On the Fence

Home , Dominic Monaghan, Kato Kaelin

in the in Fence On the BIO PICK BIO It’s spinoff of Breaking of spinoff Bad premiere, thanks to its status as aprequel year, it broke all records for ascripted series AMC’s anticipated shows cable history. in When It’s not easy being apart of one of most really asmall wedding at all!” —Maria Neuman the 300people I’mworking with right now, so that’s not a larger-than-planned party. “I’mseriously inlove with closest friends andfamily back in2014has grown into year.” Also, what started asasmall ceremony with ding. “My fiancé andIhave been engaged for over a there’s athird season andIget to keep telling this story.” isn’t sure whether to unpack. “I’dbebeside myself if que, New Mexico (where Saulisfilmed), Seehorn still Los Angeles homeafter months of living inAlbuquer- type of sexiness that Idon’toften think isshown onTV.” ple who have been together for along time, andthat’s a she says with alaugh. “It’sthe deep intimacy of two peo- sexy, even though nothing overtly sexual ishappening,” in the nailsalon when he’spainting her toenails are so McGill (Bob Odenkirk). they relationship between her andlead character Jimmy in Saul’sfirst season thanks to the are-they-or-aren’t- Franklin &Bash NBC’s Whitney. adds the actress, who was previously seen onTNT’s think the second season iseven stronger than the first,” like satiates a lot of people who wanted to see more shows Saul, whose second season began inFebruary. “But this what you do,”says Rhea Seehorn, lawyer Kim Wexler on Breaking Bad, with really rich writing andcharacters. I Still, she’s also supposed to beplanning her wed- With suitcases andboxes just arriving back at her “People come up to me and say that the scenes Seehorn’s legal eagle struck achord with viewers “It’s impossible to meet all expectations, nomatter Better Call Saul debuted early last .

PHOTOGRAPH BY ODESSY BARBU; STYLING BY JORDAN GROSSMAN; MAKEUP BY JEFFREY PAUL/EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS MANAGEMENT; HAIR BY DAVID GARDNER/GRID AGENCY inmix the

To rewrite an American tragedy, James Franco takes to time-traveling in Hulu’s 11.22.63. Time Reprised

When Stephen King sat down to write 11.22.63, he posed a whale of a “what-if” — As for 11.22.63, which was produced by Warner what if someone could travel back in time? And what if that traveler could change Bros. Television, Carpenter says the biggest thrill the course of history by stopping the assassination of President John F. Kennedy? was to collaborate with Stephen King (who also is an exec producer on the series, along with J.J. Abrams Such is the premise of the book and the subsequent nine-hour limited and Bryan Burk; Kevin Macdonald directed the pilot, on which he is also an series that debuted in February on Hulu. Starring James Franco, Chris Cooper, exec producer). “We were pen pals while I was writing it, and I would tell him Josh Duhamel and T.R. Knight, the series takes flight on a time-travel journey whenever I was making a big story change. His response was to be unflag- unlike any other. gingly supportive.” “This is such a barn burner of a story,” says Bridget Carpenter, the series’ While she still dabbles in stage — she’s writing a musical adaptation of showrunner, executive producer and one of its writers. “It’s a story with a plot Freaky Friday for Disney Theatricals — television remains her medium of the Wthat is swift and yet, at the same time, so lush with characters who we come moment. “Every year I feel like there’s more reason to be in love with TV.” to know and love. The reason I loved the book was because the premise, while —Kathleen O’Steen like a runaway train, offered readers detours to get to know these people.” Franco stars as Jake Epping, a twenty-first-century English teacher who takes on the larger-than-life mission. But in doing so, he finds a life — and yes, love — in the 1960s that he’s loath to leave. “I always joke that it’s a love

story dressed up like a Jason Bourne thriller,” Carpenter says. HOLZBERG MARK BEN The show was shot in part at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, site of the assassination, where Carpenter says the crew took great care to replicate every aspect of that infamous motorcade. “Our costume designer and production designer closely watched every frame of the Abraham Zapruder film to re- create the iconic images,” she says. “And it was eerie — we even shot in [the backyard of] Lee Harvey Oswald’s apartment.” Her biggest surprise? “That we had very little to do digitally to bring that area of Texas back to the 1960s. It still all looks very much the same.” Carpenter began her career as a playwright but segued into television as a writer and producer on NBC’s Friday Night Lights. “That show became a love affair for me,” she says. “I didn’t know you could care so much about a television show before that.”

