PRODUCTION NOTES Book Two of the Epic Drama “Outlander
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PRODUCTION NOTES Book Two of the epic drama “Outlander” is based on “Dragonfly in Amber,” the second book in Diana Gabaldon’s international best-selling series. The story begins as Claire and Jamie arrive in France, hell-bent on infiltrating the Jacobite rebellion led by Prince Charles Stuart, and stopping the battle of Culloden. With the help of his cousin Jared, a local wine merchant, Jamie and Claire are thrown into the lavish world of French society, where intrigue and parties are abundant, but political gain proves far less fruitful. Altering the course of history presents challenges that begin to weigh on the very fabric of their relationship. However, armed with the knowledge of what lies ahead, Claire and Jamie must race to prevent a doomed Highland uprising, and the extinction of Scottish life as they know it. FROM BOOK TO SCREEN Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore (“Battlestar Galactica,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) described this season as “a much more complicated tale with a lot of moving parts in contrast to the first season, which was relatively straightforward.” In Season One, “Claire’s drive was always clear. She goes in the past. She tries to get home. She falls in love with Jamie. She decides to stay. He's captured and tortured, and she rescues him. Adapting the second book was more challenging. It took us a while to break it down and figure out how we could take pieces out and put them back together in a way that both served the original story so the fans of the books could recognize it, while at the same time giving the audience that hasn't read the books a coherent story they can follow along. You're constantly trying to serve both those masters as you go through the process.” As the season begins, “Claire’s in an interesting position. It's her idea to change the course of history, and her plan to get inside the rebellion and subvert it from within by pretending to be supporters,” Moore explains. “Jamie is dubious. It’s not a very honorable path. They'll have to lie to everyone that they know and lie to people who support a cause that Jamie would actually naturally want to support. Claire says, ‘Look, the stakes are enormous. We're talking about tens of thousands of lives. We're talking about the future of the entire Scottish culture, as well as Jamie's own family.’” “But Claire finds the deception harder than she thought. As time goes on, she finds that the lies pile on top of one another, and the atmosphere of corruption and backbiting and double-dealing in Paris begins to infect their own relationship, and they get to a place where they do have to ask: who are we becoming? And is it worth it? And ultimately, are the stakes so high that even if we sacrifice our own souls in service of this cause, is that a fair price to pay?” Adapting the story was not the only daunting task Moore and his team faced prepping Season Two. While the first episodes are set in Paris, the action eventually returns to Scotland, where the Jacobite Rebellion is underway, and war has begun in earnest. “It was an enormous undertaking. We had two very different shows to prep. It takes a lot of concentration and proper planning to figure out how to make such a giant shift in your production.” From sets, to costumes to characters and even in terms of the score, the audience will see “a different world,” Moore says. “It's a different atmosphere. The challenge was keeping it thematically still Outlander.” One thing that has not changed is the characters fans have come to love. In addition to the Frasers, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan), familiar faces include Murtagh Fitzgibbons (Duncan LaCroix), the Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow), Jenny Murray (Laura Donnelly) and her husband Ian (Steven Cree,) and the MacKenzie Clan – Colum (Gary Lewis), Dougal (Graham McTavish), Rupert (Grant O’Rourke) and Angus (Stephen Walters). Tobias Menzies returns in his dual role, as both Frank Randall and his ancestor Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall (who was presumed dead as Season One ended) who continue to be central to Claire and Jamie’s story. The episodes in Paris do introduce a number of new characters, from Fergus (Romann Berrux), a young French pickpocket who joins the Fraser household and becomesfiercely loyal to the couple, to Louis XV, King of France, (Lionel Lingelser), a powerful man with a taste for the ladies. Claire makes several new friends in Paris, including Master Raymond (Dominique Pinon), a mysterious healer with a great deal of knowledge regarding secret matters, both