ECHO PRODUCTION
The latest Marvel show for Disney+, Echo , affords filmmaking inclusivity
T he antihero of MCU series Echo is Maya Lopez (played by Alaqua Cox), a deaf Cheyenne/Latin- American warrior, which gives the show several forms of inclusion to navigate. There’s the indigenous narrative background, a matriarchal society story arc, and differently abled characters to integrate into the action. Cox is a deaf actress, and Echo is the second deaf hero to join the MCU, following Lauren Ridloff as Makkari in Eternals . The filmmakers built on this experience to employ a variety of strategies to represent the character and ensure communication between cast and crew. Consulting producer and American Sign Language (ASL) master Douglas Ridloff worked with the production team on both sets, long before cameras rolled. The process of translating the sign language into film grammar so it feels second nature to the viewer required a fair amount of trial and error, explains Kira Denise Kelly, ASC. “One of the first camera tests I shot posed the question: ‘what is a close-up
when you are framing to include ASL?’. Conventionally, we’d shoot a close-up of somebody’s face to capture their emotion and immerse the audience in the story. But we couldn’t do that here.”
the subtext – and the audience needs both elements together to understand what a person is feeling. Flashbacks depict Lopez as a child (Darnell Besaw) and other scenes feature her cousin Bonnie (Devery Jacobs) also using ASL fluently and frequently. In the story, Maya’s hearing family members use ASL as a way of keeping her part of the conversation. “It’s Maya’s show, but we never wanted to differentiate her coverage being in wides and everybody else’s in more traditional close-ups.” They settled on more of a ‘medium- close’ to retain the full vocabulary and played with different, longer lenses to achieve an emotional sweet spot. She elected to shoot on the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF for its ability to use a full- frame sensor and capture skin tones. For lenses, the personalised Panavision T Series, curated by Dan Sasaki, was vital in creating a unique look for the show. “I consider it a job well done if you turn the sound off and the audience knows what the story is. Moving
THE SOUND OF SILENCE Many scenes from Echo have no
spoken dialogue at all, which initially concerned both the DOP and director. How exactly could they sustain a lengthy conversation between multiple characters that don’t speak? Framing a close-up on hands or faces would exclude Cox’s dialogue. “What we found is that, if you start a shot on somebody’s hands and then tilt up to their faces while they’re signing, that’s an incomplete sentence,” explains Kelly, who took ASL lessons to prepare. “It’s not a full phrase, if you will. So we needed space in the frame, but still to get close enough to capture emotion.” With director Sydney Freeland, Kelly built the show’s visual language with the idea that hands are the text, the face is
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