Doug Liman Blog: Flying to Canada To Protect The Action in Covert Affairs

Share on Facebook posted 04-23-10 by Doug Liman

Our TV show, Covert Affairs starts shooting this week. We’ve already shot a pilot, but now it’s time to shoot the series. I had hoped to direct this first episode but it’s just not possible because of the pressure to finish Fair Game in time for Cannes.

The script of first episode is one of the best scripts I’ve seen of TV writing. It’s ambitious, smart and so much fun that I’m throwing myself into the episode as a producer as much as I can. So, I flew myself up to Toronto on Monday. This is my idea of a perfect day. I get up in the morning, drive myself to the airport, fly myself to Canada (which is a fun flight because it’s just complicated, enough because it’s international, to be interesting) work for a day on a project I’m excited about and then fly back that night.

I confess too that this day was a little exciting because it was my first time on a set since my film got into competition at Cannes and I did notice a slight difference in the way people treated me. People were just a little bit more receptive to my ideas. I know this could be entirely my imagination because I’m so honored and proud that we were chosen and, as I’ve learned though therapy, most of this kind of thing is probably in your head. Nonetheless, it felt really good to be there.

I’ve discovered that, as a producer, I’m basically useless during production. I am much more useful during prep, because by the time you get to production the director doesn’t want to hear ideas, it’s too late. One week out though, the director, Alan Kroeker, had only been on the project for one day and was very receptive to input. Covert Affairs is an action oriented show and this particular episode is really creative and incredibly ambitious for television. In addition to shooting the show on the Red camera, we’re using still cameras called the Canon D5 Mark ll. I actually used it a little on Fair Game and I’m sure a lot of you know about this camera. It shoots 24 fps, it’s an SLR, it shoots incredibly low light and it shoots high def. We have 5 of them on the show — in part they’re crash cams (cameras you can put in all sorts of interesting places and if it gets run over by a car its not that big a deal) — but they’re a new technology that can actually impact the way we shoot the show. Sean Ryerson, the line producer on the show, took one look at the script and said “There is no way we can shoot this in eight days. Ever. You’re going to have to cut something.” I’ve thrown myself into this particular episode in part because I had so many ideas and I was so inspired by it that really wanted to direct it, but also to protect the script and have it not be cut down.

When I was doing Swingers and we had very little money, people told me I wasn’t going to be able to these big crowd scenes and bars filled with people for the little amount of money I had. I fired back that there’s new technology available and we should talk about how we can use the technology to do something that we couldn’t do 10 years ago and suggested shooting in bars that are open to the public. Normally, you pay the bar a lot of money to close it, you clear people out and then you need a lot of money to fill it back up. By shooting while the bar is open and in full swing, you kill two birds with one stone. Plus the new film stock out at the time was fast enough to shoot low light. While in Toronto, I really did that kind of pep talk with the crew.

On Monday, we had Canon cameras and sequences that seem impossible to shoot in 4 hours so we talked about not shooting in a traditional way but what we could do with the cameras that we could never do otherwise, looking at it in a completely different way. How could we shoot a very complicated sequence in an elevator shaft that has to be done in 6 hours? Normally that would be impossible but I get really excited about taking the new technology and embracing the possibilities of what those cameras can do that no other camera can. It’s no fun to use new technology to do things the same way we’ve always done them. You don’t get any new style and the craft doesn’t advance. But when you’re backed in to corner, the way were are on this show — it’s ambition is bigger than its budget — we basically have no choice but to embrace the technology and use it in ways it’s never been used before because there is no other option other than just not shooting it or simplifying the shot.

It’s so that it’s the first episode and we can establish a tone for the series that people for years to come will say “How are they able to get so much production value for the TV on that budget” I think we’re going to set a look for the show that isn’t like any other show.

I’ll post more about my Toronto day trip tomorrow.