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In an unexpected walk-on, a veteran editor learned how hard it is to act naturally on set. Here’s his advice for actors wishing to avoid the proverbial cutting-room floor. BY JORDAN GOLDMAN, A.C.E. Making the Cut

The most terrifying day of my life was the day I “acted” on walk to the motor pool hallway? Was I heading to a spill? Then I should be in a camera. hurry. Or had I already finished cleaning up the problem? In that case, I should We were shooting the final episode of The Shield. Word came up to my act more relaxed. cutting room that the director, Clark Johnson, wanted me on set to do a cam- But why was my mop dry? If I was leaving the bathroom, then the mop eo. I was told I’d be a janitor crossing in the background of the police station. should be wet, because I had either used it to clean a spill or just dampened it I walked over to the set, where Wardrobe gave me a set of coveralls and to clean something. Wouldn’t it make more sense if I had been filling a bucket work boots. Then I was handed a mop. The assistant director said, “You’re here in the bathroom and was taking my mop and bucket to the site of the going to exit the bathroom and walk across the bullpen to the motor pool spill? But it was too late to convince Props to give me a bucket. We were about hallway.” to roll. As the crew scurried around setting up the shot, I stood in the bathroom The ADs locked down the set. Then I realized that I didn’t know what my and started to worry. It had been a long time since I’d been in musicals back cue was to come out of the bathroom. Tin high school. My mind flooded with questions. What was my motivation to A panic attack started to brew. If I screwed up this cross, it would ruin 12 EMMY the entire scene. On TV, the police station would seem like it was full of real But what if I had gone through all that trauma and then been cut out of people (the actual actors) and one dummy pretending to be a janitor. I was on the show? What if I’d been a real actor, who had prepared and auditioned the verge of ruining everything and letting down all of my friends. On the final and worked hard for this moment, and I was cut out? I would have been very episode of the entire series, no less! upset. I heard, “Action!” With no idea of what else to do, I waited for a five count, then stepped out of the bathroom carrying my mop. The forty-foot-long There are specific things actors can do to avoid winding bullpen set seemed to telescope out into a room four miles long. up on the cutting room floor. Some are in your control, and Somehow I managed to will myself into motion. When I got to the motor others (like being cut out for time constraints or story flow) pool hallway 1,000 terrifying years later, I passed the room where Clark and aren’t, but most can be mastered before arriving on set. the crew were watching the take on the video monitors. Through the door, I From a practical point of view, the primary tasks of the actor are to: could hear Clark exclaim, “What the hell is with that janitor? Why is he running • stand in the right places across the room like that?” • say the right words I thought I would die. After the AD called cut, I crawled back to the bath- • be directable room, too embarrassed to look at anyone. • convince the audience that you are the person the story claims you My friend Rich Cantu, the B-camera operator, must have seen the terror to be… in my eyes. He pulled me aside. “When you hear Dutch’s second line,” he said, • …experiencing the events and emotions that the story claims you are “come out of the bathroom. Walk to the motor pool hallway. Maybe a little experiencing. slower this time.” If you can’t accomplish these basic goals, then you’re not doing what you Thanks to Rich, things got better in subsequent takes, and if you watch were hired for, and you become a problem that needs to be edited around. episode 713 of The Shield, I’m in there, somehow crossing the room without If you can do these five things, then you’re doing exactly what’s expected looking completely fake. Luckily, I was able to make sure that the janitor didn’t of you and you’re fulfilling your part in the storytelling machine. Thank you! ruin the scene — because I was also the editor of that episode. If you bring something fresh to the role — an interesting point of view or interpretation of your character — then you move up a rank to someone who’s adding to the story. Directors remember those actors. So do writers and producers. However, creativity is not enough. Your technical skills need to be sharp as well — hitting your marks, maintaining continuity, understanding the cause and effect in the scene, showing your point of view, having a moment of decision, restarting in the right place when you flub, et cetera. You should remember that your desire for artistic self-expression is secondary to your obligation to be a vessel for the showrunner’s vision. Your character plays a function in this scene, in this episode, in this series. You’re a cog in a bigger machine. If you do your job poorly, the showrunner has to work around the loss of that cog and make other plans. When a bad actor does a bad job in a critical part — well, that character needs to be retired and a new one written who will accomplish the same dramatic function in future episodes. If you do your job well, the powers-that-be will notice and praise you. And if the right opportunity arises, they are likely to hire you again. The writer wants someone who can bring her words to life. The director wants someone who is convincing, can take direction and get the job done on time. An actor who brings something that adds to what the director is trying to do is a bonus. The showrunner wants someone who is close to or better than what he had in his head when he read or wrote the script. He wants someone who fulfills the function of the character and doesn’t need to be removed for the story to work. And me? I want all of the same things they do. But most of all, I want someone who feels real. In my eyes, the biggest sin you can commit — the one thing I can’t help you overcome through my editing — is for you to be unconvincing. Like, perhaps, that janitor….

13 inmix the Knit One, Purl Too Outlander sets fingers flying as knitters knock off series garb.

