How was the shocking scene in the first episode of “At the Dawn of America”, the brand new number 1 series on Netflix?
This is the scene everyone is talking about, in the series everyone is watching on Netflix. In just a few days, At the Dawn of America has also managed to take first place in the ranking of the most watched series on Netflix, until then held by season 2 of Squid Game.
This western mini-series directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) was written by Mark L. Smith, the screenwriter of the film The Revenant. This dive into the American West breaks with all the clichés we have of the Wild West. Everything is darkness and extreme violence, from the first episode which sees a convoy of wagons being savagely attacked.
During this shocking sequence, and among the many kills shown on screen, many Internet users were marked by the scalping of the character played by Dane DeHaan. Rarely, if not never, has this type of injury been filmed with such realism in a television series.
The make-up for the series was entrusted to a cinema legend
To our colleagues at Hollywood Reporterthe American actor reveals that he was inundated with messages about this sequence. “For the past week, people have been sending me text messages with the video and images of me getting scalped. I had to tell them that we are very proud of this footage, but that we have to stop with this (laughs). It's starting to bother me.”
The filming of this sequence was supervised by makeup and special effects legend Howard Berger. In order to be as realistic as possible, the latter has extensively documented this bloody practice, and the medical care provided to the scalped in the years during which the series takes place.
“This scene is so intense. I've never seen a battle scene in a western that looks like this.” declared Dane DeHaan to our colleagues. “I can't believe how they managed to do that, and the way they did it was done almost entirely without digital special effects.”
The episodes were not filmed chronologically
Before filming, Howard Berger and his teams from the KNB EFX studio presented several proposals to the production. The idea ultimately chosen consisted of making a silicone mold of Dane DeHaan's skull, which then had to undergo several intensive makeup steps.
A real trust has been established between the two men, who have already collaborated previously on Oppenheimer (in the scenes where Dane DeHaan's character appears older). The filming of the series did not take place chronologically, and the first scene where the actor appears in makeup takes place in the last episode. The sequence where the latter is scalped was therefore filmed later.
“The starting point is the scene where he gets scalped, and then there are different stages where his condition deteriorates and his flesh decomposes. We opted for a combination of prosthetics and contact lenses. I wanted that his eyes are as if bloodshot” commented Howard Berger.
Netflix
Filming under high pressure
Originally, the scalp scene was supposed to have relied on a combination of makeup and digital special effects. The use of fake blood would have impacted the pace of filming, and required a change of costume and cleaning of the set between each take. Makeup artist Jamie Kelman and Dane DeHaan, however, campaigned for the scene to be shot entirely with practical special effects.
On the day of filming, two tests were deemed inconclusive by director Peter Berg. It was then that Howard Berger suggested that he shoot the sequence with fake blood injected from a tube and two layers of makeup for the character's bloody skull and hair, respectively. The delay in filming meant that the team was only able to shoot the scene once using this traditional method.
In 41 years of experience, Howard Berger says he has never felt so much pressure before filming a scene. Fortunately, the first take was the right one and the result was considered so good that the team then played the rushes of the sequence over and over again.
The western mini-series at the dawn of America can now be found exclusively on Netflix.
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