Bridgerton on Netflix: Behind the Scenes of Season 3

Lady Whistledown has news: Dearest Gentle Listener - Bridgerton is back! The Regency period romantic drama from Shonda Rhimes dropped on May 16 on Netflix. In this episode, host Sandra Abrams chats with many members of the talented production team to learn how Season 3 came together. Sandra discusses the music with Oscar-winner Kris Bowers, the wardrobe with Costume Designer John Glaser, all those dances with Choreographer Jack Murphy, and everyone’s looks with Emmy-winning Hair and Make Up Artist, Erika Okvist. Listen in to learn about the flowers, production design, music rights, and so much more.

This season of the iconic Netflix series focuses on the romance between Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton. Watch the first four episodes in Part 1 out on May 16th, and the final four episodes in Part 2, out on June 13th.

www.netflix.com/Bridgerton
Instagram: @BridgertonOnNetflix 
Twitter: @Bridgerton

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Transcript

00:00 - VO (Host)
One, two, three and action. Welcome to Media and Monuments presented by Women in Film and Video in Washington DC. Media and Monuments features conversations with industry professionals speaking on a range of topics of interest to screen-based media makers. 

00:25 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Get ready for a wild carriage ride and more gossip from Lady Whistledown. Season three of Bridgerton is now available on Netflix. The series features a new pair of lovers, penelope Featherstone and Colin Bridgerton, but will they make it to the altar when a big secret is revealed? I'm your host, sandra Abrams, and in this Media and Monuments podcast episode you'll hear from many of the talented below-the-line production leads. In April I had the opportunity to chat with them online. The behind-the-scenes team members shared secrets on how they did their job bringing the Regency era romantic drama from Shonda Rhimes to life. You'll learn more about the production design, the flowers, the costume, the hair and makeup, how those sexy dance scenes were done. And, finally, I chat with the music team, including Oscar winner Chris Bauer, on the mood he created composing for Bridgerton Season 3. 

01:29
In this first set of interviews, you'll hear from production designer Alison Gertshort and the florist Philip Corpse. They were paired together and they spilled the tea on what is real and what is fake in those Bridgerton drawing rooms, the Palace Ballrooms. Plus, you'll learn how a certain mirror came to be part of the design for a steamy love scene. If you want to be a production set person, listen to what Allison has to say in order to get your start start. One of the things that I wanted to first talk to you about, alison, was the fact that you've been with the show for other seasons. How did you, what challenges did you find, to make season three, from a production design standpoint for Bridgerton, as much of a fantasy as it has been in the past for the audience? 

02:24 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Well, I suppose, having been with the show since season one, I was an art director on season one and two, so I helped build the world in the first place. 

02:32 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So it was a continuation of that world, really for season three, and is there anything that you found particularly, you know, as you went to do something different? Was there a particular piece of art or a particular furniture or design that you wanted to put in, that you weren't able to do for seasons one and two, that you said, okay, I'm going to do something, this for season three? 

02:59 - Speaker 3 (Host)
I mean, you do have ideas when you're working for a designer. They have their own ideas and you help to achieve their ideas, so of course, you have your own ideas. When you're working for a designer, um, they have their own ideas and you help to achieve their ideas, so of course, you have your own ideas while you're doing that process. So I did get to put a few of those ideas into practice on season three for sure. Yeah, um, and it was. 

03:18 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
It was nice to have the opportunity to do so well, I read that in lady cowper's house you have a motif of a certain greek mythical character. Why did you do that for lady cowper's house? 

03:31 - Speaker 3 (Host)
um. So the cowper house we haven't seen before. We do know cressida as a character and she comes across as being not a very nice character, putting it politely. Um, but this season, for the first time, we see into her home life and we realize that actually she's not in a very good position herself, um, and she's very much under the thumb of a very domineering father. So their space had to be quite masculine and dominate, domineering and quite dark, because they're not actually very nice people, it turns out. So when we were thinking about that space, I wanted to bring in some sort of Greek, very masculine plasterworks to adorn the walls, just to kind of stamp the sort of the full masculinity on the space. So there's nothing very feminine in that space at all, apart from Cressida who sits there in her beautiful, very frilly pink finery, and I rather like the contrast of that. 

