PRODUCTION BLACK MIRROR
IT EVOLVES FROM THE saturated sixties vibe INTO A slicker, more modern SCI-FI LOOK” when I first heard about it, as I thought green screen would be simpler. I worried that the parallax would look wrong, and that it would cause problems with the reflections from the glass window, but after they put it in, it made total sense. “It was absolutely brilliant: when they travel through hyperspace, we used a video animation, so that hyperspace was actually lighting the cast. Then, when they’re in Nanette’s head, we could make the screen change to different colours, bathing them in red first so you feel like you’re behind the eyes. When she opens her eyes and we flash them white – all of that was on the video screen, with a bit of help from a 360 SkyPanel.” It also came in handy when the crew aboard the ship are seeing the world from Nanette’s point of view. “The cast could see what was happening on the screen and react accordingly, so that worked great,” he enthuses. The most formidable challenge was shooting the sequence involving character doubles. “This is something we see more and more of in films, but it’s still so hard – made even harder in our case by how different some of our characters looked,” he explains. The spaceship scenes required actors to perform both sides of their roles, often hours apart due to lengthy wardrobe changes. “Walton’s in a full caveman outfit that takes four hours to put on, then you have to clean all that off and put him into his spacesuit, which takes another two hours,” he says. To execute the repeated set-ups, the team used a Technodolly – a motion-
TENSION BUILDING Pehrsson (above centre) working on Bête Noire (left), on which he employed zoom lenses for drama as well as more chaotic handheld filming methods
control rig that could record complex camera moves and replay them as needed. “It works like a motion-control camera, but the great thing about the tech is that you can turn everything off and let the camera move with slight inconsistencies – almost like working handheld,” says Pehrsson. The greater challenge came in coordinating the performances across takes, with actors needing to react to their earlier performances. This meant the first pass had to be edited quickly, with the dialogue timed and cued for playback during the second. “Someone has to sit there and edit the sound, put the dialogue up when it’s supposed to be there and cut it when it’s not.” The process was demanding for everyone: “It was a long day trying to get through
all the set-ups… we were ready to murder each other by the end of it,” he chuckles. If tasked with shooting doubles again, Pehrsson says: “I would have taken a dolly and had a prep day. That was our main takeaway, that we should have had a prep day. It would have been a lot easier.” Despite all the challenges, going back to the USS Callister was a thrill for all involved, and a memory he’ll cherish. “Day one was just so exciting,” he recalls. “It felt like a fun reunion, with old friends we hadn’t seen for seven years,” he recalls. The crew marked the occasion in style: “Someone decided we should all get uniforms,” he says, laughing. “So the entire camera team was dressed up in Star Trek outfits. On the first day, we got a picture of us all together – with me in the captain’s chair, of course.”
28
DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
Powered by FlippingBook