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Mr. Arkush is really looking forward to know our reactions, so don't be shy and answer here!



This photograph was also enclosed with the email:









667 Dark Ave. Interview questions & answers Allan Arkush 5/21-23/2018





1) How did you become involved in ASoUE, and The Hostile Hospital in particular?





I had watched the show during the first season and liked it very much. Partially because Barry Sonnenfeld (I really admire his work) was involved, and also because Rose Lam (a longtime friend) was the Executive Producer. Rose and I have worked on 2 series together: “Life Unexpected” & “Hellcats”. Because of those shows we became very good friends and would visit each other in LA & Vancouver. Last Spring she called and asked me if I was interested in Directing 2 episodes of ASOUE. I guess a Director had dropped out and they had an opening, but... I would be competing with other Directors for the job and the final choice would be Barry Sonnenfeld’s, after he had met and interviewed me. That would mean flying myself up to Vancouver on my dime, but the artistic possibilities of the show excited me; so even though I’ve been directing for 42 years and have a loooong track record, I agreed to an audition. I felt that the show was completely original in look and style, plus I love really imaginative broad comedy.



I spent a week watching season one closely so that I understood the visual style from the inside (the Director’s point of view), the quirky characters, original tone and complex story. I paid very close attention to the ones that Barry had directed because he was the showrunner and had set the style. I also rewatched "Get Shorty", & the first 2 "Men In Black".



I made a bunch of notes and outlined what I wanted to say to Rose & Barry about the show. I read the book of "The Hostile Hospital" on the airplane, and in Vancouver went straight to the sound stages to see the whole production, to meet Barry and talk with Rose. The massive production was VERY impressive. The next day we all had lunch and talked about the show and Hostile Hospital for almost 2 hours. There was a real give & take, and we all felt that we could work together. 2 hours later I had the job. My start date for prep was late June.





2) Did you read the book, or concentrate on making the adaptation stand independently?





I read the book to prep for the interview, and after I had the job they sent me a rough script. It had a lot more Olaf in it than the book. I was also shown the concept drawings that were made by Bo Welch (the Production Designer who is a big part of the show). Between the script and the art work I began to form a Directing concept. Next I received blueprints of the sets and I studied them carefully. On the first day of Prep we had what’s called a Concept Meeting to discuss what we wanted to achieve in every scene in the scripts for parts one and 2.



From that point on, the script and the production began to evolve. I spent a lot of time going over the script and the production issues with Rose Lam, DOP Todd Elyzen and the Art Director.





3) What is your relationship with the writing team, and who do you think has the most influence on the story?





As is often the case in TV, the original writer of the script is not in the city where the show is shot. A member of the staff is assigned to be on set and oversee any suggestions for changes and bring them to Barry Sonnenfeld and the original writer. I didn’t work at all with Daniel Handler. Joe Tracz (who is a writer and Co-EP) and I worked together every day. Our first challenge was making the episodes shootable in the time allotted and physically possible. The book and script were very ambitious.



We had a bunch of challenges. A lot of effort went into trying to make Klaus standing on Sunny’s shoulders underneath the medical coat in Pt 2 possible. It wasn’t. We came up with a solution of Sunny being strapped to Klaus, which was no small thing. Big Doctor’s jackets and foam Sunny body bulges were tried, tested and finally approved. As were several beards.



So much of the episode takes place in hallways; we worked to design the sets so that the same hallways could be redressed and used over & over again. Also, Violet seemed very passive in the second half, so Joe came up with the sub-story of Violet and Babs trying to escape and getting caught. The rooftop hideout was changed to girders and made less complicated physically, but much more emotional in the way that the kids dealt with Hal and their moral dilemma. There were discussions of what food Hal would bring them, we all were enthusiastic on chicken noodle (little pasta stars) and Sunny LOVED it. Look at her scarfing down that soup in the show, hilarious! I was worried needlessly about her spoon skills.



The fire scene at the end took a lot of planning because we couldn’t use real flames, all CGI and lighting. Sunny is too young to be on the gurney when it’s at full speed. I did a shot list and storyboards to make the audience believe that Sunny was in front and in real danger. It was a clever use of a doll, cuts of Violet & Klaus, and a few choice Sunny cuts.





4) Which character or characters did you most enjoy working with in these episodes?





Not to sound like a pollyanna, but I loved working with all of them. We got into a great rhythm and the ideas and inspiration flowed. ASOUE is one of the most creative sets that I've ever worked on. Neil Patrick Harris sets a very professional tone, everyone is totally prepared and he is the leader. There was good give and take with Neil and so many funny bits were added by him. I talked him through my shots and concept for each scene and would adjust to what he had planned so as not to miss any performance moments.



