Winning Time’s Jason Segel, in a pre-strike Zoom interview paired with co-star Solomon Hughes, is explaining one of the rigs used by the show on set. “We strapped this thing to Solomon, like he’s Robocop, with a camera facing himself,” he says. “So when he moves, the camera is moving with him.”
Says Segel to Hughes, “I don’t know if you know this, but we nicknamed you Camera Abdul-Jabbar.”
Hughes, who plays Camera Abdul-Jabbar’s namesake in the HBO basketball series, doesn’t confirm whether or not he knew this. Instead, he says with a committed deadpan: “Camera Abdul-Jabbar was heavy, and it was the end of a very, very long day when they decided, ‘Hey, let’s try this out.’ So Solomon was pretty delirious when he had Camera Abdul-Jabbar strapped to his person.”
That footage is just one of the experimental choices made by every other member of the creative team to create the series’ singular look, a blend of formats and technologies that aims to thrust the viewer directly into the 1980s era of Lakers history being depicted.
Most shows pick one type of camera to use — Winning Time, returning for Season 2 this Sunday, is shot on a mix of 35mm film, 8mm film, and Ikegami tube cameras. What’s an Ikegami? Glad you asked. Says star John C. Reilly, “I think it was actually a stroke of genius to shoot a lot of the show on the Ikegami camera, which is the original broadcast video camera from the era, because it makes it immediately seem like you’re actually in that era. The visual information just puts you back there.”
Using these older cameras, Segel says, “just contributed to the cool factor. I had the luxury of seeing the pilot before I took the role, because they had already shot it and Westhead didn’t arrive till late first season. I got to see the plan these guys had and how it was gonna look like some of the movies I love. I’m just in awe at how much art is put into the photography aspect of the show. When you’re filming a basketball scene, they’ve got like three cameras hung in the rafters, that are filming you almost like a televised game. Then you’ve got a guy sometimes on rollerblades who’s going in amongst the people… I’ve never seen some of the camera rigs that they’ve set up. It’s really cool.”
The cast was charmed to see older cameras in use on set: “They even had that little Super 8 working, which is great,” says Michael Chiklis (who plays Red Auerbach on the series), while Hadley Robinson (the show’s Jeanie Buss) observes that it reminded her of “being immersed in an art project. And everybody around you who had a camera in their hands was really excited about it too.”
Hughes agrees. “Yeah, just the detail, the attention to detail, the sets, etcetera — you felt transported. And I think that that makes your job easier, for sure.”
Reilly did note one drawback: “It had the camera crew worried a lot of the time, ’cause if one of those old cameras breaks there, it’s not like there’s a repair shop that still fixes them, you know?”
Fortunately, most scenes were covered by multiple cameras — the number involved in any particular scene varied depending on the scene’s needs, with sequences recreating some of the Lakers’ actual games requiring the most. According to director Salli Richardson-Whitfield, at any given moment she could be using “maybe six” cameras at the same time. “We also have cameras on the backboard. Sometimes we have people dressed in period-appropriate clothes that have a camera and can be in the crowd.”
That means that mixed in with the extras in any given game scene are members of the camera team, using vintage cameras — if only to capture the celebrity lookalikes (like Jack Nicholson and Dyan Cannon) who can be spotted on the sidelines, just one of the countless details packed into the production.
“A rhythm settles in and people just kinda know their spots,” says executive producer Rodney Barnes. “Not to take Paul Westhead’s system away from him, but people just know where to go with the camera and it sort of dictates itself.”
The use of multiple cameras on set meant that for the actors, they had to be constantly on their game — because they never knew if or when they might be in the shot. “You never knew when it was going to catch you, so you had to stay focused and follow that action at all times. It was pretty exciting,” Adrian Brody (who plays Pat Riley) says.
Adds Reilly, “it was actually kind of a confidence builder — I thought it was gonna bother me actually, because as an actor, I like to know, well, this is where the camera is and this is our focus, and this is this shot we’re trying to create. But there were so many cameras all over the place that it just made me feel like, well, whatever I do, no matter which way I turn, someone is going to get it. I don’t have to worry so much about this one camera. And as the show is edited together, they really do harvest from all over the place to create that look.”
Winning Time (HBO)
To guide the production, executive producer Kevin Messick says that cinematographer Todd Banhazl wrote a style book for the production team explaining the approach. “Like, ‘here’s how we’re going to do it,'” he paraphrases, “‘We shoot on film and here’s where we’re going to cover things in 16 MM, and in the ’80s we’re gonna graduate into video.’ It’s very designed and specific, but I think within that is also an improvisational ability as well, especially when the editors start to put it together. So in the final result, you’re seeing things that feel more like captured moments on different formats that draw you into the show. Winning Time would feel completely different if it was all shot on one format.”
According to Richardson-Whitfield, there were moments during filming where “we knew specifically what we’re going to do that, but Todd and I also ran on what feels right in the moment. Because there are so many different formats, it becomes this emotional tug of what a scene needs. There may be times when we wouldn’t normally use a particular format for a scene, but Todd and I will look at each other and go, ‘Should we pull that out? I think it just feels like a perfect moment for whatever that is, or maybe a little longer lens on this.'”
Once filming is done, the challenges continue. “This is a hard show to edit,” Richardson-Whitfield says. “So many different formats — there are times, especially in the basketball scenes, where there is so much coverage and so many cameras going on at the same time. Our editors are really, I think, the best in the business. It’s a very hard show to cut.
Messick notes that lead editor Hank Corwin established a tone for editing the series and “then he became the kind of the Godfather/tutor to all the younger editors that work on the show this season.”
Showrunner Max Borenstein says that he loves it when the format used for a shot “is dictated by emotion, not just by logic,” using as one example an Episode 5 shot of Quincy Isaiah as Magic Johnson having just made a big announcement. “There’s a long take of it on video that feels voyeuristic, because it’s on video and he’s got his face to his locker. And it’s sort of slowly zooming in on him and it feels like captured footage. Sometimes what switching formats does is distance you — [in this case] I actually think it has the opposite effect. That put us right in his head.”
Continues Borenstein, “There were other takes and other angles and other coverage from different formats of that scene, but emotionally the reason the editor decided to use that shot is because it’s so beautiful. It just feels like you’re sitting there with this person and you notice that they’re going through something and you are just kind of slowly trying to wait and see what’s happening. There’s a lot of great surprises we get out of the use of these different formats.”
Winning Time Season 2 premieres Sunday, August 6th on HBO and Max.