Deadline
In Apple TELEVISION+’s Black Bird, Dennis Lehane’s minimal series about founded guilty criminal Jimmy Keane (Taron Egerton) attempting to generate a confession from presumed serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser), cinematographer Natalie Kingston understood she wished to deal with hazardous masculinity from a fresh angle.
Speaking throughout Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees occasion, Kingston, who shot all 6 episodes, said, “Dennis’ perspective on this was really inspiring and really what got me into this. He wasn’t interested in playing up the violence, being very literal with the story, being on the nose, making these killings feel very heightened or theatrical. It wasn’t about that at all.”
Instead, Kingston kept in mind, the work was to inform “a human story.” Lehane’s informing, based upon real occasions, is “character-driven,” she included, “and it’s about this uncomfortable tense dialogue between these two prisoners and this unlike, false friendship and about the different, complex layers within that.”
Lehane’s perspective motivated Kingston too, due to the fact that, “For him it was about examining where each male in this series lies on this spectrum of toxic masculinity and misogyny. And nothing is black and white in real life. … It was about showing glimpses of humanity within Paul’s character, within Larry Hall. The challenge of painting that picture and showing that through a visual language was really an exciting challenge.”
Kingston’s method to this obstacle depended upon stillness and no unjustified cam motion whatsoever. “A lot of it came through restraint with the camera, not moving the camera a lot of times,” she said, “because I felt that really increased the tension in a lot of scenes and created that sense of claustrophobia, like Larry and Jimmy were feeling in this prison where they couldn’t escape and making the audience feel that they couldn’t escape this weird and uncomfortable relationship and just drawing them in closer. And so, when we did move the camera it really, really meant something, and you felt it.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
