Thomas Kail Interview: Hamilton We interview Hamilton director Thomas Kail about the process of turning a stage production into a feature film, the musical numbers, and more. ... "'Hamilton' is sung through, and I wanted to have at least ONE revelation in … So, if you were house left 15 rows back, the next day you were house right 10 rows back. And form and function has to marry, and obviously what we have here is incredible performers, pretty fine writing, and just gorgeous work by our design team. & More. But I think that that's one of the things that I'm so excited about. There was, obviously, a design for the show when we were making it. So, since the pandemic started and Broadway shows have been made more available online in livestreams, etc., do you think Broadway will begin to look at the internet more as a way to make shows more accessible? Thomas Kail: When you're watching the show in the theater, the job of the director and the choreographer and the lighting designer and the set designer is to focus the action. Obviously, this was envisioned as a movie theater experience when it was filmed. What we do basically is we go into the mind and the heart of Angelica Schuyler. I think that audience was so excited to be there, and the fact that they were sitting next to a camera was great. Fosse/Verdon executive producer Thomas Kail has done a wider variety of TV than most, including 2 Broke Girls. Do you remember bullet time in The Matrix? “So that also inspired a certain kind of creativity, and our cast was so game. There was no studio attached there was nobody out there, it was just for us. The director spoke with Screen Rant about the techniques used to capture the original Broadway performances on film, and the legacy he hopes Hamilton leaves behind when new audiences are exposed to it. Kail grew up in Alexandria, Va., … Monday 05/02/2016. Posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2020 by Hoai-Tran Bui. I certainly don't know how it's going to impact each person, but my hope is that it gives them some sort of source of inspiration to go and do whatever their work might be. The Kennedy Center holds a special place in the heart of Thomas Kail, the "Hamilton" director. And we kept on going — not with any intention. Whatever they thought about the film, that's up to them. Thomas Kail: I'm sure it did affect their viewing experience. There was a very detailed plan, but I was also watching with our DP and our camera coordinator, and we could say, "That over right there, get in, get in, get in!" Web design by Pro Blog Design. It's like when people say like, "Oh, I was at that concert when that happened." “That was a real guiding principle, but it was also not just move from the camera to the camera. You know, the interesting thing about going back to the [see the] performances, there are benefits of working with a company that does something hundreds of times. I grew up in Alexandria, so I used to go ice skating at the Mount Vernon ice rink, which is where the Caps practiced. I didn’t have a single conversation with anybody in the company about the size [of their performances]. So, there were certain numbers that were sort of directed that way; that the energy of it was facing outward. Thomas Kail (born January 30, 1978) is an American theatre director, known for directing the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, garnering the 2016 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for the latter. So when you’re putting together these different shots and these different performances together from the two different nights, how did you make sure they flowed into one consistent number? We made this independently, totally independent. That’s the equivalent of a show running for 25 years at the Richard Rodgers. Which aspects were hardest to film and translate for a home audience and which were easiest? Thomas Kail is a director and producer, known for Fosse/Verdon (2019), Hamilton (2020) and Grease Live! Thomas Kail explains how Eliza’s gasp at the end of ‘Hamilton’ came to be . Thomas Kail: I always wanted to capture what it felt like to be in the theater when I was making this movie. It’s about showing the “, How ‘Hamilton’ Director Thomas Kail Translated the Stage Sensation to the Screen [Interview], The Morning Watch: The Art of ‘GoodFellas’ Copa Shot, ‘Hamilton’ Cast Gets Out the Vote & More, ‘Song Exploder’ Trailer: Award-Winning Musicians Break Down Their Songs Piece-By Piece, ‘Hamilton’ Was a Huge Hit for Disney+ in July, Surprising No One, The Morning Watch: VFX Artists React to ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, What If The Muppets Did ‘Hamilton’? Those are two cinematic moments that happened in a piece of theater, and what I had the chance to do here was try to find ways to bring the theatrical elements into the film. So that also inspired a certain kind of creativity, and our cast was so game. Just like if you're making a documentary and you bring a camera into a room, it changes everything. We reverse it and we go into her head, and that's also setting up the language that we'll use for the end of the show when the bullet is stopped, and we go into Hamilton's head. Thomas Kail of Hamilton Joins Prof. Dolly Chugh's Managerial … Should it be a family experience or Hamilton social distancing parties? Did you get a chance to see the clips? If we put the camera in one position, you can only see what we're showing. And I think we all felt that. As … The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans. + Follow Thomas Kail, Andy Blankenbuehler, Lin-Manuel Miranda from the 'Hamilton' creative team during a CBS Morning News interview taping with John Dickerson at The … And if the world gets to a place in the future where we’re all gathering and sitting in the dark again to watch stories flickering on a screen, I would love for this to be seen on the big screen, but the fact that it’s out in the world and can be seen on July 3 on Disney+, is what’s important. To create the filmed version of “Hamilton,” which is eligible for nominations at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards this year, director Thomas Kail … How do we learn from the patterns of the show, the typical pattern of the show, to give the viewer at home or in the movie theater a point of view that no one has ever had? So, what we talked about really early with that was, what the particular vantage point was — for me that was the most important thing, more so than any technology. We would run a number 2, 3, or 4 times and then move on, because we only had that one day. Rarely does a director get a chance to evolve a project for as long as Thomas Kail has worked on Hamilton, nor gotten the opportunity to take it from one medium to another. Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail and Alex Lacamoire visited Spamilton August 10 and greeted the cast onstage after the performance. 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We have to all understand that every story is important, and every story should be told. So what was the original intention for the footage when it was shot back in 2016? Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail talk to Variety about finally bringing "Hamilton" to the masses via Disney Plus. It requires a certain kind of patience in the storytelling. (2016). For some of the larger numbers, we were able to get on stage, and for me that gave us an opportunity to try to get inside of the number and not just outside of the number which is how you can often feel when you’re watching things. When you're watching a film, you all have the same seat. And then a little bit of time on Sunday, all day Monday, Tuesday, that we can get on stage, and that’s when we bring in the dolly and the Steadicam [to do close-ups] without the audience. The show is the show. I heard an interview with you, Leslie, where you were saying that because of … Now that millions are going to be able to see Hamilton for the first time, how do you think it might help guide public discourse on modern-day politics? But I hope their experience was a good one. And there was never any discussion about major change in any way other than just acknowledging the realities of MPAA rating of PG-13. How did having the cameras there affect the audience's viewing experience? Get push notifications with news, features and more. Culture Hamilton Alexander Hamilton Broadway Chicago Newsweek spoke with Thomas Kail, the Tony-winning director of Hamilton, about the show's new casts and the challenges of … My hope is that there are moments in the show, or lines in the show or stories in the show, that can be sparks for more conversation; that can be that can be used to further probe and to challenge systems that are in place that need to be reconstructed, or rebuilt, or dismantled. And so, we’re already properly scaled. Accessibility has always been the bane of theater. And so numbers like "Satisfied," or "The Final Duel" or "10 Duel Commandments," or even "Hurricane," have a lot of circular motion to them and felt like they really lent themselves to being captured cinematically. And so that felt like an opportunity to really give everyone a universal experience. The hip-hop musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda was a bonafide cultural phenomenon, blowing the doors wide open to the usually niche world of musical theater and becoming the most hotly-talked about topic in pop culture, music, and even politics. It's the young people getting a chance to see the show, but also write their own work inspired by the show, which empowers the development of their own voice and the acknowledgement that their voice matters. Getty The big-budget adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical was a … With the upcoming film version of the Broadway production, though, Kail has been able to give millions of viewers the best seats in the house. This filmed version of Hamilton was directed by Thomas Kail, who directed the Broadway show. Now, what that often meant was - in terms of where people are positioned on the stage, or the patterns - are with the audience in the front if you're in a proscenium house. A one-stop shop for all things video games. And so we're still talking about, and are still faced with, so many of the flaws in the system right now. We had very, very little of any conversation about performance, because we'd already built the performance and they'd already deeped the performance beyond what we were working on every day. A source confirmed to PEOPLE on Monday the Oscar-nominated actress, 39, was engaged to Hamilton director Thomas Kail. Also, this being on Disney+ feels exactly right for the moment. So, we had two live performances that we filmed on Sunday the 26th and Tuesday the 28th. So no, those conversations were very aligned and easy. “And I thought, can you capture something that ephemeral on film? I wish I was at the Caps parade. There are not a lot of producers on the film. On