Lucy Punch is a comedienne in the Carole Lombard- Catherine O’Hara mold. Once she knew that she could make me laugh, that it was a creative set and she try out crazy ideas... she rocked it. How about her chasing the kids thru the file cabinets, the hide and seek and big freak out. Impossible to think of that scene without her scary & funny characterization. Or when she gives Klaus a throat cutting demonstration as she tries to call the elevator. In every scene, even when she is in the background, she is working to show character & story.



Klaus, Violet and I worked very hard at tracking the emotional arc of the orphans and their betrayal of Hal. Barry likes the pace to be very fast and the dialogue to fly by. We worked on that and making sure that the beats were also very clear- like in Howard Hawk’s "His Girl Friday". I was very specific in my directions to them. We didn’t rehearse much because their time on the set is very limited by child labor laws.



Working with the Hench People was a joy, it was a lot like the hall monitors in "Rock n Roll High School": just give them an idea and turn them loose. I ate lunch every day with the twins and we talked about old movies. Half of a Director’s job was gaining trust. HOIG had so many good ideas as did Hook Hands, his dancing in the operating room as he chants with the crowd always makes me laugh. I love HOIG’s Jack Nicholson take when he breaks down the door to the medical closet during the fire.



Hal had to win our hearts so we could feel his tragedy. The worse we feel about Hal’s loss of his precious files, the more we empathize with him and the orphans dilemma.



I could go on and on about the actors. I loved Babs, and she hung out with my wife and I on weekends. As you can see character, acting & story all come out of the script but it also happens on set. The closer we got to shooting the more Joe Tracz, Rose Lam and I focused on the nuance of every scene.





5) Did you face any pushback on the horror theme? Were the episodes ever conceived of as lighter - or perhaps even darker?





The script made references to "The Shining" and stressed the scares. Barry wanted Olaf to be more of a real threat, he felt it was important that he would kill the orphans. Barry wanted to stress the conflict and fear over the comedy. I am very happy with the scene in THH part 2 where Olaf threatens Violet with power tools while she is tied to the bed. That is exactly what we were going for. When he's breaking the light bulbs I was doing a "Clockwork Orange" homage. Trying to scare Babs was like "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein", scary and funny.



I took every opportunity to jack up the jeopardy, it adds pace and conflict which is why the episodes feel like they are speeding to a conclusion. I wanted the audience to feel like they had to hang onto a fast moving train.





6) Did the "grimy" look for Heimlich Hospital present itself, or was there a point in development where it was going to be a more typical clean-white hospital?





Let’s be clear: Bo Welch is a genius. Every detail of the sets was perfect and totally original. He is a great collaborator as is Barry, and they listened closely to my ideas and additions to the design. It was always going to be grimy, festering and dangerous. Threatening!!!



We eventually had to add 2 extra halls to accommodate the final chase and some of the earlier scenes, when the orphans are hiding. We also added the idea of construction work, so we could redress the halls and make them look different. (I learned how to make the same set look like many sets from my mentor Roger Corman.) All my respect to Todd Elyzen for his imaginative lighting which went a long way towards making the Hospital so Hostile. Also, his work in the Operating Theater is so beautiful. It is like one of my favorite British Movies, “Stairway to Heaven”, which also has a long operating room scene. Our scene was very very difficult: it is almost 20 pages long, has many characters and at least a dozen on screen lighting changes. These changes heighten the drama, clarify the tone and set up the jokes. They add pace to a mostly static scene.



Lighting inside the vents was also a challenge, they are so small!! Where do you hide the lights and where does the illumination come from inside a long dark metal box with no windows only small vents? I could go on and on about the art dept. I’ve done 3 or 4 series with the Set Decorator, Kate Marshall. She is both inspired and thorough.





7) None of us viewers could agree with how to interpret the Snicket File scene — so did Olaf burn it on purpose? Did he knock it over by accident? Did he knock it over out of anger without planning for it to catch fire? The world must know!





Olaf burnt it on purpose. He knocked over the projector in anger first without planning it to catch fire. The film got caught in the gate, melted and started to burn. Back in the day safety film would do this: nitrate would have exploded but would have been unrealistic. Neil really liked doing this scene, he insisted on fanning the flames. Interpret that as you will.



The sparks were real, the flames were CGI.





8) Any interesting deleted scenes or elements you could share?





