"MUTINY/EIGHT HOURS"

(note: Here's a link to TNT's official website for FALLING SKIES):

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE -  THERE ARE SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN!YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

The episodes that aired last Sunday were originally shot as individual episodes and TNT put them together to create the two-hour finale.  Each was a significant undertaking in it’s own right.

Holly Dale

 directed the first hour.  Holly is a super-talented lady who worked for me before, directing a season 3 episodes of HEROES.  She had come to my attention via the producers of the show COLD CASE – who love her and used her as often as they could.  Her HEROES ep. worked out great and I’d been looking forward to working with her again ever since.  She is a real pro and a “shooter” which means she shoots cool shots which are designed to be cut together.  Her background, I believe, is as an editor and also (I believe) in documentaries.  Holly fit right in with our group, and I’m hoping to have her back for next season!

Hour 9 of this series “MUTINY” was designed to be, what is known in the TV industry as, a “bottle” show.  The name “Bottle show” implies a show that could be shot in a bottle.  Bottle shows are very common – but tricky.  Basically they are a designed “under budget” episode which producers use to make up the difference for all the over budget episodes that have gone before.  This sounds restrictive – but frequently bottle shows end up great – because they become an “all hands on deck” situation where the writers and actors really step up because, consciously or unconsciously, everyone realizes there are no other tricks to fall back on.  Years ago I directed many episodes of the CBS show “JAG” – some were very big – but I’ll always remember that one of the best ones I ever did was an under-budget bottle show called “JAGGLE BELLS” – it was just a well-written script with really emotional connections between the characters.

In this case our bottle was designed to shoot only at our school location, which was our most controllable and least expensive location.  There were also no skitters, no mechs and no big stunts or action.

This episode had been planned for awhile and the writers kept describing it as a “Caine Mutiny” type story, where Tom challenged Weaver’s sanity and leadership.

Noah, Will, Mark Verhedien and I had has a number of meetings on set and a dinner or two discussing this one.  In the end it paid off.   The script came in very strong, and Holly and the actors worked the scenes very hard – every day of shooting.  It was certainly the most intense on-set rehearsals we ever did.  The key scene of the episode and the one that was most discussed before shooting and on set – was the scene where Weaver enters the infirmary and Tom and gang get the drop on him, playing through to the time Jimmy comes out and begs Weaver to be rational.  This was a very tricky scene dramatically, as each character had to move through a lot of nuance to credibly get to the stage where Tom and Weaver are re-united addressing the troops.

The ending montage where Weaver and the troops pull out was very important to Holly.  It was the little bit of action she had to do and she had designed her schedule to shoot that scene in beautiful backlight.  But – as these things do – numerous things went wrong, a camera broke, the air conditioning broke, an actor went home sick – etc. etc.  And as she got out in the field behind the school – the sun had fallen and it was near dusk.  It still was technically possible to film – but it was going to look like poop.  It was in this moment, I remember – I had to make the gut wrenching decision to “pull the plug.”  This is super hard because it meant the bottle was going to get bigger, as we’d now have to come back another day to get that scene.  But I also knew that it was what was best creatively for the show.  It was the ending of the episode after all – the penultimate moment.

Holly was very happy.  The studio less so.  But Holly promised me she’d make up the time on another day.  And she did.  We got an additional camera and filmed some small pickup scenes quickly – the light was perfect – Holly got her drive outs.  Additional expenses were minimized – and (whew) I got off the hook.

It’s stressful making TV sometimes.

And now on to the episode I directed – The final hour – in fact the final “EIGHT HOURS”

The opening scene was very fun because Rick crawling on the ceiling was fun to produce.  My career is funny to me these days because when something like this comes up I go “Oh yeah, I’ve done this before.  Suresh crawled like a bug up a wall and ended up on the ceiling on HEROES and Clark was slammed and dragged onto the ceiling on SMALLVILLE.  So I’ve done this before…  But nevertheless this one ended up a little different.  What we did is shoot over Uncle Scott’s shoulder into a green screen reacting to Rick….  What I thought we’d do is build the set upside down (which is what we did with Suresh) and have Rick jump up at camera.  But our stunt coordinator and the young actor Daniyah Ysrayl– both wanted to build the set right side up and put him in a harness and have him descend rapidly at camera of a winch system.  This is a much harder way to do it for the actor – but Daniyah was really into it.  He practiced crawling around all day as we shot other material and when we came to shoot it he did it in just a few takes.  It’s very tricky to pull this off because just being dropped and decelerated is enough for an actor to think about.  When you add in “And act like a skitter screaming and scowling as you go…” It gets harder.  I think the moment turned out well.

Episode 7 introduced us to new characters in the series – for reference we call the “The Overlords” (although they’re never referred to as that in the show.)  These characters rule over the skitters and the mechs.  We realize now that the skitters were once harnessed creatures themselves, from where, and what exactly the implications of that we do not know.  Perhaps the skitters were captured and dominated by the overlords – perhaps not.  Those questions will be answered in the future.

Nevertheless – the design and execution of these CGI creatures was one of the more difficult things we did.  We did initial designs while in production.  The overlord characters needed to be regal and dominant but also warriors.  There was a design we all signed off on and looked good on paper – but when put into motion by Zoic, our VFX Company, they never looked right.  They were too frail and too regal but not warrior-like enough.  We also couldn’t get their walk or gestures right.  We did, literally, a couple of dozen drafts and thought we were getting there.  But, when Steven Spielberg saw the work-in-progress, he didn’t think it was good enough.  He brought in Neville Page – a conceptual artist he had worked with in the past (most recently on SUPER-8).