04:39 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So Philip, I want to ask you as the florist, because we know that flowers play a critical role in creating these fantasies, especially when you look at the ballroom scenes and you have these sky high flowers how did you work with Alison and the production and design team in creating these scenes? You know what was the conversations like it's usually. 

05:00 - Speaker 4 (Host)
I mean, obviously a lot of it is scripted. But I usually go with Alison and Alison's set deck's direction on what the theme of the ball is about, whether it's of a season and also what the characters are. So we go with conversations like that. So colour palettes obviously, so you know, if it's a Bridgerton's it's like the soft blue colours and things like that, um, and the featherington's we go for sort of brighter colors, the brasher colors, um. So that that's kind of how the conversations usually go forward. Um, and then we base it on kind of designs you know. So we did some for the queen's ball and we did a very sort of dutch master kind of style, like the old paintings, but in her kind of palette, um, and the red rose is a obviously a flower that we kind of associate with the queen. So we kind of have conversations about that. So we make sure we use those sort of elements and things like that right? 

05:58 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I understand the roses were the flower of choice in the regency period, and what other flower types did you bring in, though? 

06:06 - Speaker 4 (Host)
Oh gosh, we've got a lot of flower types actually. Yeah, I mean, we brought in, I mean, gladiolus for Penelope, we brought in sort of red-hot pokers and there were some orchids snuck in, I believe, all different types, uh, blossom you know, blossom for one of the balls um yeah, we use a full range of floral full range. 

06:36
Yeah, I mean there's uh, I don't think there's much we don't use, actually, apart from the tropicals probably um, because they weren't actively around in Georgian time I mean some were because they had the hothouses and things like that and fruits as well. We used a lot of fruits in some of the displays Pineapples, peaches, apples and things like that. So it's not just the flowers, we added elements like that as well. 

07:02 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
You're on the set, there's, I I would imagine, a mixture of fake flowers and fresh flowers. But being on the set all day long, how did you keep the flowers fresh? 

07:11 - Speaker 4 (Host)
to be fair, it's mostly fake that we use um because they're sustainable and we can manipulate the stems and also we can reuse them um, repurpose them for other sets and also use them for pickups later on. 

07:25 - Speaker 3 (Host)
I mean anything we have fresh, we we have doubles, don't we? 

07:29 - Speaker 4 (Host)
we do have doubles, so we keep. 

07:31 - Speaker 3 (Host)
We keep one off the set in a bucket of water so that if the one that we're shooting with, I mean, we do have to use real for some of the action props yeah, but when it's close to camera it should be fresh, isn't it? 

07:42 - Speaker 4 (Host)
yeah, like say, action props, yeah, so you know, if it's servants to camera, it should be fresh isn't it yeah, like say, action props, yeah, so you know if it's servants preparing flowers, for example, or or one of the characters holding a bouquet, yeah, and it's all fresh Cause. Obviously it's just, it just looks more, it looks better on camera that way. 

08:01 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
In addition to that, I'm wondering what is that process like? How did that start? Like you're putting, you've got. 

08:12 - Speaker 4 (Host)
You know all these worker bees putting all the flowers together. What's behind the scenes going on there? Behind the scenes, uh well, I mean, sometimes we're using some of the flowers that were already in the store. So, um, bridgestone has a big store of fake flowers from the other seasons, and then we bring in new elements as well. Um, but you have a whole team working on it don't you? 

