jim Frohna, the acclaimed Amazon series Transparent has been a dream come true. “Far and away I can say Transparent has been a peak creative experience with Jill [series creator/director/writer Soloway], all the actors, the confluence of the high quality writing, the rise of streaming on platforms like Amazon, the convergence of creative energies. I feel like a very very lucky man to get this opportunity–and to get it at a time when I reached a place in my own creative life where I was ready for this project.”
The groundwork for all this was laid when Frohna first met Soloway who at the time was looking for a DP to lens her first feature, Afternoon Delight (2013). “We very quickly connected on a certain style of how to shoot and tell this story–like you feel it’s unfolding before you,” related Frohna. “I don’t want to say ‘documentary’ style but it feels like you’re bearing witness to a family story in the case of Afternoon Delight–and the same is true for Transparent. We fell into this creative groove. Jill hired me [for Afternoon Delight] in part because she responded to the naturalistic shooting style I was already doing–and I responded to her. I’m grateful for the collaborative relationship we have.”
When Soloway–who won the 2013 Sundance Film Festival’s Dramatic Best Directing honor for Afternoon Delight–next gravitated to Frohna to shoot Transparent, he was immediately drawn to the series. “The idea about a family with a bunch of secrets hooked me immediately. I wanted to be a part of this. Jill has the ability to mix awkwardness, humor, sexuality, and sensuality–to relate to highly uncomfortable things that happen to us as human beings or situations family members bring onto themselves. She puts together a wicked mix of humor and depth of human experience.”
Frohna opted for ARRI’s ALEXA to shoot the pilot. For scenes involving sex or quiet moments with characters he deployed the Canon EOS C300. “It’s a much smaller camera which is more suited to intimate moments, helping the machinery of the shooting process disappear,” he explained. “Amazon then told us that all its content had to be shot 4K. We did some tests and decided on the Canon EOS C500. We’re using it again for season two.”
Frohna was a gaffer for eight or nine years, starting out in commercials and music videos. Among the directors he worked with frequently was Mike Mills who diversified into features. Frohna served as a gaffer on Mills’ first feature, Thumbsucker. And Mills later hired Frohna to serve as DP on his documentary Does Your Soul Have A Cold? which explores the problem of depression and anti-depressant drugs in Japan. “That was a big break for me,” said Frohna who had a growing desire to move from lighting to become a full fledged DP. “It was an incredibly seamless and fortunate transition for me–even though it was a bit challenging to go to Japan and shoot a documentary where no one was speaking English. And once Michael hired me as a DP, others followed. For example, [the directing team of] Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris hired me to shoot a Red Hot Chili Peppers video.”
As for what’s next, Frohna has embarked on season two of Transparent. Just prior to that he shot a series pilot, Dr. Del, written by John Sayles, directed by Katie Jacobs and starring John Hawkes in the title role of Del Canyon, a doctor who returns to his small hometown where he helps a community that at the same time he has been trying to distance himself from due to his painful past there. Frohna said it was an independently financed pilot which is looking for a network home. He was drawn to it due to the creative caliber of the people involved, including Sayles (Oscar nominated for his original screenplays for Passion Fish and Lone Star), Jacobs (EP/director and four-time Best Drama Emmy nominee for House MD) and Hawkes (a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Winter’s Bone).
This is the seventh installment of a 14-part series that explores the field of Emmy contenders, and then nominees spanning such disciplines as directing, cinematography, producing, editing, animation and visual effects. The series will then be followed up by coverage of the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony on September 12 and the primetime Emmy Awards live telecast on September 20.
