‘Handmaid’s Tale’s’ Director Kari Skogland Revisits Her Emmy Nominated Episode

Kari Skogland has been a working TV director for 24 years.  She’s directed episodes of “The L Word,” “The Borgias,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “Penny Dreadful,” “Power,” “The Americans,” “House of Cards,” “The Punisher” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”  Gigs she landed after making her way through commercials, music videos and the Canadian Film and TV industry.  Now, after almost a quarter of a century she finally has her first Emmy nomination.  In a business where being a female director was often considered a detriment, she has proved that talent and perseverance can eventually win out.

READ MORE: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’s’ Yvonne Strahovski: I cry when I read the scripts [Podcast]

The Ottawa native earned her nomination for “After,” the seventh episode of the second season of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”  Skogland also directed episodes in the first season of the Hulu series as well as  three, four and eight of season two.  “After,” however, is a stellar example of Bruce Miller‘s drama balancing dramatic heartbreak with small strains of hope (and, as any regular viewer knows, hope is hard to find Gilead).

And, in case you haven’t watched the second season yet, fair warning that spoilers are ahead…

“After” starts with a funeral for slain Handmaids after a terrorist attack the previous episode by a rebel Handmaid.  It’s a beautifully composed ceremony demonstrating that despite being literally raped by Gilead’s authoritarian regime, the Handmaids are distraught over the killing of their sisters.  The episode also is a showcase for not only last year’s Best Actress in a Drama winner Elisabeth Moss, but Supporting Actress Emmy nominees Samira Wiley and Yvonne Strahovski.  Wiley, in particular, gives a powerhouse performance as she portrays her character almost collapsing under the emotion of discovering that her fiancee (played by Rebecca Rittenhouse in flashbacks) was murdered trying to escape to Canada.

Skogland jumped on the phone late last month to discuss her nomination, the intricate details that went into directing “After” and whether she knows what the map of Gilead displayed in the season two finale actually  means.

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The Playlist:  Congratulations on the Emmy nomination. Where were you when you found out about it?

Kari Skogland: I was in bed. Someone called me and woke me up. It was a reporter asking me [about it],  I was completely surprised as inarticulate, “Who? What?”

By that response I’m guessing you weren’t expecting it. Were you hoping?

Oh, well, my goodness. I was hoping, of course; expecting, no. But hoping like anyone does I guess. Fortunately, working on a show that had such success the previous year and it was still doing extremely well. I had my fingers crossed, for sure. But, none the less, these things are always an incredible surprise. So I was thrilled beyond belief.

What was your reaction to both Yvonne and Samira also earning nods? They, in particular, had big moments in the episode you directed.

I know, which was fantastic for both. I honestly can tell you when we were shooting I really believed that both performances would be noticed. And same with Cherry Jones [nominated for Guest Actress in a Drama Series]. So, in all cases I was truly blessed to be part of the performance opportunities that they were written into. I mean I was up at the monitors just weeping for both characters as their performances were unfolding. And Yvonne is such a lovely actress and a very gracious person.  She couldn’t be more different from her character. So it’s really the seeing you, because last year there wasn’t as much notice for her or for Jo. So this year that they’ve been known. But I’m just thrilled across the board. And particularly Samira.  Her story arc was so surprising and she just broke my heart watching her in that scene.

How did you find out you were returning for season two?

Lizzy Moss reached out to me and asked if I would I be interested in coming on board and directing more of them. You know, it’s a very demanding show emotionally.   So she reached out to us, between the two of us, do the lion’s share of the show.  And they were even doing more episodes in season two, so there would be opportunities for some other directors to come in, but at least we’d get them out of the gate. I knew that going in and it was great, because it meant that I could [keep] the continuity coming from episodes three and four, going into seven and eight. I could pick up some of the things that I had layered in, perhaps. Mike Barker [who directed episodes five and six] was able to see what I was doing so he could layer in things .  It was a really good kind of balance so that we could all collaborate and really take the season out with a real bang.

This episode starts off with this very dramatic funeral procession.  From a production standpoint what was the process of figuring it all out?  Clearly there is some detail in the script, but it has to leave a lot open to interpretation on your end, no?

Well, every detail is worked out in advance.  In some cases, it’s rehearsed. Even down to the veils coming down, what the material was for them. We tested various materials. There was a lot of conversation about what that veil looked like and how their faces were covered so that they were anonymous and what that looked like, how that would work. Ane Crabtree, the costume designer, went through several different materials, because I wanted it to get to slow [down] in a very certain way. B ecause I was using the phantom camera, which is an extremely slow motion camera  The location had to be very carefully groomed.  Snow was all decided in advance.  Then it snowed the day before so we got more snow than we expected, which made it look that much more beautiful. So there isn’t a detail that wasn’t worked out in advance. Of course, you hope for the inspiration of the moment and on the set there would be some little thing that triggers or sparks a new idea.  I really wanted to invoke this very, sort of eerie, beautiful, kind of having a celtic-at-its-core quality in the circles. I had done a circle [of Handmaids] in episode four, I think it was, during the baby shower. They had done a circle dance. So, I was kind of echoing that, in this very different kind of environment. And obviously the team, everybody brings interesting ideas to the party. And it’s my job to work out all the various plans that we came up with, and cherry-pick some of the great ideas, and blend it, put the big blender, and come out with a shot list and shoot it.

Tell me if I’m wrong but for the overhead shots are you guys using drones?

I used drones several times. I also used a 50-foot Technocrane for the overheads. But the Technocrane also worked on all kinds of other shots as well, because it has great reach. It can only go 50 feet, so we did a bunch of drone shots of them walking through – it was a golf course actually – but walking through the grave yard and down into the woods. We used multiple cameras for their strengths. It was very much about putting them into the landscape. A sort of bleak, windy, snowy landscape.

When you started work on episode three did you know what would occur in subsequent episodes?  

The first two, I knew what was coming. I didn’t have the scripts but I knew the outline.  I sort of knew some of the big set pieces that were going to happen and what we were planning for. I don’t believe I had scripts to work from yet, though. If you’re informed enough that you can start to plan ahead. If you end up doing two episodes at once, then you’re kind of shooting a movie. So, you can take the momentum of one and bring it into the following episode even though they have kind of a closed story. Or you can take one and layer in nuggets for the second one. Because it’s just the nature of how you’re shooting it.  You’re doing a scene from Act 1 of episode one or in the first five minutes. And then you’re also doing a scene from what will be the equivalent of 70 minutes in [or the next episode] and it might be in the same set.  You’re able to take ideas from one and bring them into the next one. It was very true of the pen [that Offred uses]. I brought in the idea of the pen and the paper to boast episodes 7 and what that meant to the character and layered that into episode eight as she is forced to give up her position again.