Caitriona Balfe and Lotte Verbeek

Balfe and Sam Heughan ED MILLER/STARZ ED

With the beautiful Caitriona Balfe braving the frigid Scottish Highlands in hand- “My hat goes off to the costume designer [Terry knitted cowls, shawls and shrugs, it didn’t take long for knitters and crocheters Dresbach], who did a terrific job,” says Lion design to tune in to Starz’s Outlander. editor Susan Haviland, who got to work with her team. “While all of the pieces evoke the period, they That group included Ilana Rabinowitz, vice-president of marketing at also have a contemporary feel.” Lion Brand Yarns. “We search Ravelry [an online knitting community] and Since Outlander revolves around Balfe’s character, Claire, Haviland fo- various blogs daily and realized how popular Outlander was,” she reports. cused on re-creating her garments; ultimately, patterns were conceived for Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander books, noticed, too. seven items. “Diana is an avid knitter and definitely did some nudging to raise our “We narrowed it down to pieces we thought would be relatively easy for awareness of this dedicated and vibrant community,” says Chris Van Am- consumers to make, yet still captured the essence of the show,” Haviland ex- Wburg, senior vice-president of U.S. franchise marketing, Sony Pictures Tele- plains. Without access to the original woolens, the designer based yarn and vision, the studio behind the show. “It was clear there was a desire for pat- color choices on digital images. “We did a pretty good job at capturing the terns and materials that would allow fans to create their piece of wearable spirit, colors and feelings of the garments.” Outlander art.” “The response has been phenomenal,” Rabinowitz enthuses. “We’re Soon Lion Brand and Sony were tying the knot on an agreement to mar- definitely looking forward to the new season of Outlander and are keeping a ket knit and crochet kits based on the series. future set of designs in mind.” —Paula Hendrickson

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Bugs, beasts and a Lost survivor inhabit Travel Channel series. Going Where the Wild Things Are

Dominic Monaghan took on more than a hobbit role in the he’s been criss-crossing the earth in search of the most amazing, elusive and Lord of the Rings. “I was a major weta picker-upper,” says dangerous animals and insects he can find. the actor, referring to the grasshopper-like insects endemic In the third season, now airing, he pats a majestic whale shark while to New Zealand, where the film trilogy was shot. diving off the coast of Mozambique. He searches Japan for the animal that Whenever one of the horned and spiky-legged creatures was spotted inspired Godzilla. And in the Philippines he comes face to face with a dragon- crawling about, he was asked to extricate it from the set. Monaghan, who like creature known as a flying lizard. adores critters big and small, did as much to protect the insects from the cast “It’s exciting. It’s fun,” says Monaghan, who prepares for any unpredict- and crew as the other way around. able encounters by practicing multi-dexterous activities like hopping on one D“I find them important and beautiful and significant on our planet,” says foot while throwing a tennis ball at a wall. CHANNEL TRAVEL OF COURTESY the former star of ABC’s Lost, who pursues his fascination for exotic crea- “You have to do it straight or you might lose a hand or something.” tures in Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan. For the Travel Channel series, The payoff? “Being close to them.” —Ann Farmer

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Moguls and miscreants move from the pages of Vanity Fair to ID’s true-crime series. Vanity’s Humanity twists and turns of their journalistic investigation. Mark Bowden Contributing writer Buzz Bissinger, for ex- ample, provides a fervid retelling of his 1995 feature, “The Killing Trail,” which sought to connect a string of gay murders in Texas. He also intro- duces a more recent crime of cruelty to update the twenty-year-old story. “These stories are not just a straight it- eration of the article,” says Jeffrey Tuchman, the documentary filmmaker largely responsible for the TV rendition of Mark Bowden’s 2009 Vanity Fair article, “A Crime of Shadows.” Through two stories, a decade apart, the hour examines the gray areas of policing online sexual predators: when is someone intending to commit a crime and when is it just lurid fantasy? Tuchman fleshed out Bowden’s story with a look back at the first case of online predation to be prosecuted, one that shows what can happen Readers of Vanity Fair magazine have when young people patronize online chat rooms long prized its in-depth features on where they can’t be sure whom they’re really celebrity crimes, sex scandals and connected to. real-life mysteries. Now, for a second One hurdle Tuchman faced was how to visu- season, Condé Nast Entertainment, ally impart a story that largely occurs in cyber- True Entertainment and Investiga- space. “So we really had to dig deep creatively,” tion Discovery have partnered to crack he says. open the magazine’s archives and ret- Contrary to the usual way this television rofit its page-turning, true tales for the genre is packaged, the producers of VFC decided FAIR BISHOP/VANITY JUSTIN RID series Vanity Fair Confidential. not to include crime-scene reenactments. “We “I feel like the guy who found King Tut’s Jeffrey Tuchman felt the story and the journalism were enough to tomb,” says Henry Schleiff, group president of In- hold the audience,” Klein says. vestigation Discovery, American Heroes Channel Another recent episode, “Code of Dishonor,” Instead, they bolster the narratives with ar- and Destination America. for instance, investigated what it calls a covert chival footage, interviews with friends and family Season two of VFC kicked off with “Night- war against women by members of the U.S. Air of the victims as well as law enforcement, dra- mare on Elwood Avenue,” about a financial ana- Force. matic soundtracks and newly shot crime-scene lyst who appears to be living the American dream Also this season: an episode narrated by images, often taken by photographers from the in New York City, then suddenly vanishes. Before Beverly Johnson, who was Vogue’s first black distinguished Vanity Fair stable. viewers learn her fate, however, the documentary cover model in 1974. Her story builds on a per- “When you think of Vanity Fair,” Hersh says, dispatches them on a roller-coaster ride involv- sonal essay she penned for Vanity Fair in 2014 “you think of great writing, storytelling and pho- ing medical fraud, drug dependency and other about how Bill Cosby allegedly drugged her years tography. We’re trying to mirror that on TV.” factors that led to her disappearance. ago, similar to the accusations made by scores of Viewers who missed any episodes can catch “It speaks to something bigger,” says True other women. up via VOD or Discovery GO, or download-to-own Entertainment’s vice-president of programming, The passion of the writer of the original piece from iTunes or Amazon — and supplement that Stephanya Bareham, an executive producer on can influence producers’ choices. “When the writer viewing with back issues of Vanity Fair. Confiden- the series with True’s COO Brenda Hurley and co- spent months and years on a story, it’s very per- tially, though, not all episodes this season initially presidents Glenda Hersh and Steven Weinstock. sonal,” says Michael Klein, an executive producer appeared in print. “Buried Alive” — another Buzz She and her colleagues probe the Vanity Fair li- for Condé Nast Entertainment with Dawn Ostroff. Bissinger true-crime tale — skipped the maga- brary for stories that offer more than a scintillat- Each production wrings further emotional juice zine and went directly to air. ing saga. by enlisting the writers to narrate on camera the —Ann Farmer

