#andrew deyoung | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rhysdarbinizedarby · 7 months

Text

How Our Flag Means Death transformed Rhys Darby into a merman

Take a deep dive into Stede and Blackbeard’s big underwater reunion, featuring Kate Bush and buckets of glitter.

Warning: This story contains spoilers for Our Flag Means Death season 2, episode 3, "The Innkeeper."

How do you turn a pirate into a mermaid? All you need is a loyal crew, a killer soundtrack, and lots and lots of glitter.

Our Flag Means Death season 2 reunites swashbuckling lovers Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) after their tragic parting in season 1. An injured Blackbeard is hovering near death, stranded in a purgatory-like dream world after his crew attempted mutiny. He plunges off a cliff, sinking deep into the sea, and it seems as if his past regrets will drag him into the darkness. Then, a light appears, and Kate Bush starts to play: It's Stede, carrying a trident and sporting a golden fish tail. Merman Stede coaxes Blackbeard back to life, and together, they swim upwards into the light.

It's a moment that's simultaneously silly and heartfelt, a perfect encapsulation of the show's signature tone. Series creator David Jenkins says he and the writers have wanted a merman Stede scene for years, and it comes at the, ahem, tail end of episode 3, written by Alyssa Lane and Alex Sherman and directed by Andrew DeYoung. The sequence itself isn't long, but it proved to be a monumental undertaking, requiring careful collaboration from the visual effects team, stunts, hair, makeup, costumes, music, and more.

"When you're working on smaller shows like this that need big visual effects, you have to be very resourceful about how you do things," visual effects supervisor David Van Dyke tells EW. "I feel like the underwater sequence was a really great culmination of all the departments really working together and maximizing our resources."

With the episode streaming now on Max, EW caught up with a few key members of the OFMD crew, who break down exactly how they transformed Darby into a merman — fish tail and all.

Gypsy Taylor's sketch of merman Stede for 'Our Flag Means Death' | CREDIT: GYPSY TAYLOR

A sailor's tail

Originally, the plan was to use a green screen to give Darby a CGI tail. But it was costume designer Gypsy Taylor who pushed back, arguing that she and her team could build a practical tail that looked gorgeous and functioned underwater.

"I was like, 'Please make my dreams come true!'" she tells EW with a laugh. "'I want to make Rhys Darby a mermaid!'" It helped that Darby himself was game: The actor served in the New Zealand army, so he's a more than capable swimmer. He volunteered to film as much of the scene as he could, even if that meant learning to swim with a monofin.

As she started to sketch, Taylor immersed herself in mermaid imagery, finding inspiration in all sorts of aquatic creatures. Ultimately, she decided on a subtle golden look, one that fit Stede's personality but still brought plenty of drama.

"I delved deep into the mermaid world, and I could have gone all rainbow and big and luscious," she explains.

"But instead I thought, look, if Stede turns into a fish, and it's Blackbeard's dream sequence of what he knows of Stede, then he'd probably just turn into a really sweet goldfish. So, that's where I started. He's just this sweet, loving little goldfish."

Merman tail construction for 'Our Flag Means Death' | CREDIT: GYPSY TAYLOR

For the actual construction, Taylor recruited her longtime collaborator and props maker Hayley Egan. Many fake mermaid tails are sculpted out of a single piece of rubbery silicone, but Taylor wanted to keep Stede's tail as lightweight as possible, so Darby could actually move through the water.

So, she fitted the actor with a stretchy Lycra base, and Egan hand-sculpted and attached about 3,000 individual silicone scales. The final steps were to add the enormous, flipper-like monofin at the bottom, before sewing on thin, gauzy strips of chiffon to give the tail more movement in the water.

A close-up of Rhys Darby's tail in 'Our Flag Means Death' | CREDIT: GYPSY TAYLOR

Taylor worked closely with stunt coordinator Jacob Tomuri to make sure the tail not only looked beautiful but functioned underwater, too. (She also knew that they'd have to film quickly, since the chlorine in the tank could corrode the tail over time.) She carefully monitored the tail's weight — but it still wound up heavier than she anticipated.

"We added a whole lot of weight accidentally by putting five kilograms of glitter in," Taylor admits. "I had to warn the stunt team. I was like, 'I didn't think glitter would be that heavy! But we needed a lot of it. And it's so pretty!'"

