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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Hacks,' ‘Umbrella Academy,' ‘Four Seasons,' and More Filmmakers Invite Viewers Into Their Storytelling Process
A wide range of filmmakers gathered on the Universal lot on May 22 for IndieWire and USG University's 'Consider This' panel, an FYC event designed to showcase the art of storytelling on television from a variety of perspectives. 'A Man on the Inside' editor Sue Federman, 'Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist' showrunner and writer/executive producer Shaye Ogbonna, and 'Hacks' makeup department head Debra Schrey and hair department head Aubrey Marie joined 'The Umbrella Academy' visual effects supervisor Everett Burrell and 'The Four Seasons' art director Mailara Santana on stage to take a deep dive into their process. They spoke in front of an audience comprised of TV Academy and guild members as well as film students from Roybal Film and Television Magnet. More from IndieWire 'Hacks' Renewed for Season 5 at HBO Max 'The Americas' Creative Team Didn't Just Capture Some of the Best Sperm Whale Footage Ever, They Made a Landmark Discovery After beginning the conversation with a discussion of how they got their start in the business, the panel quickly moved to the topic of their role as cinematic storytellers. Ogbonna, who created 'Fight Night,' said that the key to getting the most out of his collaborators was recognizing them as artists and utilizing their specific talents. 'I was trained at AFI and [learned] from day one that everybody's a storyteller,' Ogbonna said. ' Some of the best ideas you might get from an editor, you might get from a DP, you might get from a prop master.' When it came time for Ogbonna to take charge of his first series as showrunner, he took that sensibility with him. 'When it was time to hire all those people, I always saw them as partners in the story,' he said. 'It's, look, here's what's on the page, here are the parameters, but let's have fun.' Ogbonna wanted to give his wardrobe, makeup, and hair departments the freedom and inspiration to recreate the early 1970s era in which the show takes place. 'We're talking about very specific cultural touchstones in a certain time. It was important that we got it right.' On 'The Four Seasons,' it was imperative that the art direction reveal something about character and give the actors tools to work with. In creating the rundown Puerto Rican resort where the vacationing middle-aged friends (played by the likes of Tina Fey and Will Forte) at the center of the series stay, Santana zeroed in on aspects that would make them uncomfortable. 'The characters were not into going down and dirty,' Santana said. 'They wanted to go to a nice hotel as usual. [Showrunner] Tina Fey was very explicit about not wanting it to be pristine.' To that end, Santana worked on making the resort seem old and uncomfortable while contrasting it with a nicer resort close by that most of the characters wish they were staying at. 'We had to do a lot of aging,' she said. 'Once the actors got there, it was exactly what they were hoping for, because it helped them get in tune with their characters. It helps them feel like, 'I don't have to force it. I see it. It's just my environment. This is not necessarily where I want to be.'' Like 'The Four Seasons,' 'Hacks' is a character-driven comedy in which filmmaking craft goes a long way toward letting the audience know who these people are and what stage they're at in their lives. ' I need to think about, 'Does this person know how to do their hair?'' Marie said. 'Do they spend any time on it? If you look at somebody and their hair is perfectly blown out, that tells you something different than if their hair is just air dried or dirty or in a ponytail.' In the case of Ava, the young writer whose career has taken a big jump in the most recent season, Marie wanted to give a sense of the character's elevated position. 'She's gotten this new job, she has new responsibility, new money, and she's trying to put herself together,' Marie said. In previous seasons, Ava straightened her hair, but the back wouldn't be done because she couldn't see it; now she's more polished, but as Marie noted, 'She's still a little misguided.' That misguided quality extends to a hilarious episode in which Ava tries to give herself a makeover to impress an old flame who is coming on her show. She doesn't quite pull it off. 'That was really fun,' Schrey said. 'Tragic and awkward and fun. She never wears makeup, so this was a big deal, and we got to have fun with her. We called it the Sephora look.' Like 'Hacks,' 'A Man on the Inside' is a comedy series that goes to rather dramatic places; while the tone is generally quite sprightly as widower Ted Danson finds a new lease on life by becoming an undercover detective, there are also moments of genuine poignancy depicting his overwhelming sense of loss. 