the eve of the Tony nominations we revisit conversations with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail of the hit Broadway musical "Hamilton." Interview We Are Freestyle Love Supreme Reveals the Origins of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, and the Hip-Hop Improv Group That Started It … Well, I hope we all go back to theaters eventually, I mean that that’s the truth of it. So there were some discussions of the film’s rating back when Disney first announced that it was debuting the film because Disney and Disney+ specifically tends to be a bit more family friendly side. There are 46 numbers in the show, so 33 of them are just from those two performances. How was that addressed? Director Thomas Kail Keeps Busy Off-Broadway as Hamilton Takes Over the World Kail brings new plays by Sarah Burgess and Quiara Alegría Hudes to life at the Public and Signature Theatres. And then we were in the truck and were also in people's ear, so if there was a shot that we really liked, we could have them go get it. They never spent any time ever talking about performance, because they had already worked on that for the previous two or three years. And then we had a little bit of time on Sunday night, a full day on Monday and a little time on Tuesday morning, where we did not have the audience. And on those performances, which had audiences - and we did not stop, we just went straight through - we had nine cameras rolling. 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He … And I don't think that anybody that saw the show on those two nights would would say that their experience was impacted in a negative way. So I started cutting it pretty soon, I started editing in the autumn, maybe summer of 2016. Were there multiple cameras involved or specialized camera rigs? The thing about Hamilton, is that we released the album on Spotify alongside the show, and it helped it become [a phenomenon]. But the sound process was one that I tried to employ my greatest collaborator from that, Alex Lacamoire, our music director/music supervisor/orchestrator Nevin Steinberg, our sound designer. So yes, it absolutely affects the audience. Were you at the Caps parade? 36:13. But there’s so much consistency. It was kind of like when you're in a sports truck. We’ve been doing it for so long, and they also know how to perform for an audience, and how to perform for camera. We had to trust the story.”. But for the live shows, they didn't feel the cameras at all. All names, trademarks and images are copyright their respective owners. And just didn’t want to put any limitation, unless it was about time. That doesn't mean others were harder; it's just those were particular ones that felt really exciting to be inside of because of how the pattern had been established in terms of the choreography and the flow of the number. And what it is, is informed so deeply by Lin's musical voice. And when you stop time there, instead of having all of the cameras around like they did in The Matrix, we do it with the physical language and the choreography and the staging. Can you tell me about the “live capture” technology that you use for the Hamilton film and what makes it so different from the regular filming of a performance? No, I didn't say anything like that to them. We asked Kail about growing up in the area, staging Hamilton in this politically fueled city, and, of course, the Caps. And it speaks to something in the show that we think is so critical, especially at this moment in time, which is who tells your story. What is the bigger priority for you? And what I know is, in a world right now, where the way that we consume things has such a fast cadence - Tiktoks are like 14 seconds - this movie is two and a half hours. I'll probably never make another movie where I spend less time talking about performance, because I'd spent two years leading up to it talking about performance. Because when we got back in on Tuesday night, we still had the nine cameras. We hope that the film that we made is a companion to the experience that people have had who have loved the album. Our job was to capture that; I didn't want them to feel encumbered in any way. And if you've ever seen theater on the nights when they're taping anything, it's always completely different. Play; Add to watch list; Lin-Manuel Miranda Entertainment Air Date 04/11/2016 The composer and star of "Hamilton" sits down with Charlie in the historic Richard Rogers Theatre. Well, I just thought about everything I’ve ever seen. And they went and did our show. Their performances were so dialed in. I was so immersed in the world, it just felt like I need to take advantage of how much Hamilton was in my life and then I was able to work for the next year and a half. But they didn't know about it until they arrived. And there were 46 numbers in the show so the vast majority of our guests are from the Sunday and Tuesday, and then a couple other of the bigger numbers. Was there any concern about the profanity used in the show, whether it would be censored, or whether Disney would put a higher rating on it and not allow it to be to reach the audience as wide as you wish it would? But before that moment could fade, Hamilton director Thomas Kail wanted to shatter the show’s long-held reputation of exclusivity and share “the energy of what it was like to be in the Richard Rodgers Theatre in June of 2016, because I never felt anything like that.”, “What I wanted to do was preserve a feeling of what it’s