ABSTRACT
Anthony Hemingway opens by delving deeply into the construction of a specific scene, the opening of the first episode of the WGN series Underground. He then moves on to a discussion of sound design and music, and the importance of psychology in terms of deciding upon a visual style. He says that he shoots in whatever way is most efficient – whether it takes one camera or 12. He goes on to discuss the collaborative nature of television and the pressures involved, and the environment he tries to create for the actors, stressing that most of the time scripts are far more ambitious than what the studio or network will allow for. He then shifts gears from Underground to talk about his work on the series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, explaining how working on the show allowed him to revisit his own perceptions about the real-life story and how it was different from Underground. He says that working on two ambitious shows about race back to back was divine order, not something he planned, and that his goal is merely to be excellent.
