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| Episodes four through six were directed by John Erasmus |
Episode four of Sonnigsburg was written by Alex Scott and directed by John Erasmus.
Just after the halfway point, things are starting to fall
into place, not just in the story, but in the middle of production. As shooting
continued, we all started to feel more comfortable in our roles both on screen
and behind the camera.
I wrote a first draft of Episode 6 in June of 2014 (before filming
began), but as I spent more and more time on set watching the actors work, I could
see what the characters were really like. As a writer, and co-creator, you
never quite know how your characters will feel until the actors inhabit them.
Over the course of the first three episodes, we set up a lot
of story and introduced you to our most important characters. There are a
couple of great guest stars in episode four, though; characters you’ve only
previously heard about make their first appearances. But I leave you to
discover that when you watch.
The last major piece to fall into place production-wise was
director John Erasmus. He was on board from the start and scheduled early on to
direct episodes four and six. Originally, I was going to direct episode five,
but when I couldn’t quite make the timing work, John was invited to helm number
five as well.
You will have already seen John’s name in credits; he ended
up co-directing the first episode and has had final edit on the whole series.
But he really dived into production beginning with episode four.
When our original plan to shoot the series in order became
harder to achieve, it made sense that we had one director working on the final
three episodes of the show. There’s a consistency of vision in these later
episodes that is a lot stronger than the first three.
A six-episode series breaks neatly in half; I think the
scripts for these next three episodes are better, the actors have settled into
their roles and John’s work helps to elevate the material even more.
Much of episode six was shot early in the back half of our
production schedule. Much of episode four was shot last. Though, amusingly
enough, the final shot filmed for the series was the last frame of episode
three.
To be honest, I can see the rough edges of the first three
episodes of the series. Beginning with episode four, these rough edges have been
smoothed. With three episodes of Sonnigsburg
to go, the revelations start to come thick and fast: Where is Jade? What happened
to Savannah?
And how does the show look once we finally knew what we were
doing? Spoiler alert: amazing.
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