like to be in the theater,” Kail told /Film in a phone interview ahead of the Disney+ debut of Hamilton. But at least they all have the same seat. Okay, so what happens. That was a real guiding principle, but it was also not just move from the camera to the camera. But a lot of the numbers have circles in the show; Andy Blankenbuehler's choreography employs a lot of circles. Who knows how long [the pandemic] is going extend? In a sense, there are there are elements of Hamilton that people think are cinematic - in fact, you will see this in the film. We only have three days, and there were no reshoots and there was no going back. We shot two live performances, on the Sunday matinee and the Tuesday night. We interview Hamilton director Thomas Kail about the process of turning a stage production into a feature film, the musical numbers, and more. Their performances were so dialed in.”, The result is a Hamilton feature film that Disney in its press release calls “a leap forward in the art of ‘live capture. Because you know the total can only be about 2600. This cast knew exactly what to do. And then I got to step away from it and come back after another project — that was really fun to come back having done a limited series for FX, and then came back to the film — and it was nice to see some of those choices held up and there were some other things that caught my eye, and I went back in and we did a little bit of work. And I thought, can you capture something that ephemeral on film? Despite it being released on Disney+, do you hope that the film will make it to theaters eventually? It did not get in the way of their enjoyment. Thomas Kail, the director of “Hamilton,” reads questions submitted by students in the program. But I know that cinema will come back and movie theaters will come back, they’ve already come back in some places. I think that it's something that can speak to them, because I think it's aware of what it is. You could maybe take a little dive and be a little more aggressive on the Tuesday, because we already had the Sunday. So, we switched up all of those camera angles. We wanted to make sure to honor the 1340 people that had worked hard to get there and paid money to see the show, so we didn't want to disrupt that. It’s about showing the “viewer at home or in the movie theater a point of view that no one has ever had,” Kail said. I wasn’t doing it because it was going to come out soon, I just did it because it was very fresh in my head and Jonah Moran, my editor, and I thought we would try to get ahead of it. At the time, I was making the next production of Hamilton, which was going to go to Chicago. Thomas Kail, 41, is the Tony Award-winning director of “Hamilton,” which is at the Kennedy Center through Sept. 16. Was Disney involved early on? Were the performances toned down at all for the camera or was the intention to crystalize the stage experience on camera, even if it means things feeling a little big? Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy. I’m captaining the Chicago production, getting ready for the first national tour. ‘Hamilton’ Movie: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail Interview – Variety In 2016, Hamilton was at the top of the world. And it felt to me that what we wanted to do was, listen to the show, and trust the show. But you're always in a wide shot as it were; you're always seeing the whole picture. My hope is that, you know, some people are gonna watch it on their iPhone or their Android, others will watch on an iPad, someone on television, some are gonna watch it on their computer. Logo Concept by: Illumination Ink. And when you have them, alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonah Moran our editor, I felt like we had a pretty good group there to make sure that our ears were tuned to making the whole event feel as seamless as possible and to make sure that just felt better. capture. When you're making a film, the director of photography and the lighting team, the grips; they're the ones that help focus the action. I think we got through about 12 or 13 numbers in that way. Thomas Kail, Director: Fosse/Verdon. Often what it does for the audience is it makes them a little more reserved and muted, but that was not the case for us. Often on an opening night, I'll say something to the equivalent of, "No more, no less," because we already know what the thing is, and we just have to go and do our show. How ‘Hamilton’ Director Thomas Kail Translated the Stage Sensation to the Screen [Interview] Posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2020 by Hoai-Tran Bui … What kind of technology did you employ to record the performances? And my job was just to get the camera there. Three were fixed in that same location, and then the other six, we completely changed. I have like 78 hockey sticks from Rod Langway. The final duel in our show takes place in the moments from when the bullet leaves Aaron Burr's gun and hits Alexander Hamilton, but we stop time. Kail, who is best known for his work on Hamilton, isn't just an ordinary director. We talked to Kail about how he, Miranda, and the Hamilton crew put together the feature film that will finally bring us into the room where it happens. And we have to look at our show, which is about the founding of our country - a country that was founded on the original sin of slavery, that was founded by these flawed men who said that they wanted to make the world equal but set up an institution and a constitution