Nope. No scenes were cut out although we did some tightening with in scenes in the editing room. We shot it very close to it’s final running time. Joe Tracz and I spent a lot of time tightening the script, especially the Operating Theater sequence. Barry & Rose were vigilant about us cutting the script too deep, so in some cases parts of script scenes went back in. It’s a very interesting process.



There were several other scenes that I wanted to be sure were well paced: I was worried about the length of time the orphans are hiding behind the wall outside the burning hospital at the end while we set up the trunk being open etc., but it works.



Barry refined the important scene when the orphans jump out the window of the supply closet and the tubes stretch and snap. We went over the shots many times and I had to be clear in my logic in each one. Tough scene, because we had to be safe with the children. Barry’s input was vital. Also, in the supply room there is quite a bit of exposition, difficult to balance against the demands of the chase goping on. Hence all the activity outside the door and extensive sound design.



The scenes where Klaus & Sunny puzzle out the location of Violet via the alphabit cereal was tightened a lot in editing. The urgency of their mission vs the tedious nature of doing a puzzle.





9) How would the episodes be different if they weren't targeted at children? Would they be darker in tone, or have fewer comedic moments?





I actually never thought it was aimed at children. I know kids really like it but I think it’s more for teens, college and adults, but what do I know. My daughters liked it growing up. The jokes are VERY smart. Kids laugh at Sunny, more than Olaf’s wise cracks, which are more for adults. Although the Volunteers Fighting Disease are very very funny and I love them dearly. They came out much better than I thought they would; not to be negative, but a lot could have gone wrong with this concept. Would it became labored and over done because it keeps coming back? But no, the songs were great, the melody annoying and then actors were so gung ho. They sang all the songs LIVE!! I asked that they dress like a 70’s group called “Up With People.” Google it.



One of my proudest moments is the sequence of them singing from room to room. So absurd, so WACKY. Also using them to scare Babs in the dark hallway is pretty inspired.





10) Did you watch the first series of the Netflix show beforehand? How did past episodes influence the way this episode was directed?





As I said earlier, I studied the first season and watched each new cut of season 2 to make my work seamless with what had come before. The use of very wide angle lens’s is specific to this show. The spatial symmetry and dynamic within the frame is something that I was very aware of. The Tone of the acting is also very specific. I got notes from Barry & Rose and that helped a lot, and guided my choices.



We did a shot list of every scene. We knew exactly how many shots it would take to do each scene so that a very exacting schedule could be drawn up. Sunny’s work time is very limited, as is Violet’s and Klaus. Olaf’s make up each day takes many hours, so it had to be carefully co-ordinated so there is no down time. And then of course I have to be creative on a schedule, no waiting around for inspiration. We got quite a few extra shots as we thought of them, and missed a couple planned ones here & there.





11) What have you previously directed that was most similar to the process of directing The Hostile Hospital, and why? Was there anything unique you experienced when directing the episodes?





I love broad comedy. The Marx Brothers ( “Duck Soup” was a BIG inspiration for Hostile Hospital), also Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, especially the movies directed by Frank Tashlin. Tashlin was a Looney Tunes animator who became a Director. He brought a cartoon sensibility to his 50’s comedies. Very overstated visually. Check out “Artists & Models” “The Disorderly Orderly”,”The Geisha Boy”, and “The Girl Can’t Help It.” One of my favorite Directors is Ernst Lubitsch. Take a look at “To Be Or Not To Be”, “Heaven Can Wait” and “Trouble in Paradise". He can swing from sophistication to silliness effortlessly. His early 30’s movies are all comedies set in half imaginary countries that remind me of the Hinterlands.



I directed this the same way I directed "Rock n Roll High School". I went for the jokes big time and was BOLD. “Get Crazy” is sort of like that, as is “Elvis Meets Nixon”. “Moonlighting has the same verbal pace as ASOUE, and is also inspired by comedies of the 30’s & 40’s. In “Heroes”, which I Directed and Produced, we blended action and comedy along with a very dynamic visual style. In many ways I borrowed heavily on those parts of my Directorial vocabulary. Those years of visual EFX helped a lot in figuring out how to shoot the Hospital fire and most especially the attack of the file cabinets that ends part 1, which is the most demanding sequence in the 2 episodes. All the experience that I had storyboarding “Heroes”, and breaking down the shots into stunts, stunt performers, actors, Digital FX, and mechanical FX came into play. We worked on preparing that sequence for weeks. A model of the set was made and we moved around blocks that represented the file cabinets. We thought a lot about where the entry & exit doors would go, the location of the chute that Klaus & Sunny use to escape, the angle of the crashing files, which ones had to be real, which were wood mock ups, which were to be hinged to the floor so they fell in a predictable way, how much geography to show so that the audience was never confused... We did rough computer animation of the shotlist so that we could study it spatially and temporally, and make sure that it flowed and made sense. The scene had to drive the episode into the end of part one with enormous energy and threat. Once the physical set was put up we used our lunch hours and early morning meetings to plan & trouble shoot the whole thing. It was shot in less than 2 days. Amazing!! So that was my most unique experience directing the show. That and working with Sunny.





