‘Righteous Gemstones’ Cinematographer Paul Daley Says It was History Buff Danny McBride’s Idea for Soldier Portrait Montage in ‘Prelude’

The Righteous Gemstones cinematographer Paul Daley discusses what it was like to take audiences back to the Civil War era in his Emmy-nominated episode, “Prelude.”

The first episode of The Righteous Gemstones‘ final season was quite a departure for everyone, including Emmy-nominated cinematographer Paul Daley. “Prelude” takes fans back in time to conniving Civil War ancestor (Bradley Cooper) as he steals the identity of the minister he killed.

“It had to be [different], right?” says Daley. “You’ve got the regular Gemstones, who live this absurdly opulent lifestyle with every conceivable gadget, widget, motorbike, car, mansion, yacht, all those types of things. Then we juxtapose that with the Civil War: muted tones, a lot of darkness, candlelight, harsh sunlight.”

Fortunately, Daley says he was given “a blank slate” and got as far away from the bright technicolor world of the 21st century as possible.

How They Made The Montage of Soldiers’ ‘Portraits’

Did you know Danny McBride is a Civil War historian? Apparently, it was his idea to make the soldiers look like they were shot in long-format photography in one of the early montages.

“As we were shooting other stuff, I would grab one of our background players and sit him down. And the truth is, we’re, like, the 12th hour or something. Everyone’s filthy dirty, it’s disgusting. Dust, rainstorms, everybody was all banged up. I’d sit them down, mess up the hair, move the hat sideways, and say, ‘Right, just look right at the lens. Try not to move.’ And of course, when you try not to move, there you go. You know, you’re moving slightly. We overcranked it, shot it at 60 frames per second. So, it really looks like that.”

Lighting the Ambush and Making Custom-Made Lights in a Sears

There was a lot to consider with lighting the ambush scene where Elijah (Cooper) and the Confederate soldiers get taken by the Union army. For one thing, there was only one way in with how narrow the road was. Plus, you had 200+ soldiers, 12 carts, and two carts per horse.

“You need your crane shot. You need your overhead shot. You need your departing train of soldiers. So we laid out the couple of hundred feet of dolly track for the profile shot and hid all the lights we knew we were going to need for the stunt sequence. There were camouflage tarps and things like that.”

The other camera operators, steadicam and handheld, would work as the procession moved down, hiding a camera in the back of the cart for when Bradley Cooper’s talking to the soldier who gets his head blown off. With a bit of coordination, they managed to shoot three or four cameras at the same time and minimize resets.

For an indoor tent scene, Daley also created custom-made lights in his office in the Sears shopping mall where the studio departments were located.

“I had the props put up a tent for me in their area, and I built myself a light out of bits and pieces, because I used to be a gaffer, you know? So I made the thing, put it on a pulley, and made sure it would work. So the light did one thing, an opaque shade did another thing, and they moved independently because I knew we wanted an overhead shot and other shots.”

Daley ended up making a three-channel structure he could adjust on the day with minimal setup time.

“You walk in, turn it on, and go. Outside of the tent, it’s just a world of movie lights, so you could see shadows walking by, fire out there, and all that type of thing. But inside the tent, that’s really all it was: a three-channel homemade light.”

Like Shooting a Mini Righteous Gemstones Movie

Of all the things Daley is most proud of with this episode, it’s just the vast undertaking of “Prelude” itself.

“Just the encompassing scale. What needed to happen in nine days was probably the overriding challenge. Each piece, it’s like, how do you eat an elephant, right? One bite at a time. As you’re going, you’re starting to knock it off, and it goes. But I think there was a moment there at the very beginning where we’re all, like, this is quite the undertaking.”

The Righteous Gemstones streams on HBO Max.