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- Ben was it actually filmed in a prison
or the real prison that it was set in?
- Yeah we filmed scenes in actually at Clinton Correctional
in the yard, the north yard there which is this huge,
it's almost like a little Roman amphitheater
built into the side of the mountain.
And then we filmed that side of that prison,
then we went down to Pittsburgh
and we shot in a real prison in Pittsburgh.
The environments for the actors
when you have this much work to...
these things are long, there's just so much.
How do you tackle all this?
And you have to kind of break it down I think
just scene by scene - Yeah
and take the pressure off of like we're gonna tell
this whole long story, just do it bit by bit.
Having to shoot it like a movie, it's literally
block shooting so you're shooting everything that happens
in one location for six episodes.
It's confusing for the production people
but I think even harder for the actors
cause they have to place themselves
where they are in the story.
So I think it's just like breaking it down bit by bit
and then just creating an environment where everybody
feels safe to take chances
and to figure it out together and to have a common,
this is what I think you were talking about doing with Amy,
just having a common idea of what your going for.
You know I find when you work with great actors
they're gonna bring so much, they just bring so much to you,
they're gonna have ideas that you wouldn't have had.
I like to try just let them have the space to do their thing
and see what they bring instinctually to it.
And being in the real locations
and all that I think really helps.
(upbeat music)
- All of these projects are so ambitious, tell me about
the biggest fight you had to get what you needed.
- I think for me on our project it was getting to shoot
up at the real prison, because you know for budget
it's just always hard to go sometimes to the actual places.
And for us to have access to the prison,
it was in such a unique location,
nestled inside the Anirondack Mountains
it was almost impossible to recreate
and it was part of the story because these guys escaped
and they went out into mountains.
So as we were literally six weeks away from shooting
and we didn't have a location secured
to be able to shoot up there and so when we finally got that
that was the biggest fight, besides there's always
budget discussions.
(giggles)
But to be able to have access to that
place and then for them to cooperate with us
and then they gave us, we were allowed to go inside
the prison and then to have people who worked at the prison
be technical advisors was just
to me the most valuable thing.
- Did you learn anything new about the prison environment
that was sort of an interesting wake up call?
- Well, I mean I learned from 13th a lot
of how bad it is and to experience it for real
to feel the heaviness of it,
to me was the biggest thing I think.
You know sometimes the tone of something you're making
you don't know what it's gonna to be until you're doing it.
I don't know, Adam I feel like you kinda
create tone in such an amazing way.
I didn't know what is was gonna be,
but then when in went into the real prison
and walked through there and it was so heavy,
it was just like there's no way
this can be funny in any way. (laughs)
I mean there could be ironic humor at times
but like this is not funny to me.
And I can understand why no matter who you are
you'd wanna get outta here.
(upbeat music)
- Eve I know you brought Storm Reid on a few projects now.
What is it about certain actors that creates that?
- You just get to place where it's a nod of the head
or you can just say...
and they know what you're talking about.
That kind of thing becomes really comfortable
and allows you to think about a lot of other things
as opposed to having to kind of mold so carefully.
- And it takes a little time sometimes
if you don't know the actors and we had that,
we had an episode where we're doing like single shots
and it was the 7th or 8th day of shooting
and it was like a long scene where they've escaped
and they come out of the manhole
and was like the whole scene was in one shot
and I remember Benicio coming and going
"you're gonna do coverage right?"
I'm like "I don't think we're gonna do coverage"
(guests laugh)
and he's like "well really cause I think
maybe you should do some coverage" (laughs)
and I was like "well I think this whole episode
is gonna have these single shot"
and we just started working together
and you know, I could understand as an actor
cause I remember doing scene in Royal Tenenbaums
with Wes Anderson where he did a single shot
and I was in it at the end of the shot
and it was this emotional moment
and all I kept asking him "You're gonna do coverage,
you're gonna do coverage right?"
And he kept on saying "yeah we're gonna do coverage,
we're gonna do coverage", and he never did coverage.
We did a number of takes and we did it until he felt,
good about it, cause I wanna make sure
always that they walk away feeling good,
but then you also have to kind of let them know
I think we're gonna go for this on this thing
because you have to make those choices.
- You did coverage though right?
(guests laugh)
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