Dan Gonzales is integral to the spirit of Fargo. For Chapter five of the Noah Hawley-created series, the cinematographer returned to the series to direct episodes as well. The premiere, “The Tragedy Of The Commons,” earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie.
It’s an outstanding chapter of Fargo, in which Gonzales introduces all the players with natural yet visually striking images. To the cinematographer, it’s all about following what’s organic, what’s happening in front of him. Recently, the Emmy-nominated cinematographer spoke with Immersive about how he approaches his work on Fargo.
A standout image from the premiere was the use of blue and red police lights on the road when Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris) crosses paths with Munch (Sam Spruell) and hell ensues. How’d you make those lights as effective as you did there?
That was happening naturally. My whole goal on any of these scenes is always to utilize everything that’s happening organically, and try to maximize the strength of any of those things, not try to bring too much to the scene. We added smoke into it and then kind of accentuated those lights to the right angle.
There was no smoke originally. Then when there was a little bit of smoke, all of a sudden, it was kind of heightened. So, it was a very surreal moment that was created right at that moment.
It was accentuating the organic lighting that was happening and making it standout, and definitely having it go from light to dark and light smoke up definitely lends itself to that surreal moment of the scene.
With the character Munch, how early on did you know that you could be more expressionistic for this season?
Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I was just talking about something like this at breakfast about how it just seems like, in all the work that I do with Noah and everything, you don’t know those characters. You don’t know that actor, how they start being portrayed on screen, what their strengths are, and what they bring.
You’re right, that particular moment you’re talking about, it was kind of developed probably that day even. I don’t even know if we talked about it. It was happening, the strength of that character. I forgot how many days we had been shooting, but it was clear, very clear the first hours of shooting with Sam, that he was bringing something special to that character.
And then, you could add the surreal moment in the middle of a scene that really isn’t written that way, or it doesn’t really need it until all of a sudden you realize, okay, this is great to play up this mythical character. I don’t know, maybe Noah always had it in the back of his mind, but I know it was something we didn’t talk about until all of a sudden it was happening. When you start seeing the strength of these particular actors, you work with that. Yeah, that’s a good observation.
I don’t know if Munch follows darkness or darkness follows him around, but how did his performance influence how you shot him at night or with shadows?
Yeah, no, you could push that the lights going out and being affected and the drama of that because of a character like that. It’s the ultimate win of the writing meeting somebody who’s going to be able to portray it. There is no end to what you can do with that. In the first episode, I think you see it more and more throughout.
For Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm), this guy sees himself like the Marlboro man on toxic steroids. What was your first initial impression of reading him on the page and your first instincts were how to shoot this guy?
Definitely early on we talked about toxic masculinity. The way it’s written speaks for itself a bit on what he’s saying and what parallels those are to current figures out there. I’ve read so many different reviews too, about the people that are on that side of constitutional law or whatever you want to call it. It could have been the shining moment for them, okay, now someone’s finally talking about this and this, but I think Noah was trying to stay away from politics. You decide if it’s right or wrong, which is an interesting way of doing it versus just showing it one-sided.
Obviously, Roy goes a little crazy at the end, and again, it’s an interpretation of how you want to see that. So, it lends itself to lower angles. We want some very extreme low angles. For one scene, in particular, it is kind of like the toxic masculinity angle, so we definitely shot into that.
Let’s talk about the opening scene, the introduction of Dot (Juno Temple). Everyone is fighting, which thematically, is fitting, but technically, how’d you and the team get that complicated sequence done?
Yeah, the hardest part was the space, finding the right space that we can have a crane,. There’s a techno crane inside in this gym. Also, finding the right space that speaks to the production design of the show, which is very important to me, and then where we can get this tool in, especially for the opening shot. So, it is very important that it speaks to all those things and having the technical challenges work in that space.
I think when it’s said and done, it looks relatively easy. And then, yeah, the stunt coordinator worked on it for many, many days. I forgot how many times we did that for the opening shot. Not many. We don’t do a lot of takes, so maybe three. It happened pretty seamlessly in some respects with good, very good planning.
You’ve shot every premiere since season two, correct?
Yeah, I’ve been shooting Fargo since season one, but I didn’t do the pilot of season one. I did some of the pilot, but I did most of one, but I definitely did the first episodes of every season since.
Right. So, how much do you and Noah discuss the opening shot and what that says about the season?
Hopefully, the first image is the thing that’s written as the first image. Sometimes that changes. That’s changed. Even if there’s a different first image, there’s another reason behind it, equally as strong. But definitely talking about the first scene of chapter five, it definitely sets up the show, right? You’re introducing the character, you’re with Dot and her daughter, the Midwest, the Minnesota nice of it all, or not nice of it all. It’s something you put a lot of energy into.
Fargo chapter five is available to stream on Hulu.
