In Peacock's Laid, a woman finds out her former lovers are dying in unusual ways. She must go through her sex timeline to confront her past in order to move forward. The series premiered on December 19th and stars Stephanie Hsu, Zosia Mamet, Michael Angarano and Tommy Martinez. It will initially span eight 30-minute episodes.
According to co-showrunners/executive producers/writer Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna, when they started to develop Laid, they were intrigued by the idea of bringing back the old-school, traditional romantic comedy to counter the dark times of the pandemic and industry strikes.
"We felt it needed to have some kind of twist," note the duo. "Sure, it could be optimistic and heartwarming and make you believe in love again, but it should probably also have suspense and death and blood. The premise of Laid - a woman discovers all of her exes are dying in mysterious ways - seemed exactly what we were looking for: a f'ed-up rom-com."
Judd Overton served as director of photography on all eight episodes. DP behind all episodes. Here, the provides insight into how the show came together.
Judd, how did you get involved in shooting Laid?
“I have worked with director Nahnatchka Khan on her big network shows, Young Rock and Fresh Off The Boat, as well as shooting the 2023 slasher comedy Totally Killer for her. When she approached me about Laid, I was excited to see her updated take on the old Australian TV show. I know from our other projects together that Natch has a firm understanding of how to balance tone. Laid presents a contemporary romance, with warm and slightly popped visuals, using wider lenses to feel 'in the room' with our characters. But instead of perfect framing, gorgeous actors finding their perfect light, we keep Ruby always off center. Like her life, she's always a little out of balance.
“Natch told me that she wanted Laid to live in a rom-com world, to draw on the classics we know and love - When Harry Met Sally - and even contemporary projects - Bridesmaids and Fleabag - but this love story really has a really dark twist - all the lovers are dying! Yet despite all the death, the thematic core of our show is love. It's optimistic and hopeful and genuine and, in addition to the stakes being will they/won't they, they're also literal life-and-death. It's a twisted love story for our times.”
What was the timeline for the shoot?
“When you are the sole DP on a show, you really need to have a great team around you. Having worked with production designer Liz Kay and also key grip Troy Sabotka meant I knew I had people I could trust to pass on the information. Along with producer Justin McEwen, I knew I had a team that shared an understanding of the look and tone of the show, and the way Natch and I work together. It really means that we are all in it together and watch each other's backs so that when a random issue arises, we can deal with it quickly before it slows the shoot down.
“We shot over the summer in Vancouver, Canada. I had four weeks of prep for the eight half-hour [episodes], and we didn't have locations for some of the big final scenes when we started shooting. There was definitely some before and after work location scouting and some weekend work. Each block was 12 days, and Nahnatchka directed most of the episodes (as well as the showrunner), so in many ways, the prep was like prepping for a feature with one vision and a clear style.”
Tell us about your camera package.
“For Laid, I used three Arri Alexa LF Mini's with Zeiss Supreme primes, provided by Keslow Camera in Vancouver.”
What was your approach establishing the visual language of Laid?
“Instead of perfectly framing gorgeous actors in their perfect light, we decided never to have Ruby in the center frame. She, like her life, is always off balance, so we frame her awkwardly off-center, close to the edge of the frame or looking out the short side. This all changes when we shift to Ruby's romantic perspective, when Ruby finds herself in a perceived romantic moment. This is when we change to our anamorphic lenses, center the frame on Ruby and wait for the magic. Shifting to the Cooke anamorphic lenses for the drifts into rom-com reverie was a decision that took a lot of trial and error.
“I wanted to draw the audience into Ruby's mind and feel the moments as if through her eyes, but I did not want the shift to be so dramatic that it broke the spell, like a filter effect or heavy-handed LUT. I presented a range of different tests to Natch - contemporary and classic anamorphic. We even explored things with spherical lenses, like de-tuning, foreground glass elements, front vignette donuts and rear diffusion. Nothing was quite right.
“When I put up the full-frame Cooke lenses, I knew we had it. The center of the image stayed sharp, and the warmth and contrast were comparable to our Zeiss Supreme primes. The real 'look' we fell in love with comes from the drop-off and distortion around the edges. We framed for 2:1, and our favorite lens for Ruby's special shots was the 75mm. We achieved great isolation of Ruby with the anamorphic lens, as well as beautiful oval bokeh in the background.”
What would you saw was the biggest challenge of shooting this show?
“One big challenge we faced was working nights in Vancouver over the summer. We never had quite enough true night for what we needed to achieve, so we had to be super dialed in for maximum productivity during the five hours of darkness. One example is in Episode 7, when Ruby and AJ hunt for clues with another ex, Brad (Ryan Pinkston). In the day scenes, Brad tells a believable tale of ‘a few quiet drinks.’ We then smash cut to the night world, where we learn that Brad is, in fact, not a reliable narrator. The world distorts as we follow his drunken meanderings.
“This was a great opportunity to play with the visuals. We reviewed a bunch of our initial lens tests from pre-production, then added even more. We tested funky lens we could get our hands on. We wanted to show a great contrast between the points of view but we needed to keep the audience connected.
“In the end, the Module-8 detuner was the winner. It had the effect of smearing the background highlights while managing to keep Brad in focus at the center of the frame. The nature of the detuner is that it can be fit onto any lens and you can adjust exactly how much of the effect you need. We mounted our widest prime lens to the Steadicam. The whole sequence was captured by leading or following super close to Brad on the distorted wide lens. A camera operator, Andy Capicik, would often not know exactly where Brad was going or how he would get there, so he just had to go with the actor and feel out the shot.”
Which one or two scenes would you point to as challenging or highlights?
“For Laid, we knew the biggest challenge was to ground the dark moments, the deaths. Natch wanted to make sure the audience stayed in the moment. One great example is the FB to the T sequence. We start with Ruby talking about how sexy and alive is her ex-boyfriend, pro baseballer Stu Jackward (played by WWE's Big E). Ruby sees Stu looking fit and healthy on-screen at AJ's Bar when, out of nowhere, foul ball to the temple!
“To capture this sequence, we shot it on a blue screen with the Blackmagic 12K at 220fps. This gave us a super slow-motion look at the moment of impact as skin ripples and eyeballs bulge with blood. The skin ripples were created in the camera with an air cannon just off-screen. VFX helped by adding a growing purple bruise and bloody eye, as well as adding the CG baseball.
“Another of my favorite scenes is the first death at the end of the pilot episode. Jeffrey, an old college hook-up, stops the Uber, gets out, and flips Ruby the middle finger while walking across in front of the hood. As he steps out, he is hit by a speeding car and thrown up, landing bloody, head first into the windshield!
“This one required lots of pre-testing and some ruff previsualization. The camera and grips worked together with a small crane arm and Scorpio Micro head through the rear of the station wagon. We timed it so B-camera operator Chris Gibbins had time on the shoot day to set up and practice the 200-degree move while the A-camera was off shooting a free drive sequence on locked-down streets nearby. Stunts led by Vancouver [coordinator] Trevor Jones set up and rehearsed the timing and body position so that when actor Jeffrey crosses the A-pillar, we could switch to our stunt Jeffrey for the jerk out of shot and drop onto the windshield. SFX provided six breakaway window glass, but we got it in four, and VFX added a little more blood to the final impact.”