12) Did you have any direct contact with Daniel Handler during the process? Do you know how involved he is in the writing and directing/filming processes?





I never got to meet Mr. Handler or work with him, so I can’t answer that. I do love his writing and thank him for creating such unique books.





13) Four different directors worked on the five different "books" in this season. Do you think having a variety of directors improves the show? Are there any disadvantages to doing this?





Every show that I have ever worked on has used multiple Directors under the aegis of a Director/Producer. In this case it was Barry Sonnenfeld. Each Guest Director brings something new to the show and hopefully inspires the cast & crew to achieve new things. On Crossing Jordan and Heroes we had a core group of Directors that rotated through each season. I think that they got to know the style of those shows and contributed to it.



I taught a class at UCLA Graduate School on Producing & Directing for Television: “Creativity on Demand.” It was an analysis of the role of the Director in episodic TV. The limitations and the joy of being part of a creative team. Unlike feature films, TV is a Team sport. Barry set the parameters of the ASOUE aesthetic and it is up to each director to work within it. That’s not so much a limitation as a way of learning new tools. Like Directors in the Golden Age of Hollywood who worked within a studio style, a Warner’s movie looked and felt different than an MGM movie. That is what an episodic show has to do today. The style is created in the pilot and refined in the first season. It was fun and challenging to learn Barry’s style of Blocking scenes and use of lenses and eyelines.





14) Was there a particular scene that was especially hard to write/shoot, in terms of darker tones or the actors' performances/reactions to it?And If so, what was it and what was the thought process behind it?"





As I outlined earlier, the scene in the File room with the crashing cabinets was a big challenge as was the Operating Theater, for very different reasons. The first scenes that we shot were in the "Last Chance" General Store. It had to look very overcrowded and packed with STUFF. That made it a very tight space to work in and slow going. We tried to avoid moving the very heavy and beautifully dressed shelves, but it was a challenge to wedge in Camera crew and sound and the actors!! It was written for a much larger store but we all LOVED what the Art Department had done. So I shot it like a maze where you never quite knew what aisle you were in. I think that the mirror shots are very cool. Having Olaf stalk the kids rather than run after them made it menacing and helped us to maximize our space.



As far as acting tone- the challenges include Olaf being a very REAL threat and funny at the same time. Also the interplay between the orphans & Hal and building that relationship, just like keeping the urgency of the orphans through out, first as a family and then when Sunny & Klaus need to save Violet. In the operating theater we changed the script to have Violet wake up earlier so she could figure out what was going on and to have Klaus see this and crosscut her with all the other action and exposition. In the original script she wakes up as she is being pushed out of the room, which necessitated Klaus giving her exposition as she sleepily gained consciousness. Not the best thing for a chase. It’s not a major change but it all counts towards your end goal. That let the 3 kids go full bore in the closet and out the window. Originally she was still groggy in the closet.





15) I'd like to know whether Klaus' fake doctor name tag, "Dr. Faust", was a direct reference to the same detail in Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive"?





Good question. I wish it was a reference. I am an admirer of Jim Jarmusch’s work and love that movie, and as you can tell from my answers I love movie references. But no, it’s coincidence.





16) Did you work with children before? How was it working with Sunny, whose participation is so important for the show?





I’ve quite a few shows with children. I directed “Fame”, directed and Produced the first TV version of “Parenthood” in 1989, a Hallmark movie in 2014 and many many others since then.



