DI RECTOR STORY | THE HAUNT I NG OF H I LL HOUSE
Production was murder and it almost killed us, but it was the easiest edit of my life. It took 10 seconds
timing our Bent Neck Lady with the lightning and making Nell disappear. We got a complete take late in the afternoon. Entire length: 7 mins and 25 secs. THIRD SHOT The third segment was the most brutal. It was 18 pages long, shot in the funeral home and required thunderous emotion from the cast. The actors started seated, which
The adults sprinted back into place a moment later. We also had to swap a dummy of Victoria Pedretti (who played Nell Crain) from the casket and help Violet McGraw (who played young Nell) climb inside and be still. We did this change while the siblings talked about Hugh flying in coach on the airplane. At the end of the shot, we follow Timothy through a hallway
that leads directly through the doors of our other stage on to the Hill House set. The shot ended a moment after the chandelier fell in the background. Entire length: 14 mins and 19 secs. SECOND SHOT We began shooting the second
meant we had to keep the camera on a PeeWee dolly to deal with the height differences. We pushed a dolly through this entire shot. It was a beast. We could never make it to the end of the shot. The dolly was slowly getting harder to push. We found out later that this was because
DID YOU KNOW?
Episode six was part of the original pitch for the show.
might have one more take before it broke. There wasn’t a replacement dolly. We didn’t tell the cast this; I didn’t want it to get in their heads. We came back from lunch and I said, ‘I’ve got a good feeling about this one’ and we held our breath. Believe it or not, we got it. We got the take. They took the dolly, turned the wheel and the chain broke. Entire length: 17 mins and 19 secs. FOURTH SHOT The next day we did segment four, which was our most difficult from a technical point of view. Lots of swaps, windows breaking, the elevator gag, etc. We ran this all day. The pressure was on for Carla Gugino (who played Olivia Crain) and Henry Thomas (who played the younger Hugh Crain). Time and again we’d make it all the way to the elevator and mess up. The smashing windows in this segment are a digital creation, but we had to ‘teleport’ Carla around the set. This was done using a photo double for some moments and then having Carla run through secret crew access portals in others. We got the shot late afternoon after dozens of aborted attempts. Entire length: 6 mins and 13 secs. The next day, we did the (relatively easy by comparison) fifth segment, which timed in at 5:31. Production was murder and almost killed us all, but it was the easiest edit of my life. It took 10 seconds. This was the hardest thing most of us have ever done and the result of the combined efforts of hundreds of people. Total respect for the cast and crew. Shot 1: 14:19, Shot 2: 7:25, Shot 3: 17:19, Shot 4: 6:13, Shot 5: 5:31. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE IS ON NETFLIX NOW.
the wheels weren’t meant for carpet and carpet fibres were getting inside as we went through all of our rehearsals, putting enormous strain on the transmission. We went to lunch without getting a take and the grips told me that the dolly had a big issue. The transmission chain was strained and close to breaking from the rigours of rehearsal. The grips figured we
shot the following day, which was seven pages long and took place in Hill House. Our initial worry about putting this much pressure on the youngest of the actors proved to be a non-issue as they knew their lines cold (and even the adults lines). There were lots of – almost – complete takes in this segment, but the technical issues were pretty daunting, particularly
IMAGE An initial worry about too much pressure for the young actors was unfounded.
34 DEF I N I T ION | DECEMBER 20 1 8
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