08:28
yeah, so I have a whole team. Basically, depending on the scale of the project, there's probably, uh, probably, about five, uh ten of us probably working on it all together. Um, and then there's a lot of lot of mechanics behind some of the displays. So if it's a location, it's a little bit more difficult because we can't attach to some of these period properties, but if it's a set, then we can kind of, you know, whacking staples and putting chicken wire and all the ugly things that you don't see on the camera. Obviously there's a lot of construction that goes behind, anchoring some of these things, like onto porticoes or building of Great Begurn or something like that. 

09:12 - Speaker 3 (Host)
And just scaffolding, even within a big display. 

09:15 - Speaker 4 (Host)
Yes. 

09:15 - Speaker 3 (Host)
You know you have to have. 

09:18 - Speaker 4 (Host)
you use erasis and yeah, so we use a dry floral foam for the silk flowers, for the fake flowers, so that's really strong and that gets reused over and over again Because obviously they get moved a lot around the sets as well, you know, to bring in kits and camera and stuff like that, so they have to be quite rigid. So there's a lot that goes underneath making them look the way they are. 

09:45 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
It looks fantastic. When I see the ballrooms and I just go, wow, how did you create this fantasy and all the flowers? And I guess that gets back to a question for you, alison what was the you know in creating these scenes, because it does look so grand? 

09:59 - Speaker 3 (Host)
is there any tricks that you did in putting those sets together that know that you and your team said, okay, we're going to do this and this will will create scale um, I think with the ballroom scenes particularly they, they are of a scale anyway, because we have to accommodate enough space for all of the extras to inhabit so, and there's always dancing, and so we work closely with the choreographer, jack, to make sure that there's enough space centrally or wherever the dancing is going to happen, and then we build around that. You know the ballrooms, they sort of have a life of their own really, because they they need to incorporate all the walking and talking, all the entrances and exits, all the dancing. There has to be an orchestra. Very often the queen is there. She often has to be elevated above the masses so that she's looking down on the scene. So you have to kind of build all these elements in whilst keeping within sort of the theme of the ball. 

11:02
It's not so much that there's tricks that we use, because whatever you see is is built for real in the camera. We don't do a lot of vfx, unless sometimes we do the ceilings in vfx and add those afterwards, because obviously, if you look up in our sets you've got all of the lights above and so you can't you know, you can't put the ceiling in as well, otherwise you wouldn't be able to light it properly. So, but that's really the only thing in terms of tricks that we use when we're building. We do a lot of printing. We do a lot of printed floors. For example, where we can't lay, you know, a real mosaic marble floor, for example, we would maybe print this on a lino and use that instead wow, I had no idea that we learned something new here, so we're giving all the tricks of the trade away. 

11:57 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, that's fantastic because we do have um for our members and women in film and video. We have a lot of students um who uh just out of university, but we also have people who are members and they're retired and getting into film and television is their next career. Someone who wanted to do production, design or, you know, be part of such a fantastic show and doing the floor arrangements on such a grand scale. 

12:31 - Speaker 3 (Host)
It's difficult to get into. Obviously everybody knows it is quite hard to get into film and TV work in general. I think you just have if you have a real passion for it. You have. It has to be something that you're very passionate about, because it's really hard work, it's grueling, long hours, there's not much in the way of home life, so you sort of have to buy into the whole thing and it suits certain people and not others. 

12:57
I think if you are passionate enough to keep persisting and to keep trying, you'll probably get there, because somebody, somewhere, will need something doing and you happen to be the person that they pick the phone up to, just as they're thinking, oh, I need that. And they're on the phone and they say I'm a scenic artist or I'm a graphic designer and you go perfect, I was just looking for one, and you know that's your opportunity. You have to recognize the opportunities when just looking for one, and you know that's your opportunity. You have to recognize the opportunities when they come your way and you have to jump on them. Never let them go, because they don't come along too often no, that's, that's true. 