'That's the fun for me, to try to embrace the comedy but also the grief,' Federman said, noting that the opening of the series, in which the slow pace of Danson's life is clearly established, was one of the biggest challenges. 'That was very tricky and it was a big swing, because if you start slow, the network is very scared,' Federman said. 'They don't want anybody turning it off in the first five minutes. But [creator] Mike [Schur] was just adamant, 'This is this guy's character,' and we have to set it up because if you're invested in this, then everything else will follow. It started much longer. My first cut of the first episode was 43 minutes, and we ended up at 27 minutes.' Like Federman, Burrell feels that he's responsible for helping to maintain a show's tone through his work. ' There are a lot of in-depth talks about how to serve the story from a variety of angles,' Burrell said. 'One of them is color, which is a really big deal on 'The Umbrella Academy.' We had a lot of discussions about palettes and tone. Part of my job is helping the new directors who come on board understand the tone from other seasons.' Burrell said that the key to getting everyone on the same page is being a part of the process from beginning to end. 'Being involved early on during prep and getting scripts early is a big deal,' he said. 'If you don't get the script, you don't understand what the story is.' IndieWire partnered with Universal Studio Group for USG University, a series of virtual panels celebrating the best in television art from the 2024-2025 TV season across NBC Universal's portfolio of shows. USG University (a Universal Studio Group program) is presented in partnership with Roybal Film & TV Magnet and IndieWire's Future of Filmmaking. Catch up on the latest USG University videos here. Best of IndieWire 2023 Emmy Predictions: Who Will Win at the Primetime Emmy Awards? 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
TV writer Michael Schur receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Television writer, producer, director and creator Michael Schur was honored with the 2,812th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on May 21, 2025. Schur was joined by Ted Danson, Amy Poehler and his family. Schur is best known for his work on "Parks and Recreation," "The Good Place," "A Man on the Inside," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "The Office."
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Universal Studio Group and IndieWire Present USG University: Consider This, a Celebration of TV Craft in Los Angeles on May 22
Emmy season is ramping up, and now's the time to dive deeper into the creation of some of your favorite shows. Join Universal Studio Group and IndieWire for 'USG University: Consider This, an evening celebrating the art of TV storytelling through craft on May 22. IndieWire will also be partnering with USG for its tentpole FYC campaign, USG University, which encompasses a slate of virtual panels with producers, actors, and artisans from shows such as 'The Four Seasons,' 'The Americas,' 'Saturday Night Live,' 'Hacks,' 'Happy's Place,' and more. The first virtual panel will launch on IndieWire on May 19, with two a week rolling out in the weeks after that. More from IndieWire Newport Beach TV Fest to Honor 'Landman' with Outstanding Drama Series Award Bingeing, Weekly, or Batches? Is There a Right Way to Roll Out a Series on Streaming? (Open to TV Academy and guild members.) This partnership aligns perfectly with IndieWire's in-depth, sharp awards coverage as well as Future of Filmmaking, our new content vertical and newsletter designed to help anyone in the film and TV industry to navigate a entertainment career. The May 22 event, moderated by IndieWire's Jim Hemphill, will take place in person in Los Angeles and gather talent from 'Hacks,' 'A Man on the Inside,' 'The Four Seasons,' 'Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,' and 'The Umbrella Academy,' all NBC Universal-produced shows. A reception will immediately follow the panel event. USG University (a Universal Studio Group program) is presented in partnership with Roybal Film & TV Magnet and IndieWire's Future of Filmmaking. USG University is a vehicle to support Roybal, one of the finest High schools for preparing students for a career in below-the-line roles in film and TV, with immersive opportunities to learn about TV craft with an aim for helping students to picture themselves working as a TV artisan. The specific talent on hand for the May 22 event is Everett Burrell, visual effects supervisor of 'The Umbrella Academy'; Sue Federman, editor of 'A Man on the Inside'; Shaye Ogbonna, executive producer and writer of 'Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist'; Mailara Santana, art director of 'The Four Seasons'; and from 'Hacks,' makeup department head Debra Schrey and hair department head Aubrey Marie. Upon confirmation of your attendance, details will be provided to you about where the event is taking place. Doors will open at 4:15pm PT on the 22nd, with the panel discussion start at 5:00 and the reception following immediately of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
