For four seasons, HBOS “The righteous gems“Has come to be recognized as one of the best comedies on television, with their gaze on a dysfunctional family that runs a megachurch that consistently grows bolder, deeper and more funny. The current (and last) season opener was an example: A standalone prologue Sitting in 1862 showing one of the ancestors of the gemstones that prohibited a chapel position during the civil war, it was completely unexpected and side -witty fun.
It was also an example of how “”The righteous gems“Has silently become something more than a great comedy.” Gemsten ”not only have some of the biggest laughs on TVIt has some of the wildest and most dynamic action sequences-action sequences that, if they were at police exhibitions or prestige drama, are praised as top level sets. From “Cycle Ninjas” of Season 2 to the insane Kinetic car chase that starts Season 3’s other episodes, “The righteous gems“Often contains carefully targeted measures and character -driven stunt work that would be envy of all procedures.
Season 4 premiere gives perhaps the most obvious example so far, as director Danny McBride begins the section (after a prologue that establishes Bradley Cooper as one of Gemstones’ ancestors) with a civil war sequence that has more in common with theatrical released functions like “Glory” than anything on TV. The civil war setting is introduced with an unbroken tracking shot that moves over a row of hundreds of confused soldiers as they shoot, being shot and dropped by Cannon Fire.
For stunt coordinator Cory DemeyersMcBride’s concept for the shot was an exciting challenge-how would he deduct such a large-scale idea on a TV schedule and budget? “In my first meeting with Danny, he said:” I want us to feel like a fly on the wall that moves through that battlefield and looked at a side of the war occurred, “Demyers told IndieWire.” Danny opened it as an oner, and I think I was the only person in the team at the time it would really be able to achieve
While Demyers would usually rely on Previz to plan a complex set, for the civil war battle, he chose a more old -fashioned strategy. “Instead of pulling 30 guys to try to shoot this thing and showing it off, I bought a bunch of army men,” said Demeyers, explaining that he took the confused soldier figures he found on Amazon, got some horses and fences and trees and built the battlefield on his kitchen island. “I set everything and marked where Gags happened in the battlefield and what I thought the layout would be with sticky notes.”
Demeyers then took photos and created drawings to lay out the battle sequence, beat by beat. “I sketched out was the Dolly track was, what was an explosion, which becomes a barrier,” he said. “I showed it to Danny and we sat in his trailer for an hour and talked about it. He said,” This looks good, but I don’t want the Dolly apartment. Let’s kick Dolly 20 degrees. That way towards the end of the battle, we move more into the action, right? “And I was, okay, amazing.”
Demeyers incorporated McBride’s note and shot a previz on his phone with the army toys. “I made a little Dolly shot,” Demeyers said. “I tied a little floss to horses, pulled them over the counter, added some sound effects, and that was what we presented and approved. When we finally got our stunt artists, that was what we started repeating.”
Although the battle seems to be shot for an unbroken tag, there were actually several shots digital seam together with the cuts hidden in explosions and other visual flowers. Part of Demyer’s job was to find out which action teams could cover the cuts and how to arrange each individual shot with minimal risk of being taken. “My biggest concern was to get past one of these big stunts and something that went wrong,” he said. “When such a thing happens, you have to restore and then these guys have to make the big stunt again. By breaking up the shot I tried to eliminate failure.”
The task was made all the more complicated by the large volume of people Demyers and the crew had to orchestrate. “We had a hundred background actors, 20 residents, 13 stunt artists and 12 Wranglers on horses,” Demeyers said. “Some of these Wranglers were on the camera playing in the middle of the ground and drove around the rally troops with flags. And some of these Wranglers were outside the camera and caught horses directly from our guys who came from them.”
Having Wranglers to do double -duty was emblematic for the ways in which Demyers maximized their resources to give the stage the most epic feeling possible. For a stunt at the end of the shot where a soldier is inflated and loses his legs, Demeyers hired a rig team that also jumped into the scene as needed. “Now I have 13 stunt artists plus two stunners who are also artists,” Demeyers said. “It gives me two more bodies. And then we can reuse them in the first sequence and the second sequence, then the third sequence is time to use the barrier.”
While the choreography of all action is undeniably impressive from a technical point of view, what makes Demyer’s work especially how it helps to land the show’s comic and emotional effects. Demyers says he doesn’t think much about selling comedy as he does to simply be faithful to the text and improve the ideas that already exist on the page. “What is the underlying story? I’m not just trying to do action for the sake of action. I’m trying to tell a story with the action. So if it doesn’t move your story forward or develop your character, we probably shouldn’t.”