13:34 - Speaker 4 (Host)
I mean, I think I'll go with allison on that. Passion is very important. It is. It is a hard environment to be in. I mean, it's a fun and it's an amazing environment to be in, but it's also, like you say, long hours it can be quite antisocial. You know. You know it's yeah, and you're dealing with a lot of personalities as well, aren't you different? You know creatives and um, and sometimes you're translating someone else's vision a lot of the time, um, you know. So that's something you have to work around, and sometimes you're going against your own aesthetic, um as well, um, which is a great challenge. You know, um, sometimes that can be part of, you know, part of the film industry in that term. So I think, as a florist, I think definitely to be passionate and I think you have to understand that things change very much last minute as well. 

14:26 - Speaker 3 (Host)
And be adaptable. 

14:27 - Speaker 4 (Host)
Yeah, you have to be adaptable, you have to be prepared for, you know, for production, not liking it or loving it, or you know, or wanting, more or less. You know that kind of thing. 

14:40 - Speaker 3 (Host)
But I mean we're a really good collaborative team. 

14:42 - Speaker 4 (Host)
We're a great team. 

14:43 - Speaker 3 (Host)
yeah, We've built up a really lovely team of exceptionally talented people. We're very lucky. 

14:50 - Speaker 4 (Host)
Talent on Bridgerton's amazing, I mean. I just look round and I think, and also, like we were saying in an earlier interview, how we're like a Bridgerton family, and I think it's really important actually to be in that industry, to be able to get on well with people and to be able to kind of keep calm under pressure and that kind of thing. 

15:09 - Speaker 3 (Host)
it's very important you need to find people that you love to work with, because it's not really like work, it's because you work on top of one another, don't you do, you do, and I think that's really important, personality wise. Yeah, you have to be respectful of other people's. You know you do. You meet people and you don't know what they've got going on at home. 

15:27
So give people space, be kind yeah always treat people with respect and never, ever, ask them to do something that you wouldn't personally do and I think my advice would be to not go in with too big a ego either. 

15:40 - Speaker 4 (Host)
I don't think that that just doesn't it doesn. 

15:44 - Speaker 3 (Host)
It really isn't, but there are quite a lot of characters who have got egos. They seem to do quite well yeah. But we try and avoid it on Bridgerton. 

15:53 - Speaker 4 (Host)
I think, be a character, be an individual, be out there, be crazy. 

15:59 - Speaker 3 (Host)
But be humble as well. Yeah, and be fun. Have a nice time. 

16:03 - Speaker 4 (Host)
Yeah, I think so. That's good advice, yeah. 

16:08 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's wonderful. One last question for Alison. I wanted to ask about the mirror. Much has been made about the mirror. Was that something that you had to source, did you okay? Regency period mirrors what can you share about that? 

16:23 - Speaker 3 (Host)
So, yes, obviously it was scripteded. It was a scripted prop that we knew we had to find and um so my lovely set decorator, natalie, she set about sourcing whatever she could find in the way of regency style mirrors that would work, that would do the trick. So, you know, we we looked and we scoured the country and we had a, had a short list and we got approval on one or two of them. And yeah, you know, you always have to have backup options as well, because you put something in the set and it looks fantastic, but then when you put the camera in there, you know it doesn't necessarily work. Maybe it's not wide enough or tall enough. So there's always two or three things. For something that is so important, for a script point, you always have backups in the wings waiting to be whipped in in case they say change, we don't like this one fill up the floors for bridgerton and season three and Alison production designer. 

17:25 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Thank you both so much for spending time with us and sharing information behind the scenes about Bridgerton, season three. Thank you so much. 

17:34 - Speaker 3 (Host)
Thank you, it's been a pleasure, thank you, thank you. 

