Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1072449
D E S T R O Y E R | P E R S P E C T I V E 6 9 I was in the middle of production on the Netflix show On My Block, when I received a perfunctory text message from producer Nate Kelly that read "Are you available?" We had worked together on Hot Summer Nights a couple of years prior, where we cobbled together the breezy atmosphere of Cape Cod in land-locked Atlanta. He said he was the line producer on a thriller, shooting in Los Angeles, and assured me that this time we wouldn't need to cheat the setting. When I read the script to Destroyer, I was hooked. This was a female-driven neo-noir story directed by the renowned director Karyn Kusama. The story follows Los Angeles Police Department detective Erin Bell (an utterly transformed Nicole Kidman) who is tormented by a past that is gradually revealed through flashback. Early in her career, she went undercover with a gang in the California desert where things took a tragic turn at a bank heist gone wrong. When, many years later, she receives a sign that the leader of the gang, Silas, is back, the only way out is to find the remaining gang members and reckon with their shared history and her own demons. To get ready for my meeting with Karyn, I started pulling references. It didn't dawn on me until later that, being four months pregnant, the last day of filming on December 15 was also my due date. I hoped that if the meeting went well, and if there was a connection between me and Karyn, my pregnancy would be a side note. We met at the end of July 2017 at Karyn's home office. I talked through the presentation that I had assembled, and she in turn shared her photographic references. Through this exchange, we discovered that we spoke the same visual language. Toward the end of the meeting, we discussed the timeline of the project. This is probably not the most kosher thing in the Human Resources handbook, but I decided to divulge my pregnancy and due date. This baby was going to come no matter when this project was happening, so I thought it was better to let everyone know upfront. Nate was unconcerned since we had worked together on the last job when I was four weeks' post-postpartum, and Karyn, to my relief, was equally supportive. A. MOOD BOARD, MAIN VISUAL REFERENCES AND COLOR PALETTE.