For a competition series like The Traitors, it’s important for cinematographers Siggi Rosen-Rawlings and Matt Wright to keep the players as immersed in the game as possible. While the players compete in a series of challenges and conspire with each other to root out the traitors, the pair is hard at work making sure they remain as out of the way as possible… while also keeping track of where the drama is happening.
This season of The Traitors has some of reality TV’s biggest stars coming together to play the psychological competition game of treachery and deceit, along with host Alan Cumming. The series was nominated for four Emmys, including Outstanding Cinematography for “The Funeral”, which both Wright and Rosen-Rawlings say was one of the most theatrical episodes that showed off the skills of every department.
DEADLINE: You’re both nominated for episode four, “The Funeral”, what was it about that episode’s cinematography that stood out this season?
MATT WRIGHT: The whole theme of that episode just allowed us to, for want of a better phrase, go to town on things. It was a kind of joy to make because it was so theatrical and there’s so much that we could get involved with on our side of things, which I think Siggi probably agrees with and can elaborate on, but it was a real chance to be creative and to try and elevate what was a great story.
SIGGI ROSEN-RAWLINGS: We spent a long time trying to figure out which episode to put forward, because we’re proud of the whole series and all the work that goes into it from all the departments. It was hard to choose an episode that we liked more than others, but we felt that this episode was a real showcase of our skills as cinematographers and also the producers’ skills, the camera department skills, the art department skills… this episode in particular just kind of sang to us. And also, this episode was good because we were both so involved in it.
Matt runs those missions and puts a lot of time and energy into planning them. The logistics of this mission in particular were a real challenge, and we as a team rose to that challenge and we sort of tag-teamed that whole mission and the whole episode. It was a good showcase of our work and to kind of show off the way that we work together and what we can do as a team and we felt like it was a great episode to watch as well because the storylines are amazing.
DEADLINE: Matt, tell me about shooting the funeral procession challenge.
WRIGHT: One of the big things, which I think is another example of why this episode was good and why this mission was good, is you try to achieve what’s required whilst letting the players play the game and not breaking the spell. Not interfering and trying to do things in real time, letting them get on with it. So, then we have a certain amount of resources in terms of cameras, camera people, et cetera. How can we move all these people around? How can we get them where they need to be? How can we shoot multiple scenes whilst allowing this funeral procession to actually happen, and allow Alan to lead it in his wonderful costume with an awesome courage and let the atmosphere build up for the players?
So, we employed multiple things. Siggi did the opener outside the castle, a lovely scene where the players walk out of the castle with the horse and carriages and Alan’s there. And then on the horse and carriage, we had a camera person dressed in costume, kind of hidden in plain sight, with a small camera on the carriage to film people as they stepped on. Siggi filmed that scene and let the carriage go, and then he and his crew went to the burial scene at the end and hand over the funeral procession to another group of mobile cameras so we can get shots of the players. And then, because it’s I think four sub games within the whole procession, we’d figured out a way of filming one of those, then filming a bit of procession and at the same time, those cameras are moving again to the next mini scene to be ready to receive again. And then just leapfrogging until the end. So, we’d just drilled this kind of sequence of where everyone had to be and at what time, how we’d move the cameras, lots of people helping us so the players could just step into these scenes and the atmosphere could be retained until eventually they stepped into the funeral scene at the end. And it was great. It looked fantastic and I think everyone could feel that tension in the air.
DEADLINE: I wouldn’t even think of having someone in costume on the carriage holding a camera so you wouldn’t notice them. That’s brilliant.
WRIGHT: It’s a really good example of how we have to approach things and why the show is such fun to make. You have to approach things just in a way to get it done.
DEADLINE: Siggi, as the cinematographer in charge of the castle grounds, what are you looking for in your shots? In the breakfast scenes, for instance, are there certain people you know have big reactions or are the producers giving direction?
ROSEN-RAWLINGS: Well, the producers will always have a wish list of shots or content editorially that they need or that they want, so we’ll have been briefed on that before we go into breakfast. But the great thing about the breakfast scenes is you never know what’s going to happen. They don’t who’s been murdered or who’s not been murdered, but we don’t know how they’re going to react to it. So, there are some kind of banker shots that we get. You always want to have shots of the traitors because you want to see their reactions at certain points.
It’s not obvious to the viewer maybe, but there’s a whole gallery full of producers and our series director Ben Archard, who are calling shots and asking for content as it’s happening. But in that room, there can be points in time where there’s just so much going on, there’s so much energy floating around the room and there’s so many different storylines happening at the same time that we really rely on our camera operators to be tuned into what’s going on and what conversations are happening, which can be really hard if there’s 20 odd people in a room all talking loudly at the same time. That can be a challenge. So, you’re using your eyes, you’re using your ears, you’re using all your senses to second guess where conversations are going and trying to cover that and give the director and the producers in the gallery what they want. But there were oftentimes where, because we are in the room, we can second guess what might happen. I always say to the guys, “Listen to the intonation in people’s voices. Look at their eye lines, who are they looking at? And then try and drift across to that person to capture those moments, those magical moments that they cut into those sequences.” Those breakfast scenes and pretty much every scene that we do is live, even to the point where Alan comes in. That’s one take.
And going back to the actual mission itself, just to elaborate on the funeral procession and what Matt was saying, that is all shot in real time over quite a physical distance. It’s a long and winding path from the castle to the burial site, and the way that we did that in real time was to leapfrog our crew. And we shoot scenes like the breakfast scene as live to maintain this immersive bubble for the players because we want the players to not be distracted by us. We want them to feel like they’re in the moment, so we can’t stop for lens changes or lighting tweaks or if someone says it’s the wrong thing or whatever. We’ve just got to keep going. And that’s why this episode was such a challenge for me and Matt, because it’s got to be in real time and it goes from breakfast to outside to the funeral procession. There’re only small parts in that where maybe they’ve gone to get changed, which are off camera, so that whole funeral procession, the breakfast scene, it’s all as it happens… And then obviously they cut it down to fit on your TV screen. But it is a really fun challenge to shoot in this way, and hopefully it comes across in the storylines because the players believe it’s real.
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