Working with sunny was completely unique. Usually for someone that age you have twins so you can get more time on set and substitute one for the oither when the mood of your actor changes, but there is only one Sunny! By law she can only be on set for 15 minutes and then gets a 20 minute break. That’s a narrow window. So what you do is block the scene without any kids at all, light it and practice the camera moves; then you bring in Violet & Klaus and rehearse so they know exactly what to do (Violet is very good at keeping Sunny happy and focused). When everything is working, Sunny arrives with her mother. She has to play and warm up for at least 5 minutes (kids all need to transition, especially at that age), then you show her the yellow marks where she stands and the yellow tape marks where she is supposed to look: that takes another 5 minutes. And then you have 5 minutes to shoot the scene!!! I never cut the camera but repeat the scene over & over until my time is up. Somewhere around the second take Sunny is awesome. She acts like this is really happening and reacts to everything around her. Watching this back at the TV monitor everyone is AMAZED at how great it is and breathes a big sigh of relief. There are tricks like carrying her into scenes and putting her down just off camera so you can shoot her close ups separately. A lot of editing goes into shaping her performance but it’s all worth it.





17) What is your favorite part of being a director?





Everything!!! To be more specific, the intense creativity on the set. Those wonderful shots that go as planned and the actors elevate the scene into a whole other level. It can be magic. Below are Allan Arkush's responses to the questions we gathered, which he answered quickly and thoughtfully. I hope you will enjoy reading over them and thanks once again to everyone who participated (especiallywho wrote this text originally for Handler's interview and I shamelessly copied because it's 1 am, I didn't sleep last night and also it's Thursday, so I can't think in English right now; sorry and thanks Bee!). Go team!Mr. Arkush is really looking forward to know our reactions, so don't be shy and answer here!This photograph was also enclosed with the email:I had watched the show during the first season and liked it very much. Partially because Barry Sonnenfeld (I really admire his work) was involved, and also because Rose Lam (a longtime friend) was the Executive Producer. Rose and I have worked on 2 series together: “Life Unexpected” & “Hellcats”. Because of those shows we became very good friends and would visit each other in LA & Vancouver. Last Spring she called and asked me if I was interested in Directing 2 episodes of ASOUE. I guess a Director had dropped out and they had an opening, but... I would be competing with other Directors for the job and the final choice would be Barry Sonnenfeld’s, after he had met and interviewed me. That would mean flying myself up to Vancouver on my dime, but the artistic possibilities of the show excited me; so even though I’ve been directing for 42 years and have a loooong track record, I agreed to an audition. I felt that the show was completely original in look and style, plus I love really imaginative broad comedy.I spent a week watching season one closely so that I understood the visual style from the inside (the Director’s point of view), the quirky characters, original tone and complex story. I paid very close attention to the ones that Barry had directed because he was the showrunner and had set the style. I also rewatched "Get Shorty", & the first 2 "Men In Black".I made a bunch of notes and outlined what I wanted to say to Rose & Barry about the show. I read the book of "The Hostile Hospital" on the airplane, and in Vancouver went straight to the sound stages to see the whole production, to meet Barry and talk with Rose. The massive production was VERY impressive. The next day we all had lunch and talked about the show and Hostile Hospital for almost 2 hours. There was a real give & take, and we all felt that we could work together. 2 hours later I had the job. My start date for prep was late June.I read the book to prep for the interview, and after I had the job they sent me a rough script. It had a lot more Olaf in it than the book. I was also shown the concept drawings that were made by Bo Welch (the Production Designer who is a big part of the show). Between the script and the art work I began to form a Directing concept. Next I received blueprints of the sets and I studied them carefully. On the first day of Prep we had what’s called a Concept Meeting to discuss what we wanted to achieve in every scene in the scripts for parts one and 2.From that point on, the script and the production began to evolve. I spent a lot of time going over the script and the production issues with Rose Lam, DOP Todd Elyzen and the Art Director.As is often the case in TV, the original writer of the script is not in the city where the show is shot. A member of the staff is assigned to be on set and oversee any suggestions for changes and bring them to Barry Sonnenfeld and the original writer. I didn’t work at all with Daniel Handler. Joe Tracz (who is a writer and Co-EP) and I worked together every day. Our first challenge was making the episodes shootable in the time allotted and physically possible. The book and script were very ambitious.We had a bunch of challenges. A lot of effort went into trying to make Klaus standing on Sunny’s shoulders underneath the medical coat in Pt 2 possible. It wasn’t. We came up with a solution of Sunny being strapped to Klaus, which was no small thing. Big Doctor’s