17:40 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
In this set of interviews, I chat with costume designer John Glasser and hair and makeup person Erica Oakvis. She won an Emmy for her work on season two of Bridgerton. John shares insight on how the look for Colin Bridgerton, played by Luke Newton, evolves over the years, and we learn from Erica how the actors stay so fresh looking during 10-hour days on the set. Thank you so much for being here today. I appreciate it. And to talk about Bridgerton season three, they're back. So, john, I wanted to start with you. I know a lot has been made about the women and their fashion, but I want to first start talking about the men, because they're not getting as much attention. They're wearing lace, they're wearing ruffles, velvets, brocades. That's not something that we're seeing in today's world, especially with people working from home and wearing sweatpants. So tell me about putting the look together for the Bridgerton men. 

18:49 - Speaker 7 (Host)
And what did you want to do differently for season three, especially when it's featuring Colin as the love interest? Well, with Colin, we all know season one and two. He wore lots of pastel colors and looked very Regency. He was still a boy, but he's been away now for a year, six months. He's traveled, he's been on a ship, he's seen the world, he's been in dirt and sand. So when he comes back, we wanted him to be a leading man and not a leading man like Cary Grant in a nice gray suit. We wanted him to be the Marlboro man like the fantasy. I guess I'm not a woman, but you know of what women like. You know a guy on a horse, you know no frills, dark colors to make him look taller, to make him look like he's got swagger, he's got movement, he's got boots, dirt maybe smells a little bit unshaven. You know he's that guy. And he's come back into town, into a town where everyone else well, you see him getting dressed in the carriage Everyone else is still prim and proper, so that we wanted to give him that new look. 

19:51
The other men, which people Dougie Hawks, who works with me, with the men, and a lot of people will notice this season is that men are wearing brocades. They are wearing oh, this is the next season. We started this season taking away white shirts and giving them pastel shirts, taking away lace, giving them pattern jackets, pattern pants. We've even taken the bootstrap off under the pant because it doesn't look, it's annoying to the eye and as the seasons progress, the men will become not so uniform-like and they're becoming more varied in their looks. And it's based on we've done research of just it's really just current fashion. It's looking at Gucci runway and Fendi runway and how everything is being mixed up. So we are incorporating what current fashion has for men. And you are right, because we realize all the attention goes to the women and now we've got to bring that, we've got to start bringing the men up to their level. 

20:55 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I think you definitely do it, because I think I've seen some of the photo images and some of the previews and Colin does look very hot and very dapper looking. So thank you for that, john. Good, yay, good eye candy. Um. So, erica, for you, what was the challenge? Um, for this season, as far as doing the hair or the makeup, especially with penelope's look in prigitin for season three. She's definitely a woman who's like I'm on a mission, I'm gonna get married. So we all know when women are on a mission, they're changing up their looks. So what did you? 

21:29 - Speaker 8 (Host)
yeah, I mean, that's traditional. I mean I don't know how many of my girlfriends and I go like, oh my god, did you have a? Uh, did you argue with your boyfriend, or whatever? They cut their fringe or whatever it is that they've done over, pluck their eyebrows. You know it, it happens, we do do that, and I think that penelope has thought about this very strongly. 

21:48
Uh, she don't think that she can have colin, she just want to get married. She wants to get out of the clutches of her mother, she wants to have her own life and she, she goes in with all that she has and we know that, uh, she's a very intelligent woman and she now reveals that she's actually also quite sophisticated. Now that her mother doesn't choose what she's going to spend, uh, aware, um, and and then you know when her first sort of glow up doesn't go so well, I think that what she does with the looks is that she's still keeping this elegance, that she now realizes that she has and understands, but maybe takes a step back so that she's not so in your face, so that she can scan the room and figure out the next game plan, because she still needs to get married. She doesn't want to be her mother's maid and I think that you know visually, we kind of done that together. The reason why I chose it's actually based on. 

22:48 - Speaker 7 (Host)
You know you're from women in film, but you based her on women from film. 

22:53 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yes, exactly Like old Hollywood, because she's one of the few, she's a working woman and she's the only one really who is a working woman because of her secret agenda. 