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BIO PICK Taking Art to Heart

Richard Cabral isn’t defined by the tattoos that cover his neck and arms. But, for years, his intricate ink defined the kind of roles he played. Richard“I’ve always been the bad guy,” Cabral says of his guest-starring roles on shows including Southland, Chicago Fire and Body of Proof. That all changed with the second season of the ABC anthology series Ameri- can Crime. Cabral plays Sebastian De La Torre, a computer tech who helps a sexual-assault victim. “To be just a regular guy was life-changing to my career.” It takes about an hour for makeup to cover the ink. But Cabral would never consider having his tattoos removed. “I got these before I even knew I was going to become an actor. They’re part of me.” The son of an alcoholic mother and an absentee father, the Los Angeles na- tive entered the gang life at an early age. By the time he was twenty, he was fac- ing life in prison for attempted murder. He was ultimately sentenced to five years. Still, the experience changed him. “You don’t go out the same way you went in. I knew that I wanted something different.” He turned to Homeboy Industries, an organization dedicated to helping for- SYNDICATION LOISEAU/LICKERISH/CPI ©DIMITRY mer gang members change their lives. When the executive producer of Southland came looking for guest stars, Cabral was cast and a new career was born. To his complete surprise, Cabral was nominated for an Emmy last year for the first season of American Crime (he played drug dealer Hector Tonz). “I had so many emotions going through me. Nobody from my community or my family had even come into this industry. We had never known anybody successful like that. For this to be happening to me, it was a bit much.” Today, in addition to his busy acting career, Cabral has a production company and is producing Fighting Shadows, a one-man show about his life. He also speaks to groups of young people in gang-ridden communities. “Art saved my life. Storytelling saved my life,” he says. “That’s my message.” —Amy Amatangelo

20 EMMY inmix the MOODY HUES COLORIST FINDS THE FLOW FOR HIGH-PROFILE COMMERCIALS.

Super Bowl season brings its own kind of excitement to Mark Gethin. An award- punches of color. “I do things a little bit more moody,” winning colorist, he performs color grading for commercials seen during the NFL he allows. “I’m not known for bright saturation.” championship game — the biggest day not only for America’s favorite sport, but For the Emmy-nominated Nissan spot, directed for its biggest national advertisers. by Lance Acord, “We experimented,” he says. “Lance came in with an idea. I had a look at a few different “[Advertising] agencies are super-hyped about it,” Gethin observes. shots and lighting.” After the mood and color were selected, “I went through it “Things are a little more intense.” shot by shot, tweaked it, then went through tweak by tweak, till everyone was For this year’s broadcast, Gethin graded commercials for Nissan, Skittles happy. Lance sat next to me the whole time. It took five or six hours to grade.” and Pokeman. Gethin color-graded a Coca-Cola commercial for the 2014 Super Bowl SThe Nissan spot he worked on for last year’s Super Bowl, “With Dad,” was for director John Hillcoat. Called “It’s Beautiful,” the spot featured a mul- nominated for an Emmy Award as outstanding ticultural rendition of “America the Beautiful.” commercial. Set to the Harry Chapin song “Cat’s in Gethin also worked on Hillcoat’s upcoming fea- the Cradle,” it tells of a father who neglects his son ture, Triple 9. to become a racecar driver, but ultimately reunites “He and I usually sit down for an hour and

with his boy in a Nissan. talk about film references,” Gethin says. “There’s TIERNEY MARK As a colorist, “My job is to set the tone or no set formula — you start playing around with Coca-Cola’s It’s Beautiful mood of the whole piece,” says Gethin, who over- shots.” sees offices in Los Angeles and New York and also Gethin’s series work includes the pilot for works on London projects. HBO’s Togetherness and a dream sequence for “I usually work with a D.P. or a director. They’ll NBC’s Hannibal. come in with a reference, visuals about how they Some of his high-profile commercials have want the look to be. I have to match the look frame premiered during the Oscars and the Grammys. by frame — whatever times of day it’s been shot But even in Super Bowl season, Gethin keeps his — and make it feel as if there’s a perfect flow and cool. When temps are rising at the agencies, he continuity throughout the piece.” says, “I try not to feel too much pressure.” Nissan’s With Dad His own style is shadowy and evocative, with —Libby Slate

