Phony

Phony Pilot Thoughts

Nick (& anyone else),

I’d love to get a sense of what elements from the pilot you are particularly happy with and what pieces you wish were different in one way or another. This can be in any category- overall look/ aesthetic, approach in coverage, the general tone, anything. While I am certainly looking to hone in the look, I also want to understand the tone we are looking for. This can stretch into performances, editing rhythms, levels of comedy, naturalism, whatever. I want to wrap my head around all the elements.

You don’t have to have any answers to any of this, but I like introducing the questions so we can be conscious of them as we continue to build out the world.

Here are some thoughts of mine from the pilot. I would imagine this will continue to build out.

• INT. Sharla Trailer. (Visual language/ Mystery) On the day, I started lighting this scene one way, but you had us shift toward a darker, cooler look. I really like where it landed and wanted to get a sense of how you feel about it now with some distance. Part of what interests me here is that it plays darker/ more mysterious than a lot of the rest of the pilot, which I like, but want to make sure you still feel good about it. I also assume we’ll be reshooting this, so it’s particularly relevant. // More generally, I’d love to better understand the line where “mystery” lives in this show.

• EXT. Sonny finds Mallory & Weldon with a flat tire. (Eyelines/ Single Camera) This scene was tough on the day because we had a full weather shift from rain to sun (or was it vice versa?), but there was another element I wanted to speak to. My regret with this scene is that we were so far off Sonny and Mallory’s eyelines to each other. We decided to shoot both sides simultaneously, but later I regretted it. I wish we had shot single cam so we could be close to their eyelines and connect with each of them more intimately. This scene wanted to be more personal/ special/ important. I wanted to feel their hurt and awkwardness, to feel their connection and frustration and also connect the audience deeper with them in that moment. // One of the main challenges of TV is the pace and page count, which generally leads to shooting two cameras. However, having shot a couple projects with a single camera in the last couple years, I am often amazed at the significant leap in quality when filming a scene with one camera. I also find that it doesn’t waste time as much as we can be led believe. I would love for us to be conscious of important moments where connecting with characters is prioritized over gathering more angles. While there are other scenes in the pilot I would also nominate for single cam, this one stood out to me.

• Here is a nice write up discussing single camera: https://blog.frame.io/2023/03/20/eyeline-lessons-from-the-marvelous-mrs-maisel/?fbclid=IwAR0n3C_7GImQ1m-kdE9EsiRdpyTL7yI0L2t6ttRfEWwJ59hKK-OEs-9DtcY

• EXT. Sonny, Mallory & Weldon by the river. (Sense of place) I know this didn’t make the final cut, but I wanted to flag it as a scene I really liked visually and to take your temperature. One thing that happens with TV is that it becomes claustrophobic and monotonous because it ends up being 95% close ups. We can lose our sense of space and connection to the world. It stops being a piece of music, with movements and changes, and becomes the same visual beat, over and over and over. One of the blessings of Phony is that it’s being shot in Vancouver, which has a gorgeous pacific northwestern tone, which fits our creative well. I’d love to flag scenes that can take place in the exterior world when possible so we can maintain a sense of our world and take advantage of some of the fog, forest and haze that fits our world so well. I’m hopeful that the party scenes by the pond will give us some of these opportunities, but am hoping we can find others, as well.

I’m including some stills I liked from the pilot below to help jog any memories. Also, below that are references I made for crew when we were approaching the pilot. I want to keep growing that as we approach the series.