‘Lessons in Chemistry’ cinematographer Zachary Galler on why he opted for a ‘simpler approach’ for shooting the series [Exclusive Video Interview]
Elizabeth Zott’s (Brie Larson) life on “Lessons in Chemistry” may be anything but simple, but it was precisely a “simpler approach” for which cinematographer Zachary Galler opted when it came to shooting the Apple TV+ limited series. For him and the rest of the creative team, the main priority was to honor Bonnie Garmus‘ bestselling novel on which the show is based.
“We knew that we were doing a project with a book that had been, like, a global phenomenon; [we knew] that people love this story. And it felt like it didn’t need us to add to that,” Galler, who shot four episodes of the eight-part series, tells Gold Derby during a recent webchat (watch the full exclusive video interview above). “Plus, we have these great actors, Brie Larson and Lewis Pullman, and I think… as we saw their performances and how good they were, we were sort of like, ‘Yes, we made the right choice!'”
SEE Here’s how Brie Larson (‘Lessons in Chemistry’) stands apart from her SAG Awards competition
This simpler approach to shooting the series in general also influenced how Galler chose specifically to tackle its setting. That’s because, while it takes place in the 1950s and ’60s, the DP wanted to ensure that the period didn’t become the main character of the story. “[We] knew that we should try and sort of subvert the period/genre tropes a little bit,” he says. “And [we] wanted to have this feel much more subjective and much closer to these characters, and have it be driven by them, as opposed to be driven by the period.”
Among the four episodes that Galler shot are the opening two installments, “Little Miss Hastings” and “Him and Her,” which chart Elizabeth’s romance with fellow chemist Calvin Evans (Pullman). When asked how he captured the growing intimacy between the two characters, the cinematographer divulges that he hoped to tap into the memories people oftentimes have of — and the wistfulness they harbor for — relationships in their lives.
“The camera helped to capture the relationship that was growing between the two characters by being with them,” Galler explains. “I think in shooting a romance… you have your personal experiences to draw from — how you choose to see what you’re seeing — and I think it really was, hopefully, about those moments that everybody can remember in their relationships. Everybody’s memory works differently, I imagine, but there [are] kind of the snippets that you have of your relationships — and [the goal was] to tap into something like that, [to] tap into some sort of memory from the past and tap into that nostalgia that people have for the relationships in their lives.
Nostalgia, you could say, also becomes a central part of Elizabeth’s journey as her relationship with Calvin proves, sadly, to be short-lived. When Calvin goes on a run with their dog, Six-Thirty, at the end of the second episode, the dog distracts him by tugging on the leash after he’s already begun to cross the road, prompting the runner to be fatally struck by an approaching bus.
“In the leadup to Calvin’s death, we actually had a lot of conversations about how it should feel, how much we should sort of tip our hand beforehand, and how shocking we wanted it to be,” Galler says of shooting Calvin’s final moments. “We decided we really wanted it to feel as run-of-the-mill as possible… so that the viewers would not have their spidey senses up about, ‘Oh, is something weird going to happen?’ — so [we decided to have] no strings starting to play beforehand or weird shots that would tip it off.”
Elizabeth’s life takes another unexpected turn when Walter (Kevin Sussman) offers her the job as a host on a TV cooking show, called “Supper at Six,” at the end of the fourth episode. This development, however, does not come as a surprise to viewers as it’s already teased via flash-forwards that open and close the show’s premiere. “Shooting the show within a show was really fun. It was something we had planned in prep and from the beginning,” Galler remembers about the experience of filming the “Supper at Six” scenes in his episodes. “As someone who started in the lighting department and now works in camera and has been on set a lot, it was really fun. And I like cooking as well, so the cooking show aspect was [also] really fun.”
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