THE HANDMAID’S TALE PRODUCTION
OUT OF ORDER The production’s openness to experimentation is its own quiet rebellion
T aken from Margaret Atwood’s Moss) and her fellow handmaids as they live under (and rebel against) the oppressive Republic of Gilead. In a world ravaged by environmental disaster and high rates of infertility, these handmaids are responsible for repopulation. Debuting in 2017, the Hulu-produced series scored eight Emmy wins for its first season alone. As the series progressed, Moss – who’s highly decorated for her achievements in acting – stepped into the director’s seat, leading four of the final season’s ten episodes, including the opener, Train . ALL ABOARD 1985 dystopian novel of the same name, The Handmaid’s Tale follows June Osborne (Elisabeth Season 6 picks up right where 5 left off, with June bound for Alaska. Shot by Nicola Daley, who joined for the previous season, this first episode – though simple in its premise – received a hefty VFX treatment. “At the end of Season 5, we left Serena (a once-powerful figure in Gilead) and June, and we craned out of the train, then droned away,” Daley describes. “In episode 1, Lizzie and I said: ‘We have to start it like we ended it. We must find the train again and do the reverse of what we did before,’ which sounds easy, but it’s super hard to do a massive drone shot that blends in, VFX-wise.” The scenes aboard the train were all filmed on Pixomondo’s LED volume. “It took a lot of work,” Daley adds. “We discussed what the height of the wall – and the distance from the train set to the wall – would be. We ended up with a carriage, vestibule and a bit of shoot-off. “ On Handmaid’s Tale ,” Daley continues, “you shoot both really low and high; it’s not all at eye level. We did a lot in Unreal Engine, putting a digital camera in a digital set, then looking and going,
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