political and occult; Mother Hildegarde (Frances De La Tour), the intelligent and commanding Mother Superior, who is Claire’s supervisor at L’Hopital Des Anges, where she volunteers; Louise de Rohan (Claire Sermonne), a frivolous and animated member of the French Court, with whom Claire strikes up a genuine friendship; and Mary Hawkins(Rosie Day), a sweet and innocent young Englishwoman who is a pawn in the power plays of her elders. Meanwhile, Jamie spends his time getting close to Prince Charles Stuart(Andrew Gower), the young heir to Scotland’s exiled Catholic royal dynasty plotting his return to the throne, and trying to avoid le Comte St. Germain(Stanley Webber), a wine merchant and member of the French Court, who has a reputation for ruthlessness, as well as for dabbling in the occult. Paris also brings new pressures for the Frasers as a couple. Despite the tension inherent in living a lie, Claire finds her stay in Paris to be fairly tedious, according to Balfe. “She feels her hands are tied. Claire had more freedom in Scotland - she was an outsider so she didn’t have to conform to the norms of women there. But, in France she does have to assume the role of the lady and the role of the wife. And as we know, Claire likes to get her hands dirty and be in the midst of things but she’s relegated to sitting on the sidelines. Yes, she can plot with Jamie behind the scenes, but she doesn’t get to go and execute any of these plans. Jamie needs her to be supportive but she also needs him to be supportive of her desire to be a vital person with a purpose in life. And then this goal just completely overshadows the fact that she is pregnant and she’s carrying a child and that that means so much to her. She kind of feels abandoned by him.” While much of the story takes place in France, the series was again shot almost entirely in Scotland, mainly in the state-of-the-art studio complex located in Cumbernauld, close to Glasgow, that was retrofitted for Season One. To accommodate all the sets needed to create three completely different worlds – 1740s Paris, 1740s Scotland and 1940s Scotland, two new soundstages were built, in addition to the two existing soundstages (measuring 17,000 and 10,000 square feet), armory, props warehouse, design studio, carpentry shop and complete post-production facilities. And despite the authentic representation of both interior and exterior scenes in Paris, the production spent no time at all in France. “Paris doesn't really look like it did in the 18th century anymore,” Moore explains. “We had to go find some place that still did.” For many locations, that place was Scotland. Several local stately homes were utilized, including Hopetoun House, designed by Sir William Bruce and remodeled by William Adam, which is one of the finest examples of 18th century architecture in Great Britain, and Gosford House, an imposing neoclassical mansion that was one of the last great commissions of the celebrated Scots architect, Robert Adam. Dysart Harbour, once a busy and wealthy port involved in such wide ranging industries as salt production, coal mining, the textile industry, fishing and boat building, stood in for Le Havre docks. More difficult was finding locations that could double for the magnificent palace of Versailles. The exterior of Gosford House played the part of King Louis’s stables, while the grounds of Drummond Castle, nestled in the hills south of Creiff, were used for scenes that take place in the garden. “Drummond Castle Gardens are one of the finest examples of formal terraced gardens in Scotland and could reflect the majesty of the French gardens,” producer David Brown explains. “We decided to go the visual effects route and drop 3D shots of the old Palace of Versailles into the background of our shots.” (These gardens have a historical link to the story as they were abandoned in 1745, following the second Jacobite rising.) And for some Versailles scenes, including exteriors and interior rooms, one of England’s most historic estates was employed. Rooms in Wilton House in Salisbury, a Palladian masterpiece, were transformed into French salons, and furnished with period-appropriate pieces. “We were looking for very heavily gilded and French style interiors” says Brown, “and Wilton House afforded us that look.” But when it came to recreating the city streets of 18th Century Paris, Moore and his team had to go further afield. “In the old city of Prague you’ve got lots of eighteenth century period buildings,” Brown says. So the entire production, hundreds of cast and crew relocated to the Czech capital for nearly two weeks, capturing street scenes, chase sequences and hospital exteriors. An ornate library in Prague was also used for an iconic chess scene.