The tail required 5 kilograms of glitter | CREDIT: GYPSY TAYLOR

Egan constructed four tails in all: a stunt tail, a tail for Rhys to practice with, and two hero tails for use on camera. Egan assembled them at her workshop in Australia, but she had to stuff them into a suitcase to bring them to the OFMD set in New Zealand. All was well, until she got to New Zealand customs, and the agent asked her: "Are you bringing fish into the country?"

"She was in fits," Taylor recalls, laughing. "She was like, 'Well, actually… I'm bringing four fish into the country.'"

Once the tail was fitted to Darby's body, the makeup and prosthetics team came in to seamlessly blend it to his bare skin, adding even more scales and glitter. But although Darby moved gracefully underwater, navigating dry land proved to be a bigger challenge. Once the actor was encased in his tail, he couldn't move around set, so the crew borrowed a wheelchair from a local New Zealand hospital to transport him to the tank. (See the video below.)

"We'd all go up this ramp together, with him in his little wheelchair, and we'd just sort of dump him in," Taylor explains. "Everyone was trying very hard not to laugh."

Diving deep

Season 1 shot in Los Angeles, but for season 2, Our Flag Means Death relocated to New Zealand. Many scenes were filmed in a studio or on the life-size recreation of the pirate ship Revenge, but Van Dyke, the visual effects supervisor, wanted to take advantage of New Zealand's natural beaches and ocean views — particularly for the scene where Blackbeard plunges off the cliff.

So, the crew scouted a gorgeous spot near Bethells Beach, capturing drone photography and 3-D photogrammetry. "LA's got a ton of great natural resources," Van Dyke explains, "but you might have a guy sitting there on the beach in your shot, drinking a beer out of a cooler that yours truly has to remove."

The actual ocean scenes were shot in an enormous indoor tank. Underwater filming isn't exactly easy, but fortunately, several members of the crew had experience on a certain blockbuster James Cameron production. "Thank God Avatar shot out there because we had a lot of seasoned underwater veterans," Van Dyke says with a laugh. "So, they knew what they were doing."

The tank itself wasn't deep enough to look like a real ocean, so Waititi had to float horizontally underwater, and the image was later flipped to make it seem like he was sinking downward. Then, Van Dyke and his team came in to clean up the shot, adding depth and adjusting the trajectory of bubbles. He also worked closely with Taylor and hair and makeup designer Nancy Hennah, who had to ensure that Waititi's enormous Blackbeard wig didn't float away.

"Look, CG hair is hard enough, and underwater is even harder," Van Dyke says, explaining that Hennah's meticulous wig work saved his team hours of effort. "There were some things that visual effects had to help out with, but we didn't have to stick a CG wig on him. So, thank you, Nancy, for doing that!"

The perfect soundtrack

Music has always been a major part of OFMD's DNA, and season 1 brought memorably anachronistic needle drops like Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" and Leonard Cohen's "Avalanche." For the Stede/Blackbeard reunion, Jenkins picked an ethereal '80s classic: "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush.

The song was always Jenkins' first choice for the scene, and it was written in the script, but music supervisor Maggie Phillips admits that she initially argued against it. Not only was the song originally written for John Hughes' She's Having a Baby, but it's been used in multiple TV shows and films, including Extras, Love and Basketball, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Even Phillips herself had already placed it in another TV show, using it for a terrifying execution scene in The Handmaid's Tale season 2.

Plus, Stranger Things had just propelled Bush's "Running Up That Hill" to become the song of the summer in 2022. "I mean, I was so excited that the kids discovered Kate Bush," Phillips says with a laugh. "Ultimately, my feeling is that whenever Kate Bush gets exposed to new audiences, that's great. But I was fully like, 'Don't use this song. There's too much baggage.'"

Rhys Darby on the set of 'Our Flag Means Death' | CREDIT: GYPSY TAYLOR

Jenkins pushed back, noting that the song suggestion came from Waititi himself, who's wanted to use it in a project for about a decade. Still, Phillips remained hesitant. "I was like, 'Okay, I still think this is a bad idea,'" she says. "And then I saw a cut of [the scene], and I ate my words."

Bush's dreamy vocals give the whole sequence an ethereal feel, and Phillips says she loves how the lyrics — "I know you have a little life in you yet/I know you have a lot of strength left" — take on new meaning as Stede coaxes Blackbeard back to life. "I saw it in a totally new context, and I love it," she says. "They actually recontextualize the song and make it work in a new way. I got chills watching it."

