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‘Bridgerton’ Making a Scene Video Series: Costumes

‘Bridgerton’ Making a Scene Video Series: Production Design

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Television

Director, Short Form Content at Shondaland.com

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Long Form Article

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Bridgerton

Video

Hearst Editorial

(upbeat music) - [Kyle] For all TV and film, you know, post production, it's the final process. Things can be written a certain way. They can be shot a certain way but then, when you actually see the footage, it might not be exactly what you had hoped. So it's your final opportunity to really massage everything and, you know, put the final pieces together, and create the product that you were hoping for. Usually, I'll read through the script and just kind of take notes, kind of see, figure out all the different characters, where their head space is at. On this show, we have so many different characters and story arcs to follow, and I want to make sure in this one, like this is Edwina's episode and, to make sure that there's a good perspective for her and that we can not kind of be like pushing her out and being like, we just wanna see Kate and Anthony, like, we want her to come off strong and likable as well. So yeah, just kind of going through that. There's other things like, you know, we have flashbacks or stylized shots as well. So I'll always think of like, what can we do for like sound design or any sort of like, video or special effects that we can do for going in and out of, you know, certain scenes or flashbacks, like that. If I have any sort of issues or anything, first off, I'm always emailing director, you know, we had the big time difference. I'm out in LA, they're out in England. So it was a little hard to kind of coordinate sometimes but he would call me up or just shoot me a message and be like, you know, this is coming in, let me know, I'm thinking of doing this thing, I'm using this camera. So that's usually my back-and-forth director. As much as I wanna say, you know, I do such a great job on my own, if you watch, you know, my first cut to what the final version is, it's a lot of difference and it's much better for it. - I make notes, editing notes about how I usually want to come in and out of scenes. I'll have specific notes about particular sequences or how I want a scene to go. Whether I give them to the script supervisor who sends those notes to the editor, and then once I get to the editor and I see how they've assembled it, because I do want them to have an idea of how I want this to go, but I also want them to sort of bring what they're seeing to cut together the scene the way they envision it. - [Kyle] You know, he's worked with me and he trusts me, so I can feel free to, if I wanna try some new things, it's like, I know I can put this one in, it just might not have been what he was thinking but at least it's something that he can see and then, you know, when he comes in, he is like, oh, I wasn't thinking that but I like it, or we can build upon this and create something new. It's just good to have that kind of relationship going in 'cause sometimes, you know, you'll get the footage and you're like, I know the director wants to do this. I want to try this but I'm not sure how they will respond, and so I always know Tom's open to doing stuff like that. - [Tom] Sometimes I thought my way into a scene was one way but I'll see something, and editors tend to bring their kind of mastery to their vision of it. And if it's better than kind of what I imagined, I don't hold on to things. I always want the best, the best product to win, and the most impact of what we want it out of the scene is the most important thing. So however we get there and however we can make the most of it, that's what's most important to me. - [Kyle] My assistant will prep the scene. They'll like kind of leave markers on like action or any sort of resets. And then I'll just go through, watch the dailies. Usually I'll just kind of either take notes within the AVID or just kind of in my head, of like, oh, I really like this take, I like this part for this thing. If I notice like alternate takes that I want to keep on the side, I'll just, you know, kind of put it to the end of my sequence and then kind of circle back after I build it the first time, usually hand the scene off to my assistant for sound effects, and then depending on the scene, like the wedding scene, I knew right away music was gonna be a very big factor into it. But for this one, like right away, I was like, I need to figure out what this wedding song's gonna be. I didn't quite get it and we went through maybe a hundred different songs and I think Chris settled on the Harry Styles one. (orchestral music) I worked with the director first. So, you know, me and Tom had, we had a handful of days working together and just kind of polishing everything. Chris would come in and he would take a look at everything and we'd make changes. And then Tom was still heavily involved in that part. So it kind of helped to have both of them. We'll send it out to the rest of the Shondaland people, out to Netflix, and you know, we're just constantly getting notes through from all these different avenues. The more heads we have connecting and giving their input, makes a better product. I recently watched the final mix and I was texting my assistant and I'm just like, oh, I'm really happy with the episode. There's always certain things that you're like, oh, I wish I would've cut that one like five frames longer, or I wish I would've done this right here. I don't think there's ever a time when you're a hundred percent fully satisfied, you know, but we have a part in the wedding scene where, you know, the perspective kind of shifts. We have so much of, you know, Kate and Anthony and their looks, and they have their little moment together. And then, when they go down to get the bangles, Edwina really notices what's going on, and we kind of have this part that I really love, where like the sound kind of drops out. We get these like wedding bells in the back and just seeing the look on Edwina's face, you know, with all that going on, I think it just really elevates the scene to the next level. Being able to just watch it back, that last final time and just, you know, having a spontaneous, yeah, that's how I imagine that's how it worked out, and I'm very happy with it. (gentle music)

Bridgerton 206 Editor Kyle Bond and Director Tom Verica talk about the post production and editing process for the wedding scene.