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BÉLGICA

Dirk Verheye e Inti Calfat • Directoras de Into the Night

"Preferimos dirigir la cámara a los personajes que ven el incendio, en vez de al incendio"

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- Entrevistamos a Dirk Verheye y Inti Calfat, directores de la primera serie belga de Netflix, Into the Night, en línea desde el 1 de mayo, y producida por la compañía Entre Chien et Loup

Dirk Verheye e Inti Calfat  • Directoras de Into the Night
Dirk Verheye and Inti Calfat on the set of Into the Night (© Toon Aerts)

Este artículo está disponible en inglés.

We talked to Dirk Verheye and Inti Calfat, directors of the first Belgian Netflix series, Into the Night (read our review), online from 1 May and produced by Belgian company Entre Chien et Loup.

Cineuropa: What did you think when you discovered the project for the first time?
Dirk Verheye:
We asked ourselves, is this a series we would like to watch as spectators? The answer to that question was yes, but we still had other questions. The script opened the door to several ways of shooting the series. In order to make it our own way, we had to make sure that Jason George (editor’s note: the screenwriter and showrunner) was on our wavelength. We quickly understood that we had the same thing in mind: rather than limit ourselves to making something spectacular, with lots of action scenes and twists, we wanted to observe the events through the eyes of our characters. It was the only way to make what to us seemed possible, and Jason agreed.

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And what did you think, Inti? Are you generally attracted to science fiction?
Inti Calfat:
That’s a good question! I’m not a fan of science fiction. Our genre is more about turning the camera not to the fire, but to the characters as they are looking at the fire. It makes things more humane. At first, we were very excited to see Netflix at the top of the script pages, but you quickly get used to that! We quickly felt that this was something we could do, and that we could do it well. If it had been a big project with Brad Pitt, in the vein of World War Z, I am not sure we would have been the right people for the job, but this was something else.

How would you define the series: a cross between a plane-set film, a psychological thriller, a futuristic film?
DV:
It is all of that and more, but for us, it is most of all a huis clos. From the moment these people enter the plane, they can’t get out. They’re condemned to cooperate in order to survive. Even if they hate or despise their neighbour, it is only together that they will find a solution.

IC: It is a story of survival, with a fast-paced rhythm, in which we can find a universal truth that can be transposed to other situations. Especially with what we’re living through today, where we are all confined at home, we have to trust each other, to cooperate, I can see a parallel with the series.

Shooting on a plane is a challenge, does the plane become a character?
DV:
Indeed, the plane is a character in the story! We had to recreate one in the studio. It is also a challenge to shoot an entire season in such a confined space. How can we bring some variety?

IC: The plane is an ambivalent character! On the one hand, it is a refuge, it is what allows them to reach a safe place, but it is also a prison they can’t escape from. In terms of directing, we stayed with close ups on the plane, which adds to the feeling of claustrophobia, but we used wider shots during the stopovers, more atmospheric shots.

What were some of your inspirations when you began working on the project?
DV:
We watched a lot of bad plane-set films, which allowed us to list all the things we didn’t want to do! We had to invent our own language, just as we built our own plane.

IC: In identifying what we didn’t want, we also understood that what was important for us was authenticity. If a location is narrow, such as the cockpit of a plane, we have to accept that, we can’t cheat.

How did you deal with the fact that, by working for Netflix, you’d be addressing a very large audience?
IC: We were aware that by making a series for Netflix, our work would be exposed on a platform where users have a lot of choice. We had to be striking at the beginning of every episode, to hook the viewer. We are aware of the medium, of course. And the possibility to touch a very large audience is very exciting, but it did not make us radically change our approach.

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(Traducción del francés)

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