Plus, Phillips adds, the scene got one particularly important stamp of approval: "We heard through Kate Bush's management that she was very pleased with the use and very excited, which made me really happy as a huge fan."

Our Flag Means Death airs Thursdays on Max.

Source: EW

#rhys darby #ofmd #our flag means death #taika waititi #behind the scenes #ofmd s2 spoilers

178 notes · View notes

appleteeth · 2 years

Text

Emmy Ballots are Open!!

Outstanding Comedy Series

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series: Rhys Darby

Outstanding Supporting Actors in a Comedy Series: Taika Waititi and Vico Ortiz

Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series: Leslie Jones

Also:

Outstanding Directing: Pilot by Taika Waititi and Episode 10 by Andrew DeYoung

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series: Episodes 9 and 10

Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (half-hour): Episode 9

Outstanding Art Direction: Pilot

Outstanding Period Costumes: Episode 5

Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series: Episode 8

Outstanding Stunt Coordination For A Comedy Series Or Variety Program

#our flag means death #emmys 2022 #emmy nominating ballots #ofmd #rhys darby #taika waititi

829 notes · View notes

dickfuckk · 1 year

Text

A list of season 2 cast and crew members, confirmed and speculated

I will try and keep this updated

Not counting the obvious ones

Please note that this is a list of both cast and crew members, so PAs and such are also included and not just actors

Also if you're interested: on my bts instagram I only follow people who have worked on season 1, and people I suspect worked on season 2. So feel free to go through the list of people I follow if you're into that

Aaron Morton (Camera) - he’s listed on the very last picture as the camera-man

Adam Stein(Writer)

Alan F. (English solider)

Alexandria S.

Alison Telford (Casting)

Alistair Gregory - from this tweet so uncertain, but followed me back on my bts instagram account so seems to have some interest in ofmd

Amy Barber (Sound department)

Amy Tunnicliffe

Amanda Grace Leo

Amanda M. (Wedding guest)

Andrea Basile (Costume)

Andres Gomez Zamora (Visual effects)

Andrew DeYoung (Director) - I don’t remember if there was any other reason than the fact that he was in Aotearoa during filming

Andy McLaren (senior art director)

Andy Rydzewksi (Cinematographer)

Angelina Faulkner (Sound department)

Blair Nicholson (Camera)

Blair Teesdale (Camera)

Brad Coleman (Visual effects)

Brad McLeod (Special effects)

Brian Badie (Hairstylist)

Bronson Pinchot (“Torturer”)

Bryn Seager - I don’t remember why but I follow him

Bryony Matthew (Food stylist)

Caleb Staines (Camera)

Chantel Partamian (Visual effects)

Colin Elms (Art department)

Colin Rogers (Sound department)

Cora Montalban (Makeup and/or hairstylist) - I believe she was tagged in an instagram story once, and she’s followed by a ton of cast and crew members

Corrin Ellingford (Sound department)

Corey Moana (Camera)

Corry Greig (Art department)

Coti Herrera (Prosthetics/Makeup)

Damian Del Borrello (Sound department)

Daniel Fernandez (Spanish priest)

Danica Duan (Assistan accountant)

David Boden (production manager)

David G. (Stand in)

David Rowell (Financial controller)

David Van Dyke (Visual effects)

Dennis Bailey (Hairstylist)- Leslie revealed that he’s there.

Dion Anderson (Rescue diver)

Don A. (Swampy Town folk)

Donna Pearman (Assistant accountant)

Donna Marinkovich (set decorator)

Doug McFarlene (Pirate)

Duncan Nairn (Visual effects)

Eliza Cossio (Writer)

Erroll Shand (Prince Ricky)

Esther Mitchell (Camera)

Fernando Frias (Director)

Gareth Van Niekerk (Sound department)

Gary Archer (dental prosthetics)

Gemma Campbell (Visual effects)

Grant Lobban

Greg Sager (Safety manager)

Gregor Harris (Camera)

Gregory J. Pawlik Jr. (AD)

Gypsy Taylor (Costume designer)

Haroun Barazanchi (Set designer)

Harry Ashby (AD)

Helene Wong (Voice work)

I-J

Jacob Tomuri (Stunts)

Jaden McLeod

James Crosthwaite (Set decorator)

Jamie Couper (Camera)