jackets and foam Sunny body bulges were tried, tested and finally approved. As were several beards.So much of the episode takes place in hallways; we worked to design the sets so that the same hallways could be redressed and used over & over again. Also, Violet seemed very passive in the second half, so Joe came up with the sub-story of Violet and Babs trying to escape and getting caught. The rooftop hideout was changed to girders and made less complicated physically, but much more emotional in the way that the kids dealt with Hal and their moral dilemma. There were discussions of what food Hal would bring them, we all were enthusiastic on chicken noodle (little pasta stars) and Sunny LOVED it. Look at her scarfing down that soup in the show, hilarious! I was worried needlessly about her spoon skills.The fire scene at the end took a lot of planning because we couldn’t use real flames, all CGI and lighting. Sunny is too young to be on the gurney when it’s at full speed. I did a shot list and storyboards to make the audience believe that Sunny was in front and in real danger. It was a clever use of a doll, cuts of Violet & Klaus, and a few choice Sunny cuts.Not to sound like a pollyanna, but I loved working with all of them. We got into a great rhythm and the ideas and inspiration flowed. ASOUE is one of the most creative sets that I've ever worked on. Neil Patrick Harris sets a very professional tone, everyone is totally prepared and he is the leader. There was good give and take with Neil and so many funny bits were added by him. I talked him through my shots and concept for each scene and would adjust to what he had planned so as not to miss any performance moments.Lucy Punch is a comedienne in the Carole Lombard- Catherine O’Hara mold. Once she knew that she could make me laugh, that it was a creative set and she try out crazy ideas... she rocked it. How about her chasing the kids thru the file cabinets, the hide and seek and big freak out. Impossible to think of that scene without her scary & funny characterization. Or when she gives Klaus a throat cutting demonstration as she tries to call the elevator. In every scene, even when she is in the background, she is working to show character & story.Klaus, Violet and I worked very hard at tracking the emotional arc of the orphans and their betrayal of Hal. Barry likes the pace to be very fast and the dialogue to fly by. We worked on that and making sure that the beats were also very clear- like in Howard Hawk’s "His Girl Friday". I was very specific in my directions to them. We didn’t rehearse much because their time on the set is very limited by child labor laws.Working with the Hench People was a joy, it was a lot like the hall monitors in "Rock n Roll High School": just give them an idea and turn them loose. I ate lunch every day with the twins and we talked about old movies. Half of a Director’s job was gaining trust. HOIG had so many good ideas as did Hook Hands, his dancing in the operating room as he chants with the crowd always makes me laugh. I love HOIG’s Jack Nicholson take when he breaks down the door to the medical closet during the fire.Hal had to win our hearts so we could feel his tragedy. The worse we feel about Hal’s loss of his precious files, the more we empathize with him and the orphans dilemma.I could go on and on about the actors. I loved Babs, and she hung out with my wife and I on weekends. As you can see character, acting & story all come out of the script but it also happens on set. The closer we got to shooting the more Joe Tracz, Rose Lam and I focused on the nuance of every scene.The script made references to "The Shining" and stressed the scares. Barry wanted Olaf to be more of a real threat, he felt it was important that he would kill the orphans. Barry wanted to stress the conflict and fear over the comedy. I am very happy with the scene in THH part 2 where Olaf threatens Violet with power tools while she is tied to the bed. That is exactly what we were going for. When he's breaking the light bulbs I was doing a "Clockwork Orange" homage. Trying to scare Babs was like "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein", scary and funny.I took every opportunity to jack up the jeopardy, it adds pace and conflict which is why the episodes feel like they are speeding to a conclusion. I wanted the audience to feel like they had to hang onto a fast moving train.Let’s be clear: Bo Welch is a genius. Every detail of the sets was perfect and totally original. He is a great collaborator as is Barry, and they listened closely to my ideas and additions to the design. It was always going to be grimy, festering and dangerous. Threatening!!!We eventually had to add 2 extra halls to accommodate the final chase and some of the earlier scenes, when the orphans are hiding. We also added the idea of construction work, so we could redress the halls and make them look different. (I learned how to make the same set look like many sets from my mentor Roger Corman.) All my respect to Todd Elyzen for his imaginative lighting which went a long way towards making the Hospital so Hostile. Also, his work in the Operating Theater is so beautiful. It is like one of my favorite British Movies, “Stairway to Heaven”, which also has a long operating room scene. Our scene was very very difficult: it is almost 20 pages long, has many characters and at least a dozen on screen lighting changes. These changes heighten the drama, clarify the tone and set up the jokes. They add pace to a mostly static scene.Lighting inside the vents was also a challenge, they are so small!! Where do you hide the lights and where does the illumination