Time of India
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Amy Poehler Returns to Comedy TV with New Peacock Series ‘Dig'
On Wednesday, May 7, Peacock made it official: it's greenlighting Dig, a new comedy series co-created by Poehler and her longtime collaborator . The two worked magic together on the beloved NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, and Schur went on to develop hits like The Good Place and A Man on the Inside. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Now, the comedy dream team is teaming up again for another possibly iconic series. Poehler, 53, will not only be writer and executive producer along with Schur, but will also appear in the show — her much-anticipated return to a starring role on television. As stated in the official logline, Dig focuses on "four women working at an archaeological dig in Greece," all of whom are at "wildly different crossroads in their lives." But what starts out as a search for ancient artifacts takes a hair-raising turn. "When the team unearths a long-buried secret with the potential to rewrite history," the description adds, "they become embroiled in a high-stakes international conspiracy. " With its mix of woman-centric storytelling, comedic skill, and suspenseful mystery against the beautiful backdrop of Greece, Dig is sure to be an exciting and entertaining new entry in the comedy-drama field. No debut date has been posted yet, but excitement is already growing for Poehler's return as well as another Schur-driven series that's sure to dig up both humor and interest.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
D'Arcy Carden on her ‘dream come true' joining ‘The Handmaid's Tale' and Phoebe's ‘different Aunt energy'
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways WARNING: The following story contains spoilers for the seventh episode of The Handmaid's Tale's sixth and final season, streaming now on Hulu. D'Arcy Carden has been critically beloved for her comedic work, most notably on The Good Place (for which she also nabbed an Emmy nomination), and most recently on both A Man on the Inside and Nobody Wants This. But all the while she has been a "gigantic fan" of one of the most serious dramas on television: The Handmaid's Tale. Her personal and professional worlds finally collided in the sixth and final season of the Hulu series, when she got a call to play Phoebe, an Aunt who works alongside Lydia (Ann Dowd) while secretly aiding Mayday. More from GoldDerby "I definitely wouldn't have dreamed of getting to play a character like Phoebe," Carden tells Gold Derby about stepping into the world of dystopian drama for its final few episodes. "It's such phenomenal storytelling and character development, and I'm just always blown away by the show. It's such an opportunity, when you get a character like this on a show, not to waste it." Carden and Phoebe are introduced in the seventh episode of the final season, titled "Shattered." She gets to be the one to deliver the news to Lydia that Janine (Madeline Brewer) did not die during the destruction at Jezebel's but has been instead taken to be a handmaid once again. It is a short scene, but it ends up serving to showcase Phoebe's ability to change her energy depending on who she is around. The next time we see her, she distracts a guard so she can safely extract June (Elisabeth Moss) and Moira (Samira Wiley) from the trunk of Lawrence's (Bradley Whitford) car, proving where her allegiance really lies. "You think she's one thing and then pretty quickly you realize she's something else. I love a twist: I love watching a twist, I love being a part of a twist. I do feel like Phoebe has a different Aunt energy than maybe the Aunts we're used to, so there is a little bit of, 'Who is this?' But I didn't want to give it all away, obviously, in the first scene," Carden says. "I had a point of view of what I thought Phoebe was, but I know she's a piece of a huge puzzle." Carden admits she didn't know how she would fit into that puzzle at all when she first signed onto the show. "They just said, 'Handmaid's