Danny Cohen (‘Slow Horses’ cinematographer) on creating atmosphere, upping tension and selling red herrings on the spy drama [Exclusive Video Interview]
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“We had a lot of fun in Istanbul because it was the opening of the season” declares Oscar-nominated cinematographer Danny Cohen (“The King’s Speech”) about the acclaimed third season of the Apple TV+ spy drama “Slow Horses.” It opens in the Turkish city, but then soon finds itself back in the decidedly unglamorous Slough House, the MI5 office reserved for the outcasts and misfits of the British intelligence agency. For our recent webchat he adds with a smile, “you instantly have the idea to sell the audience a complete red herring that they’re going on some sort of ‘James Bond’ travelogue. See the world, travel the globe, beaches, interesting cities, and then to use that as a hook to then drag everybody back to the well-worn interiors of Slough House.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
SEE Gary Oldman on his ‘Slow Horses’ character: ‘He’s unkempt’ and yet ‘so beautifully drawn’
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“Slow Horses” is based on Mick Herron‘s series of novels, adapted by showrunner Will Smith (“Veep”), about a group of MI5 agents who are consigned to a dumping ground for rejects paying the price for their past mistakes. Those that are banished to the Slough House administrative purgatory are known as “slow horses,” expected to endure interminably dull, paper-pushing drudgery, along with occasional berating from their rude and abrasive boss, Jackson Lamb. Oscar winner and Emmy nominee Gary Oldman plays the rude, crass and often drunk department head with a bracing panache, reveling in being as unapologetically miserable as possible, while showing flashes of the intellect, perceptiveness and savvy from his former life as a respected spy. The spy drama co-stars Jack Lowden, Oscar and Emmy nominee Kristin Scott Thomas, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan, Freddie Fox, Tony winner and Oscar and Emmy nominee Sophie Okonedo, Chris Reilly and Tony winner and Oscar and Emmy nominee Jonathan Pryce.
The cinematography on “Slow Horses” is deceptively complex. Cohen ensures that the intentionally run-down and messy environment that these rejected MI5 agents operate within is lit as unflatteringly as possible. He also composes shots and angles that focus on what the characters are saying and what their non-verbal cues and body language might suggest about their motivations. For example, as Jackson Lamb conspires against a potential threat as he meanders next to a canal, the DP captures the drama from a moving boat following him downstream, then from in front of him, then from behind him, and then sometimes from a more distant angle across the canal and a couple of stories above him. Cohen explains that this is to build tension around a pivotal scene. “If you’re trying to build tension and create atmosphere, being able to jump camera positions is really amazingly helpful,” he says. “On the bigger days, where we know we need lots of coverage to get through the material, we’ll have four or five cameras, which is really helpful because you can essentially play things out in real time, do one beat here, move another beat here, and it just gives you the opportunity to really up the tension and make things flow.”
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