Behind The Scenes

The team behind “The Great Work Begins” employed innovative techniques and technologies to create the performance’s unique look. By using Open Reel, a software that allows a film crew to remotely control an actor’s iPhone camera, Director Ellie Heyman and her team were able to work with all 15 of the production’s actors as they shot their scene while quarantined at home. Then, through collage editing overseen by Creative Director Paul Tate dePoo III, the team spliced the footage together to both create the illusion that the scene partners are sharing space—as they do in the given circumstances of Angels in America—while also maintaining their separate architectural lines and the isolated reality of COVID-19.

Andrew’s eye line perfectly matches where we need him to be looking for our final collage.

A desperate attempt to create a dark space inside a walk-in closet… it failed. We had to change the shoot day.

We wanted to create a composition where Vella was sitting on stairs but she was visiting her mom in NM who lives in a bungalow without any stairs. Vella understood we wanted to play with height so she suggested her roof! Paul dreamed up a composition that would make two disparate locations make sense together.