How Steven Soderbergh stays busy in his retirement years

October 12, 2015 10:58 AM

Watching him direct is akin to witnessing an athletic performance. Soderbergh walks, jogs, runs, sits, lies on the floor, and hangs half off dollies while PAs grip his ankles. “When I tell other cameramen what goes on with Steven, they’re flabbergasted,” says Soderbergh’s longtime second cameraman, Patrick O’Brien, who works on only about 30 percent of The Knick — usually when Soderbergh needs him to gather extra close-ups in a scene with a lot of characters, operate a crane that he’s sitting on, or shoot the other side of a two-person conversation.

“He’s like a dancer,” says Holland. “One time, on the first season, it was bitter winter and we were shooting outside, and he was in this awkward, crouched-down position, holding the camera and moving at the same time, and midway through the take, his knee gave out and he jumped up and winced in pain. You could hear a pin drop, because you know that his physicality is such a huge part of the show.”

posted by octothorpe (13 comments total)

Oh Soderberg "I'm retired!" (Consults on multiple productions, produces and directs TV shows, puts out three compelling genre movies in the span of three years, publishes multiplie interesting reports on technique and film history) RETIRED!
posted by The Whelk at 11:46 AM on October 12, 2015 [4 favorites]

Soderbergh is one of the most fascinating directors out there. I can't think of another one who does such a wide array of films while maintaining such quality.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:57 AM on October 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

I would very much like to up my levels of productivity and apparent drive in my prime working years to even an 8th of that of Soderbergh's retirement. Jesus.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:51 PM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Knick is so good.
posted by Mothlight at 1:54 PM on October 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

I can't watch The Knick. There was a thing with a nose and an arm and yeaarrghhh.
posted by curious nu at 2:13 PM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

On the one hand, I like Soderbergh. On the other, good gravy is this piece fawning over his utter perfection. He directs more before breakfast than other directors direct by Friday!

Obviously 'retirement' has been good for his creative output.
posted by graventy at 2:24 PM on October 12, 2015

Expression of interest in order to add post to recent activity.

Oblique reference to one the subject's films.

Humorous comment in lazy bid for favourites.
 
posted by Herodios at 3:14 PM on October 12, 2015 [10 favorites]

Wow, Herodios, that was a deep cut!
posted by ga$money at 5:35 PM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Knick was - by far - the best season of television I watched last year. Beautifully directed, tightly edited, brilliantly written and acted to perfection, with gorgeously shot gore that was far more relevant to its plot than the artsy absurdities of Hannibal ever were (cocaine-addicted Clive Owen spends much of season one attempting to perfect this new operation on pregnant women called a Caesarean). It has intelligent plot lines about gender, race, class, abortion, violence and greed in early 20th'century New York, and the electronic score is a fascinating choice that makes the period drama so much more intense.

Seriously, I can't type enough about how much I was surprised and captivated by this show. I'm a big fan of Boardwalk Empire (the first two seasons, anyway) and thought last night's Walking Dead premiere was fantastic, but The Knick really blows both of them away and I can't wait for the 2nd season to start.

I guess I should read the fucking link now, but there.
posted by mediareport at 6:16 PM on October 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Snarky comment pointing out typo in earlier snark.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:26 PM on October 12, 2015

Soderbergh has now directed 20 hours of a lavish costume drama at the speed of a run-and-gun indie film: Both seasons wrapped, according to The Knick co-creator and co-writer Jack Amiel, in about 150 days, “which is less time than a lot of crews would spend shooting one big movie.”The Knick shoots eight to nine script pages a day, double the typical rate for a TV drama, and burns through an hour-long episode in just seven days, versus the industry norm of ten to 14.

Fawning tone to the article or not, that's really impressive. Makes sense that a show with such unusual energy and style has an unusually smart process behind it. Thanks, octothorpe, for the link.
posted by mediareport at 3:12 AM on October 13, 2015

Because HBO is currently allowing streaming of season 1 of The Knick, I am catching up on it and as I go along reading the threads from a year ago about The Knick on Metafilter's FanFare. You have about 10 days left to do the same before it becomes unavailable.
posted by larrybob at 12:45 PM on October 16, 2015

Emily Nussbaum in 2014 on The Knick: "Meanwhile, every other black character is made of particleboard: worthy victims, poor workingmen, proud mothers. The same is true of many of the other picturesque immigrant patients, glimpsed in squalid tenements or dying in the ward."

There is also a lack of depth to the Asian characters, who are all found in an opium den/brothel.
posted by larrybob at 3:10 PM on October 16, 2015 [1 favorite]