22 EMMY inmix the RON P JAFFE P RON

James LaRosa juggles many jobs on VH1’s scripted series Hit the Floor, which he created in 2013 after the cable network devoured his pitch: “So You Think You Can Dance meets Black Swan.” In addition to executive-producing and serving as Jamesshowrunner, he directed two episodes during the second season and is directing another two in the third. One skill the Boston-born writer is yet to display: dancing. He leaves that to the pros — in this case BIO PICK the performers who appear as the Devil Girls, the fictional pro-basketball dance squad at the heart of the show. While the drama surrounding the not-so-heavenly dancers was front and center early on, the series has since broadened its focus to include more about pro ball and its underbelly, or as LaRosa says, Dance “the emotional dirt between coaches and agents. I now glibly describe the show as Scandal with dance numbers.” As a kid, LaRosa couldn’t get enough of soaps. He’d rush home from school to watch daytime dra- with the mas and followed primetime sudsers like Dynasty and Falcon Crest. The Syracuse University grad didn’t have much professional writing experience when he heard that VH1 was looking to create a basketball-themed series (his credits included MTV’s short-lived Spyder Devils Games, for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination) But his understanding of soap-diva machinations and his gift for writing female characters ultimately landed him at VH1. By its second season, Floor had developed a strong female following. Still, LaRosa has made a point of creating characters that reflect his reality as a gay man who grew up in a diverse area. “When I was younger, there were virtually no gay roles [on soaps],” he observes. So last season he penned a steamy storyline between Devils player Zero (Adam Senn) and sports agent Jude (Brent Antonello) that fans instantly dubbed “Zude.” “Working on this series,” he says, “I’ve learned that I can change the culture.” —Michele Shapiro

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Driven by da Vinci’s Code An author-turned-producer looks to the masters as he shapes projects for TV.

Author James Frey took the name of ects based on the series are slated for production show. At the company, I always say we should be his transmedia company, Full Fath- this year. making things we wished existed in the world.” om Five, from a line in Shakespeare’s For Frey, Hollywood represents something American Gothic developed from an obses- The Tempest that, incidentally, also of a homecoming. He always knew he wanted to sion that Frey shared with Fathom company ex- titles one of Jackson Pollock’s first be an author, “but I also wanted to make a liv- ecutives Todd Cohen and Laura Terry over the drip paintings. “The idea of the com- ing,” he says. So he moved to L.A. in 1995 to write podcast Serial. Wanting to create something like pany was to use the art world model screenplays. After eight years of steady work, he it for television, they generated an outline, ap- to create things with words,” he says, moved back to New York and achieved massive proached Amblin Entertainment and together and the phrase merged the two nicely. success — and controversy — with his first book, brought on writer Corinne Brinkerhoff (The Good A“And it sounds cool.” A Million Little Pieces. Though the release was ini- Wife) to write and run the show. Picked up by CBS Frey conceived the L.A.–based company six tially marketed as a memoir of Frey’s experience as a summer series, Gothic centers on a Boston years ago, when he was in England, touring the in drug rehab, the author later admitted that sec- family who believes one of its members may be facilities of artist Damien Hirst. Watching assis- tions were fictionalized. a serial killer. tants fabricate the projects that Hirst envisaged, Frey continued to write novels, but he missed Fathom execs then dreamed up Relationship Frey was excited by the efficiency of the contem- the collaborative nature of production. He’s get- Status for the Verizon–YouTube network Style-

porary studio. “It’s how da Vinci made art, how ting plenty of that now. Fathom’s first television haul. The series — developed on spec with Celine GANDOLFO CHRISTINA Michelangelo made art, how Warhol made art,” show, Amazon’s The Kicks, comes from a book Geiger, along with producing partners Milo Ven- he says. series by Olympic soccer gold medalist Alex Mor- timiglia and Russ Cundiff — explores how young Adapting the process to storytelling, he came gan. Frey and his oldest daughter, Maren, had people today fall in love on their phones. up with an idea for a young adult book series, watched the U.S. women’s team play in the 2012 “The best way we thought to do it was obvi- found cowriter Jobie Hughes and subsequently World Cup and found Morgan’s performance ously as a digital series,” says Frey says, who is an produced the bestselling Lorien Legacies. The electrifying. executive producer on all Fathom’s shows. Digital first book, I Am Number Four, was adapted into “We spent a year or so working on the series books will tie in as well. a feature film. The series, featuring the work of with Alex, sold it, and it’s been really successful,” “I’m not so pretentious to call myself an art- various writers, so far consists of seven novels he says of the show, whose pilot streamed last ist,” Frey explains, “but I follow the core idea that and fifteen novellas published in thirty-six lan- June; the series will debut later this year. “The artists can make whatever they want, and they guages. And three television and streaming proj- idea always was that there would be a television can present it however they want.” —Lisa Rosen

