It was designing many sounds using outboard gear, sort of taking things out of the computer, doing it with modular synths, and just having a blast creating these textural things that played with music. We had Daniel Pemberton’s excellent score, and for the whole episode, we were making sounds harmonized with what he was doing tonally.
I think the bank episode was particularly challenging because of its location. It sits in the middle of Wall Street, and the entire episode takes place there. And because of the logistics of Wall Street, we could not put a lot of lights outside. We only had, like, one day to shoot outside. We were able to close the street, but we needed three. So we had to shoot with the exterior streets with open traffic, which is not ideal. Technically, the lobby of the bank is also very, very dark. You have these very narrow streets with very tall buildings.
I made many quiet clothes that fit well, like trousers and flares. Sometimes, I found a blouse, piece of jewelry, or something that felt right, and we built around it. I wanted to be tethered to real finds and tie everything to reality. If you start using too many theatrical devices, you’re just taking steps further away from keeping that sort of visceral feeling that it needed. I had to go from the script.
Meghann Fahey: I wanna repeat something that Molly shared with us. This idea is that sirens, as we know them, are sort of monsters who make sailors crash their boats, so what we know about sirens is from the male perspective. Molly said, “I thought maybe we should focus on what the song is, and maybe they’re crying for help. You know, what is it? What are they saying?” I think that is the entry point for our characters. By the end, they’ve all sort of put their relationship to power under a microscope in one way or another. I think it’s a very cool unfolding theme to watch happen throughout the series.
There are so many characters and so many relationships. And times two, because you have the young and adult versions. So it’s this kind of exponential and crazy. Initially, working with the producers, we made distinctions between adult and teenage versions of characters. Now that we’re in season three, the breadth and depth of the trauma and horror are revealing.
This season was supposed to be a complete juxtaposition to the end of season two. We wanted to open up and were in a beautiful, idyllic witchy village; they’ve already gone through the worst of survival, and now the summer’s coming, and things are looking up. A summer solstice ceremony happens in the first episode, putting leaves on their costumes.
I think when you are playing a real person. Trying to work through her in real life in the first trial, her closing argument was 15 hours over three days. I had something like eight pages, which is still an extraordinary amount for a TV show, but it’s not her 15 hours of that. I think the parts of when I felt like I was her defense attorney. You know, It’s an extraordinary piece of work. I wish everyone could watch it. I thought for a minute about doing a one-woman show of 15 hours of her closing because it’s an aria. She’s just really incredible. It was hard not being able to do the whole thing, but wanting to give the spirit of what she did.
It was fairly daunting because the expectations were pretty high. These guys have an incredible body of work. Season one was terrific, not just the story, but the visual standard was set so high, so obviously, we wanna take it to new levels and expand upon what they did for season one
From our perspective, it was mostly about simulating the handheld movement as if the operator was riding on the dragon with a rider or it was shot like a dragon to dragon as you would shoot horses, horse to horse. So that was that was a challenge. We simulated the handheld feel by putting a remote Libra Head on the back of the rig.
One of the (techniques) I suggested, which is something which Nikki and I (had) experimented with before, and also has been used in many films before, most famously more in The Silence of the Lambs… is that interview with Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. The camera’s also between them; they’re looking almost directly at the camera. It puts you in the feeling of being under someone’s gaze, and so we thought maybe there’s moments in the story like that.
