FRAME BY FRAME | RATCHED
movements that, again, gesture back to Hitchcock. “Hitchcock’s POV shots are always solid, almost mechanical – not the style we see today with handhelds,” explains Dennis. “I pushed for dolly moves, which were done on Chapman/Leonard Hustlers and PeeWee MkIVs, because a POV should not be a shaky experience. It should be precise and motivated, much like real life and how we, as individuals, see the world.” Perhaps the mightiest POV sequence is captured when Edmund breaks out of the hospital jail. As he exits through its security gates, he locks eyes with Mildred, who is just driving in. The camera captures Mildred’s POV, of Edmund looking smug, almost vengeful, then pans back to Edmund’s POV, showing a concerned Mildred. “I love that sequence,” says Dennis. “It’s Hitchcock all the way. Even the music cue at the crucial moment when they lock eyes is so Bernard Herrmann [the composer]. “The cutting pattern of this scene – using her POV to draw the viewer in and then switching to the POV of Edmund to take us out – creates a lovely balance between the characters that makes them equal in importance and coverage – and this was key for the sequence that follows, the 15-minute finale set in Mexico 1950.” MEXICO 1950 The story jumps forward three years, with Mildred having left the hospital and started
LEFT Sharon Stone plays the character Lenore Osgood in Ratched
When I came on board, for episode 5, I often felt like the show was a strange, deranged dream a new life with Gwendolyn in Mexico. After waking from a nightmare where Edmund kills her, Mildred is sitting with Gwendolyn at a patio restaurant, when they discover that seven nurses had been murdered in Chicago the night before. Suddenly, her brother calls. He warns Mildred that he’s out to get her, but she replies that he better be afraid because she’s also coming for him. This shows why creating a balance between the siblings was so important. The nightmare feels more real than the reality, and the reality, of her getting that
RATCHED IS CURRENTLY STREAMING ON NETFLIX episode 5, I often felt like the show was a strange, deranged dream. Obviously, it wasn’t, but that feeling helped me shoot this key sequence.” phone call, dreamlike. “The director, Daniel Minahan, and I had to work hard to block out every movement in advance to create this deception of reality. We visited the location the weekend before shooting and played out the action of each character to see how we could manipulate the increasing and decreasing tension,” says Dennis. He adds: “The morning shoot at the patio restaurant took longer than expected and the sun was setting in on us. But rather than this working to our disadvantage, we ended up with something that felt like Vertigo : lots of golds, greens, tension, POVs, shadows and mystery. We’re proud of that outcome. When I came on board, for
10 DEF I N I T ION | NOVEMBER 2020
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