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Producer-turned-exec leads TNT toward discordant content. A PLEDGE TO THE EDGE The night before producer Sarah Aubrey’s first day on the film set Badof Santa, and Rizzoli & Isles to the kind of serial shows that fans she found out she was pregnant with her first child. She would keep the news to binge-watch on Netflix and HBO, with a target audi- herself for three months, leaving colleagues to draw their own conclusions. ence of men and women in their mid-forties. The first pick-ups to air under Aubrey’s watch “I was nauseous for weeks, napped during lunchtimes, and I overheard will be Good Behavior, the story of a con woman–thief whose life is constant- [producer] John Cameron saying he didn’t know if I was going to make it in this ly going awry, and Animal Kingdom, an adaptation of the 2010 Australian film. business,” she says, laughing. Both are scheduled to air this summer. Over the next decade, Aubrey went on to multiple successes in film and The TNT version of the Aussie crime drama will be a mash-up of blue- television, partnering with Peter Berg in their production company, Film 44. collar culture and the life of a mob family, set in a southern California beach The two produced the feature Friday Night Lights and were executive produc- town. “It’ll be swagger and wink, as opposed to just gritty,” Aubrey says. ers on the NBC series based on the movie. For HBO, their credits include The Originally from Austin, Texas, Aubrey began her career as an entertain- Leftovers, the drama starring Justin Theroux; a sports documentary series, ment attorney, working on corporate law and representing the Playboy Net- TState of Play, and On Freddie Roach, a reality series about a boxing trainer work in its merger with companies in Latin America. “I realized no one was go- WHITE JAMES struggling with Parkinson’s disease. ing to take script notes from an attorney, so I left the firm to join John Cameron Aubrey’s work on Friday Night Lights caught the eye of then–NBC presi- to produce Bad Santa for the Coen brothers and Bob Weinstein,” she says. dent Kevin Reilly (now president of TNT and TBS), who recruited her to be- With female producers still relatively scarce in Hollywood, Aubrey is fo- come executive vice-president of original programming for TNT. Her charge: cused on cultivating diverse viewpoints — both in terms of race and gender to push the drama-focused network in a new direction with edgier material. — in front of and behind the camera. “There’s a lot of dark material with antiheroes being done right now,” Au- Meanwhile, the mother of three adeptly juggles family and career. “I was brey says. “It’s hard to mix serious drama with humor, but we see an oppor- nine months’ pregnant with my third baby on the set of The Leftovers,” Au- tunity to tell sophisticated stories with complex characters, humor, sexiness brey recalls. “It was so hot, and the guys were a little horrified, having me walk and muscularity.” around pregnant. But it’s good for men to see that a woman can do it all.” In other words, the needle is moving away from procedurals like The Closer —Dinah Eng

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The producers and crew of WGN’s Outsiders think different to re-create Appalachia. How Would a Hillbilly Have It? “This is our land. This is our blood. We will never leave this mountain!” declares In building the Farrell residence, “we decided that Lady Ray (Phyllis Somerville), hoisting her staff to a round of applause from her their homes were most likely passed down from their clan. She will stop at nothing to protect her kin — including taking on the town original ancestors, people who took pride in crafting below and the coal conglomerate threating to mine their beloved Shay Mountain them a century before them. But the modern-day and remove them from their off-the-grid lifestyle. Farrells are more concerned with increasing their moonshine production than fixing up their houses.” Such is the battle behind WGN’s Outsiders, which creator, executive pro- To foster this mentality, the crew built dwellings with “an eclectic me- ducer and writer Peter Mattei affectionately calls “hillbilly Shakespeare,” then nagerie” of materials — everything from plastic to glass, Lincoln logs and explains: “It’s a gritty Appalachian drama that is ultimately about a clash of metal. “It became a mishmash of hippie community meets old settlers cultures.” meets Section 8 folks,” Carlson says. The rustic barn that the clan uses as the Outsiders, which premiered in late January, follows the Farrells, including local watering hole, for instance, was erected around a large, weathered tree. Big Foster (David Morse), who is next-in-line to rule; his “For two or three weeks, I was fighting the carpen- Phyllis Somerville as Lady Ray Teldest, Little Foster (Ryan Hurst); and black sheep Asa ters to get more creative with thinking like a hillbilly,” (Joe Anderson). Carlson recalls. “I was like, ‘Stop with the perfection! For inspiration, Mattei and fellow executive pro- Let’s see a quarter-inch gap over there. Let’s see some ducer Peter Tolan studied the ways of gypsy mountain crooked boards.’” Mattei insisted that if a set piece

