Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1126636
26 DGA QUARTERLY Skyler has just gotten off the phone with her sister, who called to warn her that Walt is back in town. We scouted a tiny apartment in Albuquerque, which had this column dividing the kitchen and the living room. I was pondering it, and I called for my location manager, "Has anyone seen Christian?" And I heard a voice say, "Right over here, boss." I walked a few steps forward and he was revealed to be standing behind this column. At that moment, I fell in love with the idea of it. Our production designer, Mark Freeborn, recreated the exact apartment onstage, a foot or two longer with the ability to fly the wall where the camera is located. I've gotten a lot of love for this shot, but sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. We realize Walt is already here when he is revealed behind the pillar on the push-in. Bryan Cranston could sense where the lens was out of the corner of his eye, so he took his own cue; Bryan speaks his first line just as his face is about half in frame. You worry about these things, then the guy nails it on the first take. We would rehearse a bit, maybe run the shot once or twice before committing it to film, but you never have enough time in TV. I do mean film, by the way; Breaking Bad was shot on 35-millimeter Kodak stock. HD video is quite impressive, but I do miss film. There's something about it that still feels magical. S M A C K D A B I N T H E M I D D L E of Vince Gilligan's final episode of Breaking Bad, "Felina," is a quiet but pivotal scene without which the entire series would have been weakened; maybe even meaningless. After seasons of lies to himself and his family, the series protagonist, Walter White, states his truth. From the first of its 62 episodes, in the name of providing for his family, Walter had made a self-indulgent choice to become a methamphetamine kingpin. That choice and its inevitable results devastated the lives of everyone he touched, starting with the wife and children for whom he claimed to be providing. Walter's cognitive dissonance drove the narrative's underlying tension, but in this scene before Walter embarks on whatever redemptive journey is left for him in life, it had come time for Gilligan to confront and resolve that tension for good. A hunted man, Walter has returned home to settle a score and to say goodbye to his wife, Skyler. Gilligan orchestrates an under- stated and conflicted but highly emotional farewell, in which Walter finally admits to himself and to Skyler that he had in fact led the life of a drug kingpin for himself; the danger, the puzzle and the power had made him feel alive. With that admission to Skyler, one of the people he harmed most, both he and the series were ready to meet their ends. "I wanted this farewell to be as quiet as possible," explains Gilligan. "It's a scene between two of the best actors who ever worked in television, in my biased opinion. I wanted to keep it simple, to stay out of their way, let them work their magic and not do anything fancy. It's the calm before the pyrotechnics of the final act when all that's left to do is kill the bad guys. But, certainly in emotional terms, it could be argued that this is the final scene of Breaking Bad." PHOTOS: (TOP) EVERETT; SCREENPULLS: SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT S H O T T O R E M E M B E R Walter White Comes Clean IN BREAKING BAD'S SERIES FINALE, DIRECTOR VINCE GILLIGAN ORCHESTRATES AN INTIMATE, EMOTIONAL FAREWELL BETWEEN A SELF-INDULGENT KINGPIN AND HIS EMBATTLED WIFE | BY ROB FELD 1 1 2 2