Neville’s designs were really great.  He got a fierceness that had been missing before.

We also accepted that we were going to have to do motion-capture to get this done right.  This wasn’t in the budget so we had to eat it financially – but it was a much better way to do this.

I’d never done motion capture before and it is really cool.  By the time we did it production in Toronto was long finished – so we went to a stage in Hollywood.  It was very interesting.  The motion-capture stage is basically and empty stage lined with dozens and dozens of “cameras” which, as far as I can tell, are motion detectors.  There is a performer wearing a suit covered with sensors and as he moves the cameras pick up his movements and resolve them in 3-D space.  The overlord character is programmed into the computer, so as the actor moves the character can be seen on a screen in front of you, replicating the actor’s movements.  It was actually very easy to direct the actor, because I was watching in real time.   Anyway – I was very happy with the look of the CGI and the VFX lighting and everything that came together in the final moments of the episode.  It was truly a long arduous journey, that we only completed a week or two before air – even though we’d filmed the scene 9 months earlier – but, to me, it was worth it.

Anyway – that’s the season!  


It’s crazy to me – I got hired in April of 2010 and went to work full time in June of 2010.  We shot from July through November of 2010.  Editing, sound mixing, color correction and so on, wasn’t full-time for me but nevertheless took many hours until March of 2011.  This final motion capture/overlord project required us coming back in June of 2010.  The show aired June 19 and then… eight short weeks later it’s all over.  Wow!

But it seems to have been a success. 

Here’s an excerpt of an email all the producers received from TNT today:

Falling Skies Invades the World as a Massive Global Hit

Cable's Biggest New Series of the Year Captures 5.6 Million Viewers for U.S. Season Finale,

Making it the Most-Watched Episode Since the Series Premiere

Falling Skies Earns Big Audiences and Record-Setting Performances in Markets that Include

The United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Australia and Latin America

TNT’s Falling Skies – the #1 new basic cable series in the United States – ended its first season Sunday night with 5,623,000 viewers, plus an outstanding 2,531,000 adults 18-49 and 2,835,000 adults 25-54. These Live + Same Day deliveries mark the show’s best performance since the June 19 premiere. After scoring cable’s top new series launch of the year, Falling Skies ranks as basic cable’s #1 new show of 2011 among viewers and tops all scripted basic cable series this summer with adults 18-49 and 25-54. TNT has already renewed Falling Skies for a 10-episode second season, slated for 2012.

Falling Skies – which stars Noah Wyle and comes to TNT from DreamWorks Television, TNT Productions and executive producer Steven Spielberg – also premiered in markets worldwide this summer, marking the first time a TNT series was launched around the globe. The series will ultimately appear in more than 115 international markets on a variety of networks. Falling Skies has been a hit in the United Kingdom, Australia and Latin America, among many other places. Falling Skies set records in numerous markets, including Spain, Germany and Austria, where the premiere ranked as the best series launch ever for TNT networks in those countries.

So… hey… That’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.

And now I am starting to hire crew and set up production offices and stages for Season 2.  Outlines are coming in – and they promise to be full of surprises. 

Thank you all for reading and watching and following along.

I’m sure there will be the odd blog update or two between now and next season…  But, until then…

PICTURES!!!!!!!

D.P. CHRIS FALOONA AND DIRECTOR OF "MUTINY" HOLLY DALE

WILL PATTON - A LONELY LEADER

MARK VERHEIDEN, COMIC-CON CONTEST WINNER JEFFERSON WOO AND MYSELF

DANIYAH AND NOAH

SARAH CARTER AND DREW ROY

SKITTERS IN THE MIST (BOY WE GOT LUCKY THIS DAY THE WEATHER WAS PERFECTLY GLOOMY AND MISTY AND BEAUTIFUL FOR THIS CREEPY SCENE)

WILL AND THE GANG AFTER (LITERALLY) SEVENTEEN HOURS OF SHOOTING ON OUR SECOND-TO-LAST DAY

TWO OF OUR FINEST BACKGROUND PLAYERS - DON'T MESS WITH THEM!!!

BRLLIANT PRODUCTION DESIGNER ROB GRAY

ME IN THE RUBBLE

COLLIN CUNNINGHAM FROM A SCENE THAT WAS OMITTED

HOW YOU MAKE DESTRUCTION ON A BUDGET!

NOAH AND COLLIN

MS. MOON

LAST DAY OF FILMING IS KIND OF LIKE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL - LAUGHS TEARS AND HUGS!

SARAH AND I

PAPARAZZI COME OUT ON THE LAST DAY (WELL, CREW WITH CAMERAS)

MOON, SEYCHELLE AND DANIYAH (THREE MORE ALL-AMERICAN NAMES YOU COULD NOT FIND!)

I INSTRUCT DANIYAH IN THE WAYS OF THE SKITTER

THE GANG!

ME AND THE LADIES!!!! (NOTICE THE "SMALLVILLE" JACKET!)

AND THEN - NOAH SHAVED THE BEARD HE'D HAD GROWN ALL THOSE MONTHS AGO

ANOTHER LONELY LEADER

LINKS:

Neville Page

Holly Dale