tribes (other exec producers are Paul Giamatti, Dan wasn’t something the Farrells could have dragged up LIEBOWITZ ERIC Carey and Michael Wimer.) A hilly region outside Pitts- the mountain on an ATV, it didn’t belong. burgh, Pennsylvania, was secured as the series’ stage, Other key elements were contributed by director and production designer Jonathan Carlson was tasked of photography Jaime Reynoso (the other DP is Scott with creating the hillbilly environs. Peck), who gave the show what Mattei calls a “light doc- “We talked to him about a mash-up between folk umentary look,” while costume designer Sarah Beers art with a sort of old-fashioned way of building things in crafted garments that paired a hillbilly attitude with a hillbilly aesthetic,” Mattei says. classic English style. Carlson describes the twenty acres he had to play “This show is so creative, from the production to with: “There was a flat meadow, where we created the the wardrobe,” says star David Morse. “Everything they compound. It fell off sharply with cliffs and little creeks. built is a piece of art. I just loved being inspired by the There were a couple of trails and a very beautiful forest, potential of this world and the creativity that has been which lent itself to the feeling of a mountainous com- poured into it.” munity.” —Nicole Pajer

Farrell distillery

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Lil Foster Gwinveer’s shack inmix the

A Persistent Struggle Black Panthers doc resonates with present-day themes.

“There’s never one reason,” documentarian Stanley Nelson says of what prompts typically a dreadful practice that Nelson says ben- him to embark on a film. His recent release, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the efited the process this time around, since it resulted Revolution, had several. in the movie’s most absorbing element: fresh interviews with a slew of former Panthers. “I thought it was a story that people didn’t know,” says Nelson, who wrote, “Most of the time, I’ll tell you how horrible it is trying to raise money and directed and produced the documentary. “There were so many great charac- taking that long to make the film,” Nelson says. “But the good part is, you have ters and so many people who were still alive who could tell the story. There’s more time. You have time to be around people who might say the first year, ‘I great music, great footage, great stills from that era.” don’t want to be in the film.’ By the second they may say, ‘Well, maybe’ and by All of those qualities are on display in Vanguard, a comprehensive account the third year they’ll say, ‘Yes.’” Tof the Black Panther Party’s run from the mid-1960s through the early 1970s at One of the many non-Panthers to offer insights and recollections is the front of the black power movement — and in the crosshairs of J. Ed- Stanford University history professor Clayborne Carson, director of the gar Hoover’s FBI. After a brief stay in theaters last fall, it premiered school’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. On in February on PBS as part of the network’s Independent Lens screen, Carson is critical of Panther leaders whose shortcomings documentary series (it will re-air throughout the month and is disabled the party internally while the FBI’s machinations sabo- available online). The film adds to Nelson’s career-long prob- taged it from without. Still, he hopes audiences will recognize ing of the African-American experience, a catalog of work that the lineage that reaches from the Panthers to today’s Black includes Freedom Riders (for which he was awarded two Em- Lives Matter movement. mys, including exceptional merit in nonfiction filmmaking) and “That black-radical tradition is what I hope young people The Murder of Emmitt Till (for which he won a directing Emmy). would take from the film,” he says. “Here was a group fifty years Of the many films previously made about the Panthers, Nel- Stanley Nelson ago that was concerned about police brutality, mass incarceration, son says that none portrayed the full life span of the party and illumi- poverty, employment — all the problems that still plague the black nated all the events that led to its creation, expansion and eventual dissolution. community. And they were so dedicated that they were willing to give their COURTESY OF STEPHEN SHAMES; COURTESY OF SAM ALESHINLOYE SAM OF COURTESY SHAMES; STEPHEN OF COURTESY “There had been films that the Panthers were part of,” Nelson says, “there had lives. That should be a source of inspiration now.“ been films about individual Panthers, but there hadn’t been a film that tried to Nelson ends the film with the demands listed in the Panthers’ original tell the rise and fall.” ten-point program, beginning with “We want freedom,” and ending with “land, That’s a complicated, heated story, and Nelson worked to enlighten with- bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.” out lecturing. The wealth of archival material in the film — including news “We wanted to leave that in your memory without hitting you over the head footage, once-secret memos and home movies — speaks for itself, as when and saying, ‘These things still have not been achieved,’” he says. “That’s pretty Hoover seems to dismiss the notion of police abuse by saying, “Justice is inci- obvious to any thinking person. It’s the continued struggle. Hopefully it helps dental to law and order.” to validate some of the things the Panthers were fighting for — these things, The film took seven years to make, much of it spent chasing after funding, they’re not crazy. We’re still fighting for them today.”—Jeff Weinstock 32 EMMY inmix the

Visual effects fuel the storms at sea for Starz’s pirate drama. Yo Ho, Whoa!

