Danny Jarabek
Weronika Tofilska (Baby Reindeer, Love Lies Bleeding, His Dark Materials) had never directed a horror project before Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. What drew her in was not just the genre itself, but the way Haley Z. Boston’s scripts had a modern edge that used horror, comedy, and drama to tell a complex story about an impending marriage. Tofilska directs the pilot and finale in addition to Episodes Two and Seven, bookending a story that begins with a couple on a road trip and ends in something she would describe as operatic, blood-soaked, and a culmination of the character’s journeys. Awards Radar spoke with her about directing the series and transforming the script to the screen with complex production design, robust practical effects, and no shortage of camera techniques to communicate the various perspectives that frame the story.
Read our full conversation with director Weronika Tofilska below.
I wanted to start with genre because I love horror as a genre, and it’s what drew me to the show. For you, what did it mean to take on a horror series, and what did you think about when approaching the genre?
Weronika Tofilska: That was definitely part of the appeal, because although I am quite interested in dark films and shows and have done a fair bit of that in my past, I had actually never done a horror show or a horror film before this one. It was also a unique project because it mixes together elements of horror and comedy and drama. When I read the first episode I was hooked. It felt so atmospheric and unusual. That combination was a huge part of the appeal.
You direct the pilot and Episode 2 of the series. When you started working on those first couple of episodes, what was most important to you in capturing the mood, the atmosphere, and getting inside these characters’ heads?
Weronika Tofilska: I usually start by reading the script and finding the point of view of everything. In this show specifically, particularly in the first two episodes, it is very clearly Rachel’s (Camila Morrone) point of view. We see everything through her eyes. I am drawn to stories that are very subjective, because that allows you to see the world as the character sees it, tainted by what the character is feeling in the moment. If Rachel is anxious, things start to become a bit strange. The lights feel different. She focuses on things she would not normally notice. In the first episode we start with something quite light, a boy and a girl in a car, a fun conversation in a diner. But by the point they cross through the tunnel, the world starts to become more strange. Because we see it through Rachel’s eyes, it is equally something that actually happens and something that happens in her head. That subjectivity really culminates in Episode Two, where we see that Rachel is telling herself a very different story than what is objectively happening behind the scenes.
You mentioned “point of view” which felt like such a fascinating part of watching the series, including some of the specific directorial decisions around how the camera functions to deliver perspective. Were those choices coming out of conversations with Haley [Z. Boston] and the team?
Weronika Tofilska: 100% We were quite specific about it. We divided it into almost categories and drew out a timeline, which was something Haley then discussed with the other directors as well. We start very subjectively, almost exclusively in Rachel’s point of view. Every now and then we see Rachel and Nicky as a couple, which is almost like a shared world between them. The scariest elements of Episode One are so subjective that the camera literally becomes her and moves like her. Sometimes people even look directly into the lens when they are talking to her. As the show progresses, another point of view starts becoming more present, which Haley called the “very bad point of view.” It is essentially the point of view of death. That begins in the first two episodes but really develops in the middle episodes and culminates in Episode Eight, where it becomes this ever-present flowing camera that gets between people, and when it lands on you, you die. We had to escalate that language step by step, so by the finale we needed a special technique to carry it off. At one point we used motion control for Victoria’s death. We used different lenses to show the camera moving very close to objects, so it looks less like a person moving and more like an entity, touching walls, moving through spaces, floating above the ceiling. It was almost the opposite of Rachel’s point of view. Where hers is intimate and internal, this one is distant.
The production design is something else I really loved. The house feels like a maze, hard to mentally map, but also like a character in itself. How did you work within that space?
Weronika Tofilska: That was a really amazing journey. In the initial scripts the house was a bit more defined as an older mansion. But as we started talking about it, we realized we needed something unique to this specific story. Haley’s scripts felt fresh and modern to me, not in the old gothic mansion tradition. It felt more like a modern gothic. Given that the house was set in the woods surrounded by snow, a lodge felt more appropriate. But we also wanted to keep the sense of affluence, so we went for an extremely large, extremely elaborate wooden lodge. It is not really a cabin, but there are cabin-esque elements to it. Our production designer Dick Lunn designed it in a very short amount of time, and the collaboration between him, myself, the camera operator Krzysztof [Trojnar], Haley, and the actors was really focused on mapping the journeys of the characters. It was important to us to keep certain scenes continuous rather than cutting around, so how the rooms connected to each other really mattered. Dick was building the set in direct consideration of how we were going to shoot it. I thought it was such an amazing build that I honestly wanted to move in by the end. At that point, of course, it was completely covered in blood.
Speaking of blood, the finale is what you have put forward for awards consideration, and it is such a chaotic and exciting climax to the whole series. What stood out to you about making that episode?
Weronika Tofilska: The title of the show is Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen and you spend the whole series waiting for that to happen. I loved how the scripts delivered on what the bad thing actually is and how it all unravels. There is such an operatic quality to how the story ends. It starts so quietly, with so much tension building, and then the finale feels almost like a full opera. We wanted to use every tool available to make it as extravagant as possible while still keeping the same visual language we had established throughout. It is all a culmination of what we already developed. The death point of view, Rachel’s interiority, all of it taken to an extreme. In terms of Rachel and Nicky’s relationship, we had typically filmed their scenes in two shots with a static or smooth camera. Then in the finale, the moment he does what he does at the altar, we go completely handheld. It becomes this huge, chaotic fight, extremely lively. Everything just unravels. It is the full realization of everything we built, hopefully.
You have an amazing cast, a mix of veterans and newer faces. What was your relationship with the ensemble like?
Weronika Tofilska: Everyone was genuinely wonderful and completely committed. They loved the show, and that commitment was absolutely there. I spent the most time with Camila [Morrone] and Adam [DiMarco], and they are just so natural. Their instincts are remarkable. What I loved about Haley’s writing is this modern quality to the language, the way people actually talk today, and both Adam and Camila were really able to express that. That combination of a contemporary couple placed inside a heightened world is what really worked. I also really enjoyed working with Jennifer [Jason Leigh], Ted [Levine], Karla [Crome], Gus [Birney], Jeff [Wilbusch], and the whole cast. It was an amazing group of people.
Comments
Loading…