that did not protect everybody equally in any way. The two … Because in the clips I saw, it seemed pretty seamless and sounded like it was from one performance. '” But for Kail, it wasn’t about using any special technology or any experimental filming methods. That to me was a cinematic technique that we applied to our theater. But only a select few could actually get to witness the magic of Hamilton on stage. So, I think that that’s what’s so powerful about streaming, and what’s so powerful about screen adaptations, is they’re just able to reach so many more people immediately. We got on stage and brought in a steadycam on a dolly track, and we changed a lot of the camera positions. Thomas Kail: We shot this in June of 2016. “We only have three days, and there were no reshoots and there was no going back,” Kail said. So we did 13 or so numbers in that way. The hip-hop musical about American Founding Father Alexander was (aptly) hailed as revolutionary, and to bear witness to its meteoric rise was amazing. And in that moment, you go into his eye, and you go back to see his childhood: his mother or grandmother giving him the food, and then he has this visceral and emotional connection to the food that breaks down even the most hardened of critics. I'm very curious to see, once the movie comes out, how many people will say, "I was there when they filmed that!" Thomas Kail: I think people should be safe when they're watching it however they do it. More: Christopher Jackson Interview for Hamilton, All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. Actor Daveed Diggs, who played Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette in the rap musical Hamilton, revealed that he was initially unsure about the musical's concept.. Diggs unveiled his skepticism during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "Satisfied" in the show is another moment that stops time. On the eve of the Tony nominations we revisit conversations with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail of "Hamilton." Did you direct the actors more towards the cameras during their performance, or did you just capture the spontaneity of the performances? There’s subtlety and nuance from night to night, absolutely. And we've done this all over the country, in many, many cities, and also in London. For the other numbers that we did on stage, they're all such pros that they knew exactly what they were doing. We had to trust the story. You know, when Lin gave us a blueprint with the show to construct, it was the best material I’ve ever worked on in my life, and I wanted to honor that. Is it bringing movie theater audiences into a true theater experience or to adapt a theater experience and make it more cinematic? So, that means that the actors that were in the show had done the show 200 or 300 or 400 times. “Hamilton” director, Thomas Kail, from left, and cast members Daveed Diggs, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Ramos at a rehearsal at the New 42nd Street Studios. An unforgettable cinematic stage performance, the filmed version of the original Broadway production of “Hamilton” combines the best elements of live theater, film and streaming to bring the cultural phenomenon to homes around the world for a thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Kennedy Center holds a special place in the heart of Thomas Kail, the "Hamilton" director. But Ratatouille was a big influence on the number "Satisfied." "Hamilton" director Thomas Kail and Jennifer Todd have signed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television, a division of Disney Television Studios. Thomas Kail: A program called EduHam, which we started four years ago now, gives access to the show to students aged 16 or 17, usually juniors in high school. However they watch it, our hope is that the story transmits- that whoever you are, whatever form that you're watching it, that it speaks to you. And by where we put lights, and where movement happens, that's where your eye will go. 33:36. Affiliate links used when available. Now that it's going directly to people's homes via Disney+, how do you envision the viewing experience? Both know the show and the score better than anybody. This is, I hope, a funny reference. Three were fixed and not using a human operator, and then there were six that had human operators and were all in the audience, shooting towards the stage. Because when you go see a live show, you could be in the orchestra, on the left, on the right, in the mezzanine, in the second balcony - and your experience would be completely different. I think that this is a show for people that love musical theater, and I think it's a show for people that don't think musical theater is for them. It was only supposed to be for the theatrical audience. Thomas is a close pal of Hamilton creator-writer-star Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Richard Rodgers Theatre can only house so many people in its seats, and the cast of Hamilton can only perform eight shows a week for so long. That camera that was in the mezzanine, we took it off the mezzanine and went to the center of the orchestra. '” But for Kail, it wasn’t about using any special technology or any experimental filming methods. In Ratatouille, there's a moment where the critic takes a bite of the food. And I think that that's a voice that has certainly, through the power of the album, reached many, many millions of people.
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