For Erik Henry, producer and senior visual-effects supervisor of the Starz pirate saga now than I’ve ever seen,” Henry says. “Sails are Black Sails, a valid passport is as essential to his work as the latest VFX software. so difficult — if they move at the wrong speed, it looks funny. There has to be realism in the white Consider this: while working on the season- two weeks at the series’ filming location in Cape caps, too.” three finale, he was away from his L.A.–area Town, South Africa, which doubles for the show’s One nifty trick: “Sometimes we say we’re go- home almost an entire month, visiting Montreal 1700s Nassau setting. Work on season four is ing to move the sun a little bit, to light the sails in and Stockholm for a week each and spending now under way, which means a return to Cape a way that makes them look better.” Town for another month. Henry works with about a dozen VFX ven- “We have vendors in Montreal and Stock- dors, linking files through cineSync software to F holm we’ve been working with all season long,” review work together in real time. “With all that explains Henry, who won an Emmy in 2014 for technology, there’s something to be said for hu- outstanding visual effects in a supporting role man interaction,” he says. for the show and was nominated again last year; Season three had the biggest effects yet, he also won an Emmy for his effects work on the with creator-showrunners Jonathan E. Steinberg HBO miniseries John Adams. and Robert Levine’s pulling out all the stops. A “Whenever I’m in Cape Town, I take creative massive storm in the second episode was filmed meetings with the directors and producers,” he for days in broad daylight — on dry land. Thanks

explains “We go over strategies for shooting the to VFX, special effects and a deck tilted at a forty- WILLIAMSON/STARZ TODD VFX. Planning is key to our success, and you can’t degree angle, audiences saw forceful winds lash have too much.” at the ship under darkened skies, waves crash, Canadian studio Hybride was brought in to masts split, and some men drop into sea while re-create Caribbean landscapes in areas where others remain trapped in a water-filled cabin. the company couldn’t shoot, and to double — via “We couldn’t have done it without the help motion-capture — almost 150 types of move- of special-effects supervisor Paul Stephenson,” ments by extras, including rowing boats and rap- Henry says. idly disembarking, and firing and reloading mus- Other effects this season include green- kets. Swedish company ILP worked on ships, sails screen work with the prosthetic leg of John Silver and water; Digital Domain in Los Angeles shares (Luke Arnold) and creating realistic pirate hangings. those duties. “The storm sequence was my biggest challenge,” Erik Henry “The realistic movement of the sails is better Henry says. “I’m so happy with it.” —Libby Slate

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TRIAL AND ERROR The Bronco rides again in FX’s reexamination of The People v. O.J. Simpson.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Courtney B. Vance

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski figure that for the past three years, LK: It presented a great canvas that excited us. they’ve been the worst dinner party guests in Los Angeles. That’s because the It’s a fascinating topic, one that you couldn’t do award-winning writers of films like The People vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon, in a two-hour movie. You need time to explore Big Eyes and Ed Wood opted to develop FX’s new limited series, The People v. O.J. all the offshoots, and this format allowed us to Simpson: American Crime Story. explore the why and the what with the people involved, really seeing what was going on in their “Whenever we’d go out, people would even- So, what were your personal connections to the lives. tually ask what we were working on, and all con- O.J. trial? SA: We did have trepidation at first — had it been versation just stopped when we told them,” Alex- Larry Karaszewski: I grew up in Brentwood, so I too soon or too long since it all happened? But Sander explains. “O.J. would be all anyone wanted remember O.J. Simpson as one of those celebri- after the past three years, with all the police to talk about. Everyone has a personal connec- ties you’d see at the grocery store, smiling and shootings that have happened, this feels torn tion, remembers where they were.” taking photos with people. out of the headlines again. We felt we could write Emmy contributor Craig Tomashoff spoke Scott Alexander: I’ll never forget the day of the something that mattered in 2016. We could talk with Alexander and Karaszewski (who executive- Bronco chase. We were working on a project in about some big ideas, such as the trial being the produce the series with Ryan Murphy, Nina Ja- some crappy building half a mile or so from Dis- beginning of reality TV. Here was someone like cobson, Brad Simpson and Brad Falchuk) about ney. We’d heard that O.J. was on the loose and the Faye Resnick [a friend of the murdered Nicole revisiting the infamous Simpson case and the Bronco was spotted. The only TV in the building Brown Simpson], who became famous for what surprising things they discovered while turning that worked was in the lobby, and half the people reason exactly? I tried to explain to my kids what the real-life drama that unfolded on TV into a in the building surrounded this black-and-white a superstar Kato Kaelin was and they said, “Why? ten-part TV drama. television with rabbit ears to watch what was He just lived in someone’s backyard.” MICHAEL BECKER; ANDY MARX ANDY BECKER; MICHAEL happening. LK: There’s also the story of racial relations with the LAPD. And we have an episode showing how Did you learn anything about the case that [prosecutor] Marcia Clark was held to a different you’d never known before? standard [because of her sex]. She was criticized LK: There was so much we had either forgotten or for her haircut. She had the nightmare of juggling never knew in the first place. For instance, I never her personal and professional life, a working knew that right after the murders, they stashed mom who can’t get home to have dinner with her O.J. at the Kardashians’ house. And I didn’t know kids. O.J. also represented the beginning of the about the conversation he had with police during twenty-four-hour news cycle. the Bronco chase. Also, we have a whole episode about the jurors and their life in the hotel — I don’t Did anything you learned change your opinions think anyone knew what that was like. about the case? SA: We didn’t want to retry O.J. Simpson. Every-

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski This is a subject that everyone has strong feel- body’s made up their minds. We just wanted to ings about. What made you want to tackle it? look at why the verdict came out the way it did.

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