• About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
Sunday, August 7, 2022
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
No Result
View All Result

‘Homecoming’ Cinematographer Tod Campbell On How to Make a Visually Stunning Podcast

"The same way that she doesn’t have full vision of her past, we don’t have a full vision of what’s going on around her."

by Megan McLachlan
July 16, 2019
in ADTV, Interviews
0
tod campbell homecoming

Photo: Jessica Brooks

Amazon’s Homecoming cinematographer Tod Campbell talks to Awards Daily about shooting past versus present, adapting a podcast, and the new series’ most challenging scene to shoot.

Even though Amazon’s Homecoming has Hitchcockian undertones, it was a Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland movie that sold cinematographer Tod Campbell on the concept of the show’s style, with its zooming-in closeups and dueling ratios.

“It was like the fourth or fifth day of shooting and Sam [Esmail] had an editor’s cut and he laid in the Klute soundtrack,” says Campbell. “That was when I thought, Oh, that’s where he is. We knew what we wanted visually, but when I heard the music, that took me to another place. Pretty mindblowing for me.”

It’s ironic considering that sound is what first gave Homecoming prominence, as a Gimlet podcast from Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg about a mysterious governmental program.

“Early on, when Sam was discussing [adapting the podcast], when the rumblings first began, I listened to it and fell in love with it. The short format is so awesome. The story is great, the writing is great. I was excited to take on the challenge of putting visuals to a podcast. It was actually more difficult than I thought, to keep it more visually interesting throughout. I felt like we really adhered to the original story there, which was a big deal, because it was so good.”

Like many popular TV dramas right now, this one cuts between past and present, past actually being 2018 and present actually being 2022; however, the series keeps it to a tight 30 minutes each episode, almost like a podcast.

“In 2018, I wanted to keep a lot of hard sunlight in her office since it takes place in Florida. That was a big thing I tried to key into. I wanted it to feel happy, even though we wanted to give a sense of an undercurrent, something beneath the surface that’s not right. I really wanted the lighting to feel like a very surfacy, beautiful thing.”

Homecoming stars Julia Roberts as a case worker at the Homecoming rehabilitation program for military returning home, and the way her character is shot in a 1:1 aspect ratio in “future” scenes, tells a lot about what’s going on in her world.

“The same way that she doesn’t have full vision of her past, we don’t have a full vision of what’s going on around her. We’re boxing her in and creating tension within that aspect ratio. When she does retrieve her memory, then we can go back into this beautiful world where everything is shiny and poppy. The overarching idea was to keep everything a little dull for the box format and to add a little more kick to things in her past.”

amazon homecoming
Photo: Hilary B. Gayle

One of the most challenging scenes to film is in the first episode “Mandatory,” one long shot of Heidi (Roberts) talking on the phone with Colin (Bobby Canavale).

“We start zooming in on her, then we go up above her and we track her through the entirety of the facility into the lobby. Obviously it was very big and detailed. Sam [Esmail] wanted to slide a 75-foot crane over the top of it. And the stages were massive, the biggest ones at Universal and they’re brand-new. The challenge was lighting it and having to pull the ceiling off. We had to make these decisions in December 2017 and we didn’t start shooting until March 2018.”

It’s hard to talk about other tricky scenes in the series without revealing twists in the show, but one of Campbell’s favorite characters to work with was Thomas Carrasco, played by Shea Whigham.

“The whole opening of Episode 3 with Carrasco at his desk, going down that stairwell is one of my favorite shots that we did. But then he also goes into that massive file room. That was probably the most fun that I had in any of the sets, cause we completely created it and we were able to get the camera way up above and the lights were turning off and turning on. I love the Carrasco stuff because there wasn’t a lot of control there and we could do whatever we wanted to do.”

But while he enjoyed shooting Carrasco, Campbell above all loves working with Sam Esmail, who he previously worked with on USA’s Mr. Robot.

“I love working with him. I love Sam’s choices, his attitude, the way he treats people. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

All episodes of Amazon’s Homecoming stream Nov. 2. 

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Print
Tags: 2019 Emmy NomineeAmazonamazon homecomingamazon's homecominghomecomingTod Campbell
Megan McLachlan

Megan McLachlan

Megan McLachlan is a freelance writer that lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Her work has appeared in Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, The Cut, Paste, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Thrillist, and The Washington Post. Follow her on Twitter at @heydudemeg.

Next Post
21st SCAD Savannah Film Festival Underscores True Purpose

21st SCAD Savannah Film Festival Underscores True Purpose

Sign up for Awards Daily's Breaking News

* indicates required
  1. Chase Meridian on Predictions Friday: As the Pendulum SwingsAugust 7, 2022

    He made a bad film, that's all I'm saying. You're defending a film you have no personal knowledge of, thereby…

  2. Setia Yasmine Khalil on Predictions Friday: As the Pendulum SwingsAugust 7, 2022

    your faith in that movie is big it won't be a major contnder probably

  3. manwe_sulimo on Predictions Friday: As the Pendulum SwingsAugust 7, 2022

    awesome! Big thanks! I'll buy.

  4. Ashwin Pinto on Favorite Oscar Year, Favorite Oscar WinnerAugust 7, 2022

    That year people were pulling for Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

  5. Ashwin Pinto on Favorite Oscar Year, Favorite Oscar WinnerAugust 7, 2022

    Michael Collins was the better biopic that year I feel.

  • Predictions Friday: As the Pendulum Swings

    Predictions Friday: As the Pendulum Swings

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The State of the Race: Best Picture and the Film Festival Bounce

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • What is a Critic? The Curious Case of No Reviews for “What is a Woman”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Favorite Oscar Year, Favorite Oscar Winner

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Predictions Friday — One Month Away From First Big Festival Drop

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Editor Clarence Moye
  • Editor Mark Johnson
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Editor
  • Joey Moser, Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Oscar Podcast
  • AwardsDailyTV

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In