Jason Samoa, possibly spotted on location

Jemaine Clement, pretty sure this is only based on his friendship with Rhys and Taika tbh

Jes Tom (Writer)

Jessica Lee Hunt (Makeup artist) - followed by a ton of crew and cast members and I believe she’s been tagged in instagram stories and such

John Mahone (Writer)

Jonathan Bruce (Sound department)

Jono Capel-Baker (Groom)

Jonno Roberts didn’t get the role from his audition, but could still have gotten a different role - hung out with Ruibo

Judah Getz (Sound department)

Julia Huberman (Sound department)

Julia Thompson (Costume)

Justin Benn (Republic of Pirates Town)

Karl L. (Action extra)

Kate Fu

Kate Leonard (Casting)

Kathleen Zyka Smith (“Red Flag”)

Kosuke Iijima (Fabricator/Sculptor?) - due to interaction on this post

Kris Gillan (Fabricator/Sculptor)

Kura Forrester - followed by quite a few cast and crew members, but I don’t remember if there was anything else to it

Laura Stables (SFX makeup artist)

Leanne Evans (Art department)

Lee Tuson

Leslie Jones (Spanish Jackie) - she’s spoiled this so many times, but gjfhdks

Leyla - followed by a lot of cast and crew members, don’t remember if there was more to it than that

Lindsey Cantrell (Set decorator)

Louis Flavell Birch (Blue coat)

Luke V. (Stand in)

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd 2 #ofmd speculation #ofmd spoilers

87 notes · View notes

renthony · 2 years

Text

I love Taika Waititi's work as much as the next person in the gay pirate fandom, but it bugs me to see Our Flag Means Death referred to so often as "a Taika Waititi show."

He's not the creator, the showrunner, or one of the writers. He's a damn good actor and had a hand in a damn good show, but it's not a "Taika Waititi show." It's a show Taika Waititi is in, alongside many other talented performers.

If you're giving Taika Waititi credit because he's a producer, don't forget about David Jenkins and Garrett Basch and Dan Halsted. If you're giving Taika Waititi credit because he directed an episode, don't forget about Nacho Vigalondo and Fernando Frías and Bert & Bertie and Andrew DeYoung.

I worry that the internet's going to put Taika Waititi on a weird pedestal (if it hasn't already) and blame him personally when the hype bubble bursts, something in the show doesn't land perfectly, someone involved does something problematic, or what have you.

There's a lot of people involved in the making of OFMD and they're all human. Don't make it weird.

#original post

302 notes · View notes

fuckyeahworldoftaika · 8 months

Text

#taika waititi #nathan foad #ofmd #andrew deyoung

33 notes · View notes

mikimeiko · 2 years

Text

This. This is the first frame of ep 10. My baby Mike Berlucchi (DP) is back and I'm happy again <3

#getting disproportionally passionate about this cinematography thing #also andrew deyoung as director has already captured my heart just from this shot and the ones after of mary playing with the children #our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd visual analysis #my thoughts #i just want a tag for the things i personally put out into the world

21 notes · View notes

skulandcrossbones · 7 months

Text

hey andrew deyoung why do you hate me specifically

#our flag means death #ofmd spoilers

19 notes · View notes

loudemily · 6 months

Text

Pleased to report that the end of s2 ep 3 still makes me sob like no other sequence of television ever before it. Andrew DeYoung I owe you my life.

#he directed my three fave eps of s2 we need to consider his impact #ofmd #our flags mean death #ofmd s2

5 notes · View notes

byneddiedingo · 7 months

Text

The Craft (Andrew Fleming, 1996)

Cast: Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, Skeet Ulrich, Cliff DeYoung, Christine Taylor, Breckin Meyer, Nathaniel Marston, Helen Shaver, Assumpta Serna. Screenplay: Peter Filardi, Andrew Fleming. Cinematography: Alexander Gruszynski. Production design: Marek Dobrowolski. Film editing: Jeff Freeman. Music: Graeme Revell.