come from inside a long dark metal box with no windows only small vents? I could go on and on about the art dept. I’ve done 3 or 4 series with the Set Decorator, Kate Marshall. She is both inspired and thorough.Olaf burnt it on purpose. He knocked over the projector in anger first without planning it to catch fire. The film got caught in the gate, melted and started to burn. Back in the day safety film would do this: nitrate would have exploded but would have been unrealistic. Neil really liked doing this scene, he insisted on fanning the flames. Interpret that as you will.The sparks were real, the flames were CGI.Nope. No scenes were cut out although we did some tightening with in scenes in the editing room. We shot it very close to it’s final running time. Joe Tracz and I spent a lot of time tightening the script, especially the Operating Theater sequence. Barry & Rose were vigilant about us cutting the script too deep, so in some cases parts of script scenes went back in. It’s a very interesting process.There were several other scenes that I wanted to be sure were well paced: I was worried about the length of time the orphans are hiding behind the wall outside the burning hospital at the end while we set up the trunk being open etc., but it works.Barry refined the important scene when the orphans jump out the window of the supply closet and the tubes stretch and snap. We went over the shots many times and I had to be clear in my logic in each one. Tough scene, because we had to be safe with the children. Barry’s input was vital. Also, in the supply room there is quite a bit of exposition, difficult to balance against the demands of the chase goping on. Hence all the activity outside the door and extensive sound design.The scenes where Klaus & Sunny puzzle out the location of Violet via the alphabit cereal was tightened a lot in editing. The urgency of their mission vs the tedious nature of doing a puzzle.I actually never thought it was aimed at children. I know kids really like it but I think it’s more for teens, college and adults, but what do I know. My daughters liked it growing up. The jokes are VERY smart. Kids laugh at Sunny, more than Olaf’s wise cracks, which are more for adults. Although the Volunteers Fighting Disease are very very funny and I love them dearly. They came out much better than I thought they would; not to be negative, but a lot could have gone wrong with this concept. Would it became labored and over done because it keeps coming back? But no, the songs were great, the melody annoying and then actors were so gung ho. They sang all the songs LIVE!! I asked that they dress like a 70’s group called “Up With People.” Google it.One of my proudest moments is the sequence of them singing from room to room. So absurd, so WACKY. Also using them to scare Babs in the dark hallway is pretty inspired.As I said earlier, I studied the first season and watched each new cut of season 2 to make my work seamless with what had come before. The use of very wide angle lens’s is specific to this show. The spatial symmetry and dynamic within the frame is something that I was very aware of. The Tone of the acting is also very specific. I got notes from Barry & Rose and that helped a lot, and guided my choices.We did a shot list of every scene. We knew exactly how many shots it would take to do each scene so that a very exacting schedule could be drawn up. Sunny’s work time is very limited, as is Violet’s and Klaus. Olaf’s make up each day takes many hours, so it had to be carefully co-ordinated so there is no down time. And then of course I have to be creative on a schedule, no waiting around for inspiration. We got quite a few extra shots as we thought of them, and missed a couple planned ones here & there.I love broad comedy. The Marx Brothers ( “Duck Soup” was a BIG inspiration for Hostile Hospital), also Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, especially the movies directed by Frank Tashlin. Tashlin was a Looney Tunes animator who became a Director. He brought a cartoon sensibility to his 50’s comedies. Very overstated visually. Check out “Artists & Models” “The Disorderly Orderly”,”The Geisha Boy”, and “The Girl Can’t Help It.” One of my favorite Directors is Ernst Lubitsch. Take a look at “To Be Or Not To Be”, “Heaven Can Wait” and “Trouble in Paradise". He can swing from sophistication to silliness effortlessly. His early 30’s movies are all comedies set in half imaginary countries that remind me of the Hinterlands.I directed this the same way I directed "Rock n Roll High School". I went for the jokes big time and was BOLD. “Get Crazy” is sort of like that, as is “Elvis Meets Nixon”. “Moonlighting has the same verbal pace as ASOUE, and is also inspired by comedies of the 30’s & 40’s. In “Heroes”, which I Directed and Produced, we blended action and comedy along with a very dynamic visual style. In many ways I borrowed heavily on those parts of my Directorial vocabulary. Those years of visual EFX helped a lot in figuring out how to shoot the Hospital fire and most especially the attack of the file cabinets that ends part 1, which is the most demanding sequence in the 2 episodes. All the experience that I had storyboarding “Heroes”, and breaking down the shots into stunts, stunt performers, actors, Digital FX, and mechanical FX came into play. We worked on preparing that sequence for weeks. A model of the set was made and we moved around blocks that represented the file cabinets. We thought a lot about where the entry & exit doors would go, the location of the chute that Klaus & Sunny use to escape, the angle of the crashing files, which ones had to be real, which