Bringing their play, A Twist of Water, to an episodic series was an exciting challenge for writers Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss. The four-character story takes place over a month’s time and is focused on a gay white father and his adopted African-American daughter, in Chicago, attempting to rebuild their lives after the death – from a car accident – of the man’s husband. The pilot and subsequent eight-part series based on the play, led by Executive Producers Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti, offered Parrish and Weiss the chance to “rethink the circumstances around the husband’s death in the context of a more relevant national conversation on race and police violence. We could expand the story to include all three families, and the larger picture of Chicago’s divisions and connections in the present day,” the pair explained. The connecting thread and subsequent title of the series was the city’s famous Red Line train. Most notably, Weiss explains, “the inciting death of Harrison Brennan went from offstage to onscreen. And, the circumstances changed from a car crash to a police shooting, which brought a whole new character, Officer Paul Evans, into the story. Rather than meeting Tia Young [the birth mother] at the end of the play, we see her family’s story unfold from the start.” For the pilot, the two turned to Director Victoria Mahoney and Cinematographer Manuel Billeter to create a look that was “simple and elegant, without too many flourishes but with a lushness and palatte that still made it stand out visually from other network dramas,” Parrish explains. “When we went to series with Cinematographer Kira Kelly and Producing Director Kevin Hooks, a more complete vocabulary for the camera was developed,” Weiss adds. “When I came in, two days before the camera and prep, Kira had already chosen her package,” recalls 1st AC Jason Bonner. “ALEXA Minis with Panavision PVintage lenses. We decided not to use filtration, just ND3s and grads to shoot as close to wide open as possible.” “Kira chose detuned Panavision Primos to flesh out the focal length range of the PVintage,” adds DIT
36
John Waterman. They also used Panavised Angénieux and detuned Primo zoom lenses for exterior work. “The PVintage primes [which are re-housed Ultra Speeds] and the detuned Primos gave us some challenges,” Waterman adds. “The color cast of the lenses varied throughout the set, and even from shot to shot, based on the flaring and lighting kick angle.” Waterman set Kelly’s intended look with CDL adjustments and captured reference grabs for every shot and actor position. He employed a custom Wi-Fi network for camera control on his cart that gave Kelly and him the ability to “tunnel into any camera at a moment’s notice and change any setting,” he explains. “We could use this remote-control ability of each camera’s EI [Exposure Index] to get a quick half-stop exposure adjustment without changing the camera’s iris or depth-of-field.” Digital loader Drew Fulton handled all of the media, downloading, and shuttle drives. “On a television schedule it’s so important to maintain the speed of setups,” Waterman adds. “Working with a digital loader, I was able to devote 100 percent of my time to working with Kira and managing the cameras.” Kelly says she played with a lot of color contrast on set, “and [Company 3 colorist] Dave Hussey was really able to bring that out in the final grade,” she notes. “We were also able to highlight the visual differences in each of the three storylines. I was so pleased to be able to work with an artist like Dave, who does such beautiful work, but can do it at the pace TV demands.” Once the workflow was set, Kelly and Hooks created a different look for each family impacted by the shooting. “We wanted viewers to feel the Calders being immobilized by grief,” Kelly explains. “The Paul Evans story became handheld, emphasizing that he’s