If the makers of The Craft had had the courage and the skill to parody or transcend the teen-movie clichés and characters -- the mean girl, the horny jock, the embarrassing or absent parents, and so on -- it might have been a genre classic like Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976) or Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1989). That the filmmakers even come close enough to elicit the comparison owes much to the performances of the four young actresses who play the film's mischief-working coven. Robin Tunney is Sarah, the new girl in town with untested magic powers; Fairuza Balk is Nancy, the punk-gothic misfit; Neve Campbell is Bonnie, who bears disfiguring burn scars; and Rachel True is Rochelle, the biracial girl in an apparently all-white Catholic high school. Balk got most of the attention for her amusingly over-the-top performance, but Tunney deserves credit for underplaying her role, creating an outwardly normal but deeply troubled teenage girl. Sarah once tried to kill herself -- "the right way," says Nancy approvingly, noting that the scars on Sarah's wrists are vertical, along the vein, rather than horizontal. Falling in with the other three, Sarah not only discovers her own latent powers but also helps the other girls develop their own. Bonnie erases her scars, Rochelle gets even with the racist blonde (Christine Taylor) who referred to her as "Negroid," and Sarah causes the scornful jock (Skeet Ulrich) to fall in love with her. Nancy, however, goes to the dark side, and mayhem ensues. Unfortunately, the plot gets predictable at this turn, and the ending is anticlimactic.

#The Craft #Andrew Fleming #Robin Tunney #Fairuza Balk #Neve Campbell #Rachel True

3 notes · View notes

potatoleeksoup · 1 year

Note

3, 4, and 13!

ty!!!

(3) what were your top five books of the year?

in no particular order i loved:

mrs caliban by rachel ingalls. this is SO good. ingalls went straight on my list of forgotten 20th century women that i want to become. actually it's an extremely short list but she's on it right behind my forever queen gina berriault look her up

what you can see from here by mariana leky. honestly this has faded from my memory a little bit since i read it in the spring but i remember being totally obsessed with the prose and narrative movement of this. id love to relearn all my german and read this in the original and also all leky's other books (i believe she has other novels but idk if any have been translated?)

a home at the end of the world by michael cunningham. is it boring to recommend michael cunningham maybe. did this book make me insane and do i frequently think about specific lines and phrases from particularly the first third of it YES. michael call me i just want to talk

the tree and the vine by dola de jong. being in secret unrequited love with your roommate is so scary and horrible ! this book is like a very very sharp gemstone !

all fires the fire by julio cortázar. cortázar is one of my favorites ever and this collection is just like completely complex and perfect like a box of bitter chocolates. right after german i will be learning spanish in order to experience these stories for the first time in a new way again

honorable mentions to:

reprieve by james han mattson. it's possible that this isn't good but i had SO much fun reading it. one of the only books i have read over the past few years that i found really and truly exciting. escape room novel!!!!

the glassy, burning floor of hell by brian evenson. good book! but MOST importantly my favorite title of the year.

anddddddd interview with the vampire. sorry. i loved this.

(4) did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

definitely rachel ingalls! i had heard of her but never read her and i am so pleased to have finally dipped my toesies into her work. maybe rivka galchen too... everyone knows your mother is a witch was good and i am excited to see if i like her other work even better. and dola de jong! i had never even heard of her! if any of her other work is ever available in english translation i will be sprinting to the library

(13) what were your least favorite books of the year?

ahh yes my favorite. hating. let's see...

the charm offensive by alison cochrun. unfortunately had to revoke the bisexuality card of the dear friend who recommended this to me. stupid and really bad in ways that matter (fetishistic strange representation of gay men) as well as ways that are just annoying (horrible prose and overtherapized emotional narratives)

a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan. sad that i broke my 11 year streak of never reading this but it was required for a class. the PULITZER PRIZE? for LITERATURE? are you SURE?

the snow queen by michael cunningham. goddamn the higher they climb the harder they fall!!!!!!! this was one of the worst structured and most sloppily and fluffily written novels i have ever read. and from the king of structure and perfect sharp prose himself. sad... well there's other fiction writers

how to find your way in the dark by derek b miller. a genuinely antisemitic book recommendation from the aforementioned formerly bisexual dear friend. horribly written and with a bad case of my protagonist is the specialest little boy in the world. special shoutout to this book for inspiring the novel i am currently working on by being so bad that i looked at it and thought even i could do a better job at this

the temps by andrew deyoung. no more clever little books by clever little guys. it is appropriate that the cover of this is green like toxic slutch because it gave me horrible indigestion. thinks it is so smart about the world and is so fundamentally mistaken about every single one of the issues it tries to tackle

and i COULD GO ON!!!!! there are bad books being published every day on this bitch of an earth!

this was so fun i love yelling

4 notes · View notes