were wood mock ups, which were to be hinged to the floor so they fell in a predictable way, how much geography to show so that the audience was never confused... We did rough computer animation of the shotlist so that we could study it spatially and temporally, and make sure that it flowed and made sense. The scene had to drive the episode into the end of part one with enormous energy and threat. Once the physical set was put up we used our lunch hours and early morning meetings to plan & trouble shoot the whole thing. It was shot in less than 2 days. Amazing!! So that was my most unique experience directing the show. That and working with Sunny.I never got to meet Mr. Handler or work with him, so I can’t answer that. I do love his writing and thank him for creating such unique books.Every show that I have ever worked on has used multiple Directors under the aegis of a Director/Producer. In this case it was Barry Sonnenfeld. Each Guest Director brings something new to the show and hopefully inspires the cast & crew to achieve new things. On Crossing Jordan and Heroes we had a core group of Directors that rotated through each season. I think that they got to know the style of those shows and contributed to it.I taught a class at UCLA Graduate School on Producing & Directing for Television: “Creativity on Demand.” It was an analysis of the role of the Director in episodic TV. The limitations and the joy of being part of a creative team. Unlike feature films, TV is a Team sport. Barry set the parameters of the ASOUE aesthetic and it is up to each director to work within it. That’s not so much a limitation as a way of learning new tools. Like Directors in the Golden Age of Hollywood who worked within a studio style, a Warner’s movie looked and felt different than an MGM movie. That is what an episodic show has to do today. The style is created in the pilot and refined in the first season. It was fun and challenging to learn Barry’s style of Blocking scenes and use of lenses and eyelines.As I outlined earlier, the scene in the File room with the crashing cabinets was a big challenge as was the Operating Theater, for very different reasons. The first scenes that we shot were in the "Last Chance" General Store. It had to look very overcrowded and packed with STUFF. That made it a very tight space to work in and slow going. We tried to avoid moving the very heavy and beautifully dressed shelves, but it was a challenge to wedge in Camera crew and sound and the actors!! It was written for a much larger store but we all LOVED what the Art Department had done. So I shot it like a maze where you never quite knew what aisle you were in. I think that the mirror shots are very cool. Having Olaf stalk the kids rather than run after them made it menacing and helped us to maximize our space.As far as acting tone- the challenges include Olaf being a very REAL threat and funny at the same time. Also the interplay between the orphans & Hal and building that relationship, just like keeping the urgency of the orphans through out, first as a family and then when Sunny & Klaus need to save Violet. In the operating theater we changed the script to have Violet wake up earlier so she could figure out what was going on and to have Klaus see this and crosscut her with all the other action and exposition. In the original script she wakes up as she is being pushed out of the room, which necessitated Klaus giving her exposition as she sleepily gained consciousness. Not the best thing for a chase. It’s not a major change but it all counts towards your end goal. That let the 3 kids go full bore in the closet and out the window. Originally she was still groggy in the closet.Good question. I wish it was a reference. I am an admirer of Jim Jarmusch’s work and love that movie, and as you can tell from my answers I love movie references. But no, it’s coincidence.I’ve quite a few shows with children. I directed “Fame”, directed and Produced the first TV version of “Parenthood” in 1989, a Hallmark movie in 2014 and many many others since then.Working with sunny was completely unique. Usually for someone that age you have twins so you can get more time on set and substitute one for the oither when the mood of your actor changes, but there is only one Sunny! By law she can only be on set for 15 minutes and then gets a 20 minute break. That’s a narrow window. So what you do is block the scene without any kids at all, light it and practice the camera moves; then you bring in Violet & Klaus and rehearse so they know exactly what to do (Violet is very good at keeping Sunny happy and focused). When everything is working, Sunny arrives with her mother. She has to play and warm up for at least 5 minutes (kids all need to transition, especially at that age), then you show her the yellow marks where she stands and the yellow tape marks where she is supposed to look: that takes another 5 minutes. And then you have 5 minutes to shoot the scene!!! I never cut the camera but repeat the scene over & over until my time is up. Somewhere around the second take Sunny is awesome. She acts like this is really happening and reacts to everything around her. Watching this back at the TV monitor everyone is AMAZED at how great it is and breathes a big sigh of relief. There are tricks like carrying her into scenes and putting her down just off camera so you can shoot her close ups separately. A lot of editing goes into shaping her performance but it’s all worth it.Everything!!! To be more specific, the intense creativity on the set. Those wonderful shots that go as planned and the actors elevate the scene into a whole other level. It can be magic.