Meet Me at Crafty

“We call them ‘Wikipedia shows,’” American Primeval executive producer Eric Newman said at a Q&A after a recent screening of the first episode of the Netflix show. The bloody Western (which makes Yellowstone look like The Young and the Restless) premiered on the streamer January 9 and quickly shot to the top of the viewership chart. The latest in Newman’s collaborations with the show’s producer and director, Peter Berg, American Primeval takes a real-life incident and spins a story about brutality, gruff kindness, and history along the same lines as their previous Painkiller, as well as Newman’s work on Griselda.

The conceit is compelling—who amongst us is not watching TV and poised to search for what really happened? In the case of American Primeval, that inciting incident is the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre, in which Mormons killed over 100 emigrants to protect their land during the Utah War. (Not something we learned about in history class, is it?) Created and written by Mark L. Smith, the six-episode series follows Betty Gilpin’s Sara, a woman trying to travel across the country with her young son who somehow evades death at the massacre and joins up with Taylor Kitsch’s guide, Isaac. Their journey is… not without its complications.

Joining Newman and moderator Jenelle Riley were the show’s director of photography, Jacques Jouffret, ASC, assistant costume designer Mila Hermanovski, hair department head Johnny Villanueva, and supervising sound editor Anne Jimkes. They all spoke to the sheer amount of work that went into the making of the show—Newman joked that he would never again take on a script with the word “snow” in it—and keeping things both period accurate and compelling.

Hermanovski, in particular, faced an uphill battle in clothing the huge cast. At one point, the American Primeval costume department was the largest in the country, forced by circumstances and the scripts into making almost every costume, including the historically accurate leather pieces worn by the various Native American tribes. Making the clothes is one thing; ensuring that they are appropriately weathered and dirty as the show progresses is quite another, and required a bigger aging department than she’s ever been part of. Even within the first episode, the characters get remarkably dirty (surviving the slings and arrows of an outrageous Mormon massacre can do that)—though she pointed out that the Mormons are always in pristine, pure black; everyone else is in varying shades of brown and gray.

Watching the episode again and knowing what to expect, the most awe-inspiring work still centers on the long, primarily unbroken take during which the raid happens on the unsuspecting travelers. Not only does Jouffret’s camera keep the viewer within the action (even as a bull comes roaring directly at us and Sara), but it maintains a level of tension throughout. Of course, that’s aided immeasurably by the sound design, one that somehow balances every twang and thwump of the arrows with screams, galloping hooves, and gunshots. Not to mention an unforgettable scalping rendered in horrifying close-up.

Jimkes said they always kept a live mic on in case they needed to create the sound they needed quickly. “We have Easter eggs in every project,” she said with a laugh, pointing out that her voice is still embedded within the show’s sound design. And Villeneuva talked about how his many collaborations with Berg have created a faster workflow; knowing what Berg tends to like, “I try not to bring him anything he won’t like,” he said.

This one will undoubtedly be a major crafts contender for the Emmys and the guild awards later in the year, so look out for a lot more coverage.