American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 31

Unit photography by Christopher Saunders. Additional photos by Wilson Webb and Atsushi Nishijima. All images courtesy of Showtime.

blades, the men had cut their way out
of their cells and into a steam pipe that
was dormant for the winter. In a twist
that fueled the incident's media coverage, the civilian supervisor of the
prison's tailor shop - Joyce "Tilly"
Mitchell - was found to have aided in
the breakout after developing relationships with both men.
Before Matt and Sweat could
even be apprehended, writers Brett
Johnson and Michael Tolkin had begun
work on the script that would ultimately become the seven-part
Showtime limited series Escape at
Dannemora, directed by Ben Stiller and
shot by French Canadian cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné. The early drafts
of the script included a significant
number of invented details, but that
conjecture was rendered moot when
New York State Inspector General
Catherine Leahy Scott released the
results of her investigation roughly a
year after the breakout. The 150-page
report offered an intricately detailed
dissection of the escape, incorporating
dozens of photographs including
images of the convicts' tools and their
route out of the prison.
It was Leahy Scott's report that
convinced Stiller to commit to the
project, with verisimilitude serving as
his guiding principle. Real participants
in the manhunt, such as tactical team
members and sheriff's deputies, played
themselves, and real locations were
used whenever possible, from Clinton
Correctional Facility exteriors -
including that fateful manhole cover -
to the grocery store where Mitchell
(portrayed by Patricia Arquette)
bought her morning donuts.
Despite the story's contemporary setting, Stiller envisioned the
aesthetic as a throwback to 1970s films
such as Marathon Man, All the
President's Men, Straight Time and
The French Connection. "Generationally,
that's the era I grew up in, and
those movies had a big impact on me,"
says Stiller. "They're beautifully yet
simply shot films with a very naturalistic quality."
➔

tt: Clinton Correctional
Facility inmates David
Sweat (Paul Dano, left)
and Richard Matt
(Benicio Del Toro) plan a
daring jailbreak in the
Showtime series Escape
at Dannemora.
pp: The prison's tailorshop supervisor Joyce
"Tilly" Mitchell (Patricia
Arquette) and her
husband, Lyle (Eric
Lange).
p: Corrections officer
Gene Palmer (David
Morse).
t: Cinematographer
Jessica Lee Gagné and
director Ben Stiller.

www.ascmag.com

February 2019

31



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American Cinematographer - February 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2019

Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - Intro
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 1
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 2
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 4
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 5
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 6
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 7
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 8
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 9
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 10
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 11
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 12
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 13
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 14
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 15
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 16
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 17
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 18
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 19
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 20
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 21
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 22
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 23
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 24
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 25
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 26
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 27
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 28
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 29
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 30
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 31
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 32
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 33
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 34
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 35
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 36
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 37
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 38
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 39
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 40
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 41
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 42
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 43
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 44
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 45
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 46
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 47
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 48
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 49
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 50
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 51
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 52
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 53
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 54
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 55
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 56
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 57
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 58
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 59
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 60
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 61
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 62
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 63
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 64
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 65
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 66
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 67
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 68
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 69
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 70
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 71
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 72
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 73
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 74
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 75
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 76
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 77
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 78
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 79
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - 80
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - February 2019 - Cover4
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