Following last week's impactful series finale, we were able to sit down with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland to get all the details about Sam Wilson's triumphant debut as Captain America, the redemption of the Winter Soldier, and her experience helming the acclaimed six-episode miniseries.
The Primetime Emmy-nominated Skogland, whose past credits include episodes of The Punisher, The Handmaid's Tale, and Penny Dreadful, amongst other things, brought a new eye to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and as you may have noticed, she had a very unique way of presenting characters that felt considerably more intimate, ultimately giving us a brand new perspective on both Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
On her approach to developing characters in both this and other projects, she tells us:
"You try and use the camera like a tool that will capture the emotional context of the character. In the case of Bucky, in the therapy scene, the reason I was very in-tight, looking at him so closely because I wanted to feel the claustrophobia of his situation, where he was in his head.
Like, in contrast, Sam, who is much freer in where he lives and who he is, that was all very fluid and there was a lot of movement. A lot of it handheld, to give it more of an energetic, experiential quality to the coverage that we did with him. So, what I try to do is pick and choose where we need to emotionally be engaged or inside with the character or in their perspective.
It’s ultimately about choosing a perspective and sticking with that perspective for the scene or if you switch perspectives, know that you’re switching perspectives, and then again, stick with that for the duration of wherever you’ve chosen. So, I use a lot of focal length, as well, you’ll notice, it’s very pronounced in the therapy scene, but I use it all over, where I use short focus or deep focus. It’s where I want the audience’s attention to go. Whose perspective are we in? So, that’s a lot of - and also, cameras shifts where I eliminate edits. So, it’ll shift from one character to the next through a conversation so we don’t have to cut to it. It just has a natural drift."
She adds that she very deliberately wanted to shoot these Marvel icons with this kind of style, in an effort to make the story and the world at large feel more grounded than what we've seen in prior films.
"Good, well thank you for that. I mean, it’s intentional, and it’s meant to be signature. The idea was to help create a signature quality to the show as an overall look and feel and hopefully, we achieved that because it also wanted to serve the fact that the film is very grounded, it’s a much more grounded world that we’re in than it has been in the past, so I wanted it never to be objective, but always to be - or when we are objective, to feel that it’s intentional. That we’re watching it go down versus being in it."
Speaking of a more grounded world, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, unlike its predecessors Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame; featured a more character-driven and self-contained finale than what we've come to expect from those aforementioned spectacle-laden blockbusters.
While it's been rumored that a storyline was cut, Skogland tells us that it was always intentional for Sam's Captain America debut to be a much quieter affair that would resonate with audiences across the globe.
"It was always intentional because we were the sequel to Avengers and that was a huge spectacle with otherworldly characters and a really otherworldly setting in most of it. So, we wanted this to be the antithesis, the completely polar opposite, a much more grounded quality to it overall as well as - we wanted to capture a very relevant conversation, and our themes and topics we embraced in this project needed to be relevant and very present because they were a very present, relevant conversation in the real world now. It was all part of capturing the experience of it and being relevant to the audience right now."
While Skogland is already quite an accomplished director, her experience working with Marvel Studios still proved to be a valuable learning experience for her as she got to tackle blockbuster-level superhero action head-on. She also really enjoyed working with Kevin Feige and his team, who gave her a first-hand look at why they're the best in the business.
"I learned a lot about a certain kind of action choreography that I had not worked in before. I had worked in a lot of action, but this particular superhero of it was terrific to learn. I really enjoyed working with the Marvel teams, they’re all very, very positive. Everybody’s after doing the best they can be and do, looking for the best storyline, making it relevant, not shying away from themes.
I think going forward, I’ll miss working with them, but going forward I think I would like to bring that same kind of collaborative positive energy to every project. I think I do anyways, but nonetheless, this was very pronounced, it was a very wonderful team, who are very inclusive, very diverse and I think, enjoy and respect each other and that’s a unique space to be in our business, which is a tough one. So, it’s an egoless place and that really counts."
The entire season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is now streaming on Disney+!
Check out our full video interview (which includes full SPOILERS) with director Kari Skogland below, and please don't forget to like and subscribe!
Marvel Studios’ “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon, and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier. The pair, who came together in the final moments of “Avengers: Endgame,” team up on a global adventure that tests their abilities—and their patience. Directed by Kari Skogland with Malcolm Spellman serving as head writer, the series also stars Daniel Brühl as Zemo, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, and Wyatt Russell as John Walker.