PRODUCTION
BIG PICTURE A SPY AMONG FRIENDS
really badly. The chance to do one really well and render the period properly was enticing. “We were talking about a time in London
before the 60s had really swung…it was grubby, grotty, everything was filthy…This is where the designer Paul Spriggs, costume designer Joanna Eatwell, make-up designer Kate Benton came into their own.” Supervising location manager Charlotte Wright found suitably decaying locations. Think The Ipcress File. “This isn’t a confident Britain, it’s an anxious, weakened Britain.” Murphy created visual bibles from the
outset. “Heads of Department rely on a clear brief…I’m obsessive about being clear.” It was also vital to ensure mutual respect between all cast and crew. “It mattered enormously. When people feel it’s the nicest job they’ve worked on, they feel empowered and they feel happy.” Murphy and DoP Nanu Segal watched
Cassavetes together. “We clicked. She knew I wanted the relationship between the camera and the story, rather than a master storyteller pulling the strings. Principal photography took place in London
and Romania, finishing in Spring 2022. Bucharest stood in for Beirut, Moscow, Vienna and Berlin. “I didn’t want it to be too beautifully lit, I
wanted it to feel like available light, practical light.” They used the phrase ‘ugly beautiful,’ with
“THIS ISN’T A CONFIDENT
BRITAIN, IT’S AN ANXIOUS, WEAKENED BRITAIN”
occasional “beautiful, subliminal composition that adds to story and symbolism.” Murphy and Segal were careful not to give it a “chocolate-box” or “glossy” quality that Murphy feels is over-used in drama. They deliberately created environments that weren’t ideal, such as characters sitting in front of windows, not beautifully side lit. “That goes to the editing as well. We didn’t
want to be obsessively on people while they’re talking, we’re on reactions as much as we’re on people talking…It’s a much slower pace… And it lags, I didn’t want either editor – Matthew
[Gray] or Edel [McDonnell] – to cut to someone because they’re about to talk…It’s subtle things like that which make the audience feel the filmmaker isn’t in charge of the story.” They shot on an Alexa, using T series anamorphic
lenses, “just gorgeous, amazing lenses, particularly at that 2:1 aspect ratio, the shape they give the rooms and the spaces was glorious.” And, despite using a single camera for almost everything, didn’t drop an hour from the shooting schedule. Using two cameras, Murphy says there’s the temptation to overuse shots from the B camera in the edit. “You’ve got to put a camera where the story wants it to be.” They graded using the old, pre-digital system
of 50 points of light and making only small adjustments. “We found the more we graded, the less authentic it looked. It sort of unwound the efforts made by Nanu and the designers,” says Murphy. Cary used the expression ‘pixel fuck’. The sound mix was also simplified “as if we
were limited by the technology of the day,” says Cary. “It goes back to the brief: every part of the show has got to speak the same language.”
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televisual.com Winter 2022
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