Peter Berg’s American Primeval miniseries debuted to rave reviews and big streaming numbers this January. It is a hyperkinetic historical Western tale of cultures clashing in 1857 Utah. The massive undertaking required expertise in all the crafts. Veteran set decorator David Hack was brought on board to add legitimacy to the surroundings. Hack recently spoke to Immersive via Zoom about the experience.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
Tell us how you got involved with this specific project.
I was aware of the project just through the business rumor mill. A little time passed, and the production designer, Renee Read, contacted me. I spoke with her a few times, and at the end, she said, “I think you’ve got what it takes for this show.” I went to the scout out on the Cochiti Pueblo by the Rio Grande River, and it’s cold out there. This is where I met Peter; he walked up, shook my hand with a real hard grip, gave me a bang on the shoulder, and said, “How’s your back? I just wanna make sure we’re gonna be outside in the elements throughout this whole thing, so you’ve gotta be mentally and physically prepared for that.” I told him I was ready. I was gonna become part of this team on this very epic adventure.
Was there a specific project you worked on that inspired them to contact you?
It was never specifically said, but I think Battle Angel was another world-building, giant construction, and outdoor experience. I think that kind of eased some of the producers’ minds that I can handle the logistics and budgetary demands of a big show while still doing good work creatively. There might have been some other things I’ve done, such as some other dystopian theme things.
When did you realize the scope of this world?
I didn’t realize how dark and gritty it was going to be until we got into it. I started sitting in on the research, seeing all the conceptual drawings, and hearing our DP talk about how they wanted to shoot it. Of course, Peter Berg is a super leader in that regard. He’s totally available, very up and animated, and wants to talk about it. That was a great inspiration to get me fired up for it.
What was it like working with Peter Berg for the long haul?
I got in tune with him, and we did a lot of research and had historical consultants and native American consultants, so we dove deep into all that and got in sync. Pete didn’t like micromanaging. He has a great ability to find the shots. If you just give him a great pallet, it’s not clear what he will do. It’s just kind of a 360 world, you know, they can point the camera anywhere they want. Pete has three cameras going at least all the time… handheld, getting low, crouching down, and doing all this interesting camera work to immerse you in some things that maybe you otherwise wouldn’t get.
What were some interesting things that you found out, and how did that translate into the work that you did?
It was very much historically based. I was not that familiar with the whole backstory of this. I knew about the gold rush but not the other fine details. I wasn’t familiar with Fort Bridger itself, but I learned this was one of the most northern outposts when gold was discovered in California, and hundreds of thousands of people streamed across that over a decade.
I knew that Brigham Young had settled in Utah, but I didn’t know the backstory of the Mormons being persecuted and driven out of the East. Bridger is where the trail breaks; you either go up over the Rockies down to California or Oregon, or it splits and goes down towards Salt Lake. That was the trail the Mormons took, thinking no one else would want to settle there. Once they had come through and settled, they bought Fort Bridger and burned it to the ground to stop people from coming. The Calvary eventually rebuilt it as it stands now; it’s just a brick structure.
Whenever people bitch about modern times – you could’ve lived in the era of American Primeval…
Dudley Gardner, a Ph.D. historian, was our historical consultant; he had done excavation work at Fort Bridger to find the old remnants from that fort. He was a great resource as he started sending me copies of the diaries he collected over the years. Reading those diaries was just so revelatory. Our show is very dark in places, and some things are tough to watch, but the things I read were way beyond the struggles that these people had, total lawlessness, and weather with no mercy. You could die from a bad fall because there’s nothing that can be done for you. I read one story of a corporal who described watching 70 mules freezing to death in front of him.
How much did you create, and how many things could you find from that period?
I thought we ought to build some things to see what it’s like. I wanted to do everything in-house and hire my own crew to do the work so I could monitor it better and they wouldn’t get pulled off onto something else. I was given the budget to do it and brought in these guys.
We had a guy, Matt Kutcher, who had been trained in his twenties as a historical boat builder and restorer in Maine. So he knew all the tools they would’ve used, the drawn knives and the axes and the bracing, bit drills, and pounding pegs. We turned him loose with a resource of wood. I showed him some pictures of things. I needed some chairs and work tables of different heights. We got some big giant slabs of materials, just everything we could find. He just built all that stuff with the crew.
My friend has a prop house called the Relic Source in Texas. We’ve gotten a lot of things from him. A desk came, and one of the legs was loose. We couldn’t repair it, so we just took the leg off and stacked things on it. The finish was messed up, so we decided to torch it to make it look like it survived a fire.
I love stories of production people beating up props to make them look authentic.
I had a cement mixer. We threw things in and tumbled them, lots of ropes and chains and all that. We hired a real blacksmith to forge a lot of hooks and hinges. We used metal straps and even made a bunch of nails. We had our own little cottage industry going. We had anchors in there, dyers in there, construction people, blacksmiths, leather workers, taxidermists, all that.
You almost had your town there. You can sense that the realism. Any favorite items?
A lot of the Native American stuff we fabricated ourselves to. I had an assistant decorator named Kelly Miller, who’s from Albuquerque and very in tune with the native experience and did much studying on it. I asked her to use some of her craft skills. She made this beautiful medicine bag that ended up being featured. Elaine O’Donnell, a decorator that we brought on for a month of the last big month push at the fort. She came in and got this tall oil lamp that I thought was beautiful.
I’m always fascinated with how stuff spills over into different departments. Obviously, you worked with a costumer, a production designer, and the props people. What did that workflow look like in those relationships?
We were at Garson Studios in Santa Fe, which was an old art college campus. We each had our own buildings on the campus with great access and outdoor spaces to intermingle. The art department was on the top floor of a two-story building. You have prop images, wardrobe, and set decorations all together. You got this sense of cohesiveness of knowledge, which is so important on a big-scale show. It’s multiple things equally working together. We spent a lot of time talking to each other, and they gave us good prep time to have those experiences and crews that got it done.
This is a very well-received show; what’s it like in hindsight…
It is a great feeling at this point in my career. We felt it when we were making it that it would be special in this genre, but seeing it cross over to so many different people is great.
American Primeval season one is streaming on Netflix.
