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Wrapping our Big Little Lies journey today. The director was still working under the impression she had creative control and expected to see the show through until it aired this summer.Īndrea Arnold. HBO even acquiesced to Arnold’s desire to hire European editors and return home to London to cut the show there after a year in California. In fact, reports back to set were described as “glowing.” When the show wrapped in August 2018, each of the stars took to social media to praise Arnold, called their “fearless leader” by Kidman. Yet if HBO, Kelley, Vallée or the other executive producers were concerned while screening dailies that the show had veered too far from the “Big Little Lies” style, they did little to interfere with Arnold’s shoot through the entirety of last year’s production. Sources describe dailies filled with Arnold’s trademark restless camera searching for grace notes – those gestures, movements and poetic frames of natural light that add another layer to what is not being said.

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While Kelley’s soapy scripts, featuring many scenes of two characters sitting across a table talking (which required his approval to alter), were not Arnold’s bread-and-butter, the director was free to shoot them as she saw fit. Star-EPs Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman were said to have loved working with Arnold and trusted her intrinsically, while as showrunner Kelley made only a handful of set visits, each lasting approximately an hour. And Arnold was allowed to hire her own creative team, including switching the show’s cinematographers by bringing over Jim Frohna who she had worked with on Soloway’s series.Įven more remarkable, Vallée and Arnold never spoke, nor was there ever a clear showrunner or creative producer who Arnold was answerable to on set.

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Sources close to production and Vallée tell IndieWire that there was no style bible laying out the visual rules of the show, common for TV series looking to maintain consistency between different filmmaking teams.

Not only was Arnold given free rein, it was never explained to her that the expectation was her footage would be shaped by Vallée into the show’s distinctive style. Yet even such a fundamental misjudgment doesn’t explain the lack of communication from the producers that followed. Jean-Marc Vallée and Amy Adams on the set of “Sharp Objects” With “Big Little Lies,” Arnold’s ability to create emotional immediacy with her raw handheld work marked a departure from Vallée’s more ponderous floating camera emphasizing the gravity of the situation. In reality, the fiercely independent and singular Arnold was an unconventional choice to take over “Big Little Lies.” Arnold had success collaborating with TV creator Jill Soloway, directing episodes of “Transparent” and “I Love Dick,” because the visual style of those shows was, in part, inspired by the poetic realism of Arnold’s oeuvre. That such a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between Vallée and Arnold as visual storytellers was not understood by Vallée and the other executive producers has befuddled a number of observers, some even questioning if they had actually watched any of Arnold’s films like “American Honey” and “Fish Tank.” She is who she is, but the spirit of the other is there.” She aims for performances, like I in Season 1. “We have similar ways of shooting, when you look at it,” said Vallée.

Vallée, who advocated for Arnold, told IndieWire last May that he saw their directorial styles as being cut from the same cloth. When HBO and the show’s executive producers were unwilling to wait for Vallée, who had committed to “Sharp Objects,” to shoot season 2, the creative team behind the show collectively decided to hire Arnold, whose work they believed that Vallée and his Season 1 team could easily shape into the show’s distinctive style in post-production. In working with Vallée during the first season, Kelley grew to trust and appreciate the distinct tone and visual style the director brought to his series, and entered the second season seeing it as the established look of the show.

Kelley, whose TV career started in the 1980s writing network shows, is a strong believer that TV is different than movies: Shows have a unified style, rather than directorial voice. According to sources close to the executive producers, it had always been the plan, although unbeknownst to Arnold, for Vallée to become re-involved in the show last fall.