is coming your way.' And I said, 'That's gonna be a big yeah.'" SEE The Handmaid's Tale star Yvonne Strahovski on that Serena and June scene: 'The biggest thing is that question of forgiveness' Although she was "so down" for whatever the show was going to throw at her, the idea that Phoebe has so many layers that get revealed so fast ended up being part of the excitement of the role for the actress. "I never want the twist to come and the audience to go, 'What? Where did that come from?' But also, you don't want to telegraph anything. So it's this really thin little line to walk, and I feel like it was all in the script. But yeah, I wanted that moment to have some tension," she says. The Handmaid's Tale is also a show that often relies on seeing the tensest, most emotional moments tightly on its performers' faces, and the reveal that Phoebe is going to help June and Moira is no different. Carden admits these are shots that can come with extra pressure, and the key can be simply not thinking about the shot size or camera placement. "Sometimes I find if I'm too aware of what my face is doing in a close-up, I'm in a different place; I'm not in the character. So almost treating the close-up like it's like it's not a close-up is where I was at," she explains. Over the course of "Shattered," it is revealed that one of Phoebe's greatest attributes is how quickly she can react in a moment to bend the situation to what she needs it to be. It comes in handy in how she gets rid of the guard, where she hides June and Moira, and even how she distracts Lydia when she gets caught coming back from hiding June and Moira. And, most likely, it will be even more important as the revolution further takes shape. "It really was true to who she is, and pre- all this stuff, was something that she was good at,' Carden says. 'Her talent is to be able to think on her feet and lie.' Carden confirms that Phoebe is not lying to June and Moira when she talks of coordinating the handmaids and working with the Marthas on the revolution, though. "They've trusted and been burned too many times, and you could feel that their guard is up," Carden says. "This is a complicated character, so I'm definitely, in this first episode, trying to make them feel like, 'You can trust me, for sure. I am one of you.' And as the show progresses, you'll feel their guards drop a little bit with Phoebe." SEE The Handmaid's Tale star Samira Wiley on Moira 'ending her trauma in Gilead' Although Carden knew "nothing" about Phoebe when signing on for this final run of The Handmaid's Tale, she shares that "as I got more and more information about what I was going to be doing this season, to get to be a part of this thing that I — a fan — have been waiting for for six seasons, is a dream come true." That includes stunt work, but also simply working with this team of writers and actors who she has been so awed by for five previous seasons. "I love Ann Dowd, and I love that Phoebe is just an annoying pest to her. I love the way she played that. I felt it from the very first scene we did. She is such a good actor, it is insane. She actually changed my life, and I told her that a lot. Every day I would hold her hand and be like, 'Ann, you're changing my life. You are making me a better actor. I love you. I worship you. You're changing my life.' And she'd be like, 'Darling, no. Oh, darling, no,'" Carden says. For years, Carden found herself wondering what it was like to be on set at The Handmaid's Tale — "to play these horrific situations and not take that home with you or not have to do method acting," she says. When she finally got to see the answer for herself firsthand, she found it was really about keeping it light on set after "cut" was called. "This is a cast of fantastic, master actors that leave it on set. And I even mean, leave it in the scene. Not to say there's anything good, bad, wrong, whatever with any sort of method of acting. But it does make for a very enjoyable day to be able to chitchat and goof around and dance and sing and play with your castmates, and then, when it's time, drop into what you've got to drop into," Carden says. "To get to work with these actors that are like, 'Oh, we're acting. When it's time to act, we're gonna act. And there's nothing embarrassing about that,' it was just thrilling. It's always fun when you get to a job that reminds you why you got into this in the first place or why this was your dream in the first place. And this set definitely reminded me of that every single day. It really did change my actor DNA." The Handmaid's Tale's sixth and final season streams new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu. Best of GoldDerby Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article.
