PRODUCTION RIPLEY
Ripley typing a letter or checking into every hotel – it adds to the texture of the character and Steve embraced that.”
Released globally on Netflix in April, Ripley stars Andrew Scott in the role of Tom Ripley, with Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood and Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf. Additional cast includes Eliot Sumner, Maurizio Lombardi, Margherita Buy and John Malkovich. Ripley is co-produced by Showtime and Endemol Shine North America, in association with Entertainment 360 and Filmrights. All eight episodes were directed and written by Steven Zaillian, whose previous directorial credits include All The King’s Men (2006), A Civil Action (1998) and Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993). Robert Elswit, who collaborated with Zaillian on HBO’s The Night Of (2016), is cinematographer across all eight episodes. The grade, online and finish were delivered by Company 3 in DaVinci Resolve Studio. 😀
DEATH ROW A sequence which gives us a blow- by-blow (literally) insight into Ripley’s movements is Dickie’s murder on the rowboat. Here, we follow in real time, watching every bone-crunching fall of the oar and every frantic moment of calculation that follows, as Ripley tries first to throw Dickie’s body overboard, then sink the boat to destroy the evidence. Appearing in episode 3, III Sommerso , this visceral set piece is a pivotal turning point for Ripley’s character, giving the audience a clear picture of the extremes he’ll go to in order to preserve his facade. Capturing the scene was no small feat, requiring six full days of filming, with much of the shooting taking place in an outdoor water tank to provide the necessary controlled environment. Utilising three cameras mounted on cranes, the team erected diffusion
material to soften the harsh sunlight and simulate an overcast day, adding to the suffocating mood of the final sequence.
build tension. The visual style is so striking that Elswit initially had concerns it might distract the viewer from the story, but Zaillian’s reasoning won him over. “The way the show looks is a correlative to the emotional side. Steve wanted the audience to feel the tension and unease of the world that Ripley moved in – and he felt that the images would evoke this,” Elswit explains. “Not a lot of directors feel that the way something is lit has a direct connection to the emotions of the people watching it, but Steve knows it,” he continues. “It became part of our dialogue: not just what the scene is about, but how
SHADES OF NOIR In the Minghella film, Ripley’s world is a sumptuous, colour-soaked Mediterranean fever dream, where Zaillian’s is the inverse: shadowy, cold, menacing and entirely monochrome. Paying homage to the Caravaggio paintings which appear in the series, the cinematography is a masterclass in chiaroscuro; boldly playing with light and dark to shape the narrative and
ON THE MOVE We follow Ripley on planes, trains and buses, from the dank backstreets of New York to the resplendent Amalfi Coast
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