By Iain Blair

Perry Mason, HBO’s origin story of TV’s famous legal eagle from the ’50s and ‘60s, is back for Season 2 with a twisty new murder case for the investigator to solve. This time the scion of a powerful oil family is murdered, and Mason and team find themselves at the center of a case that will uncover far-reaching conspiracies.

Director Marialy Rivas

This season of this noir series has new showrunners, Michael Begler and Jack Amiel, creators of The Knick. They take over from the show’s creators, Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald. Perry Mason’s creative team also expanded its horizons to bring in more fresh eyes, including Chilean director/writer Marialy Rivas, whose credits include Young & Wild, winner of the World Cinema Screenwriting Award at Sundance.

I recently spoke with Rivas about directing Perry Mason‘s Episode 5 and Episode 8, the challenges and her love of post production.

What were the challenges of directing your episodes, and how did you prepare?
I researched all the work they’d done in Season 1 because, of course, it was really important to get to know the show. I also studied a lot of films from the ‘30s and ‘40s, both noir and other genres, and I looked at photographs from the era. I watched the new episodes they’d already done so I could understand the approach and so I could keep the continuity with my episodes. And when I arrived on the production, I could also look at all the work done by production designer Keith Cunningham and costume designer Catherine Adair. They’d done a lot of research, so I had all those visuals to work from.

Tell us about prep. What was involved?
It was different for each episode. It was about three weeks for each episode, maybe a bit less for Episode 8. For Episode 5, I wanted to go on the shoot of the previous episode so I could get to know the crew and see how it all worked, so I arrived early on the show.

The show has this great, moody, noir look. What cameras and lenses did you shoot on, and can you talk about working with your DP?
As this is the second season, it’s a well-oiled machine, and the camera, lenses and lighting packages were already set up by the great DPs I worked with — Eliot Rockett and Darran Tiernan. We shot with the same setup used in the first season [the Sony Venice 6K 3:2 full sensor (6048×4032) with a 2:1 aspect ratio and anamorphic lenses].

All those decisions had already been made, so when I arrived, I could just enjoy their amazing work and collaborating with them. Eliot shot Episode 5 for me, and Darran shot Episode 8. It was very interesting to work with two DPs, as they each have a different approach to the work — and even on how to shoot a scene.

For instance, both episodes have court scenes, but the way Eliot shot it was like going from a wide angle to a small, and then we changed direction with the other cameras. Whereas with Darran, I’d tell him “I want all these shots,” and he’d look at the list and decide to put one camera here, another there and so on. It was a completely different way to set up the three cameras in the exact same space, and they used different lights, but in the end it all works because their mindset of telling the story meshed together.

What about the LUTs?
They were also all set up for the first episode, so when I arrived, I could just focus on the beauty of setting up the lights and getting the look we wanted.

Talk about the shoot. How tough was it?
I’d say that for a TV show, we had the necessary amount of time to shoot each scene. Sometimes you’re rushing through scenes in TV, but here everything worked like a Swiss clock, very exact and efficient. So if they said, “This will take four hours,” it was more than enough to shoot even a complex scene.

The crew was amazing, as were all the actors, and I knew the camera crew and first AD were going to give me the best possible frame. They were so talented and creative that it was almost impossible to go wrong in a sense. We had about 15 days to shoot each episode, and we were based on the lot at Warner Bros., where all our sets were built on stages. We also shot on location all over LA for certain exteriors and interiors, and we used some houses and streets. The location scouts were very smart about what they picked. You’d think that in order to create the ‘30s period, you’d need a lot of greenscreen work, but we didn’t. They carefully chose places we could shoot from different angles. Coupled with VFX work in post, we could make it look just like LA in the ‘30s.

Even though there wasn’t much greenscreen work, all period pieces need VFX. How involved were you in that?
Yes, we had to do a lot of VFX work in post, creating all the water scenes and the ships in the first two episodes, for instance. Since I arrived early, I was able to be on the shoot, and it was amazing how they did it — combining a “real” piece of ship on-set and then adding all the VFX extensions in post. The piece was big, but it was very small in comparison to the size of the actual ship and all the water, so bravo to the post team.

For Episode 5, we did some scenes outside a hotel and used greenscreen off in the distance. I like post production a lot, and I think the best way to do it is when you really plan it from the very beginning. You ask the post producers what they need. How can I help? Does this work? That way you plan out all the shots together, and we’re all on the same page and speaking the same language. I always try to work with the post team and the VFX team as early as possible, and we’ve used quite a lot of VFX houses on the show [including Crafty Apes, PixelKrush, Onyx VFX, Folks VFX, Digital Domain, Pixomondo, Technicolor VFX and Lola VFX].

The DI was done with colorist Pankaj Bajpai at Picture Shop in West Hollywood, but I wasn’t there for that, as it was done far later. I’m very used to doing all the grading with the DP and the colorist for all my own movies and projects, and I love the DI. It’s such an expressive, amazing tool for communicating with the audience.

What was the hardest scene to direct and shoot?
For me, it was the scene of the raid of the Latino family. We shot it on location, and it was the night of my birthday. It was very emotional and personal for me, as I grew up under the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile when the military was doing very violent raids like this one. So recreating this very powerful scene with the police and kids brought back very intense childhood memories for me.

I assume you’d love to come back for the next season and direct again.
I’d love to come back. LA in the ‘30s – who doesn’t want to shoot that? It’s that insane. You’re there with 400 extras, all in period clothes on huge sets. It doesn’t get better than that.

Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.