Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1257029
Jay Patterson CAS. Photo by Jennifer Winslow Supervisor Deva Anderson on their work from concept through prep, and always on set on the day. John Logan often desired the ability to play back mood pieces while shooting certain scenes, so I had to be ready to play back at any time. When a new episode was coming up, Claire Newman would provide me with all of the possible mood choices, which I would then load as one Pro Tools file per episode, allowing me to access any of the tracks within a second or two. Real playback scenes were always handed off to Mark Agostino. There were several big dance sequences during the season, with two taking place in The Crimson Cat, a dance club patronized by the Mexican-American community. In addition to more than a hundred background artists in full costume, these scenes boasted a "live" band, our cast, and one hundred and four professional dancers. There was considerable preparation that went into these scenes. Under Peter and Deva's guidance, musical selections were composed or selected, then scored. The "live" band rehearsed the pieces extensively before going into the studio and recording. Production music playback was handled by Mark Agostino, with Jeff Zimmerman filling in on occasion. The musicians were fed the music via earwigs, and the dance floor had a thump track, when dialog took place. The musicians in the band were incredibly convincing on camera, especially in their individual solos. The dancers having been well rehearsed, were nothing short of spectacular, all led by Choreographer Tommy Tonge and his assistant, Alexandra Hulme, swing dancing and acrobatics galore. The Music Department would get their own mix in their IFB receivers, as they wanted to hear the music continuously when playback was muted to the speakers. This was so they could monitor the performance of the musicians miming their parts during dialog, or making sure the dancers were The Penny Dreadful brain trust. (L-R): Michael Aguilar, Exec. Producer; Valeria Migliassi Collins, Script Supervisor; John Logan, Creator, Writer, Exec. Producer; Don Bensko, UPM; and Mark Tobey, Co-Exec. Producer. Photo by Jay Patterson CAS Steadicam Operator James Reid and Dolly Grip Tommy Ruffner with Asst. Choreographer Alexandra Hulme, rehearsing the moves. Photo by Warrick Page