23:09 - Speaker 8 (Host)
And the reason why we went down that is, first of all, it's a very strong iconic look. But when you're making a decision on where to go with the look for for a glow up, um, and the sex up, uh, you have to sort of look at her face and see what she can carry off. And this was a look who very much suited, uh, nicola, and that's the reason why we chose that. So there are a lot of reasons. You know, you've got an idea in your head, but then it has to work with this particular face or these particular features. And that's just where it ended up and I think you know she wears it very, very well. 

23:47 - Speaker 7 (Host)
And, just by chance, the silhouette of we took her out of the 1813 Empire's silhouette moved her more towards 1820. And that silhouette resembles a little more of the 1950s, which coordinates with Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe and the shape that we've given her. Just by happenstance, that's happened. 

24:08 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Right, and they are strong women, as you know, ron, like you know Lauren Bacall and Key Largo and those types of shows and those women owned. 

24:18 - Speaker 7 (Host)
I always say this you never knew what Lauren Bacall, what she was wearing or why she was wearing. She just looked beautiful and she owned. She owned the room and that's how we wanted Penelope to be. It's not anything specific, but she has the power and she owns that room. 

24:34 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I wanted to also talk about how, when you thought about season three for Bridgerton, because Cressida gets a much more prominent role in season three, she's still the mean girl, but what did you think about? You know, in changing, did you think about how to change up her look? You know whether it was the clothing or the hair and makeup, because previously Cressida was wearing those fantastical hairdos. So did you do anything different for that particular character as she plays a bigger role? 

25:03 - Speaker 8 (Host)
First of all, that woman, jess, she could pull off anything. She's basically a model, you know. So there was no limitations at all, really, with what we couldn't do with her. So what we tried to do again is to team up with John. 

25:22
If he had got like a really good shape, you know, there might be a collar or there'd be shoulders or whatever it is then we could have used that within her hairstyle shoulders or whatever it is then we kind of use that within her hairstyle and we also have got some of the hair is quite transparent and see-through, which is that thing where we realize that actually she's quite a fragile young woman and I wanted to really make sure that that sort of was visually there as well, almost like wearing her heart on her sleeve because she can't talk to anybody about this, you know. Um, so yeah, it was just, you know, again, trying to make sure that from the top to the very bottom there is no harsh lines. You know, it just feels like a visual symphony, you know, between the costume and the hair and the makeup and for us. 

26:09 - Speaker 7 (Host)
I mean, we picked a color palette, very specifically of pinks and we, as you've seen, enlarged her sleeves and the upper part of her body because we wanted to make her look like she was a butterfly trapped somewhere. You know, like you'll find out. I can't say, but you know there's reasons why she's mean and she's hiding behind the, not in a cocoon, but like a butterfly trapped in a mausoleum, basically because she's such a fragile looking person. To make things like her sleeves bigger makes her even more delicate and you'll have a lot of sympathy for her. 

26:52 - Speaker 8 (Host)
And I mean it's like an armor, isn't it it? 

26:54 - Speaker 7 (Host)
is armor. Yes, yeah, absolutely. 

26:57 - Speaker 8 (Host)
And also it's all of her peacock feathers out because she's desperate to get married. So you know she has to pull out all the stops. 

27:05 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
And flowers and feathers are a big part of the accoutrements. 

27:11 - Speaker 7 (Host)
aside from the jewelry and these accessories, and we've also her color world, eloise's color world and Penelope's color world are all in the same playing field now for a while, so that you don't know where they're traveling to. You know exactly. Within the script it gives them all an equal playing field. 

27:34 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yes, exactly so, erica, I wanted to ask you about, um, you're doing the hair and makeup and then everybody goes to set. They're there for 10 to 12 hours. How do you keep everything looking fresh? Are you there on set or is someone from your team on set? So how does that work? What's the behind the scenes? 

27:53 - Speaker 8 (Host)
every single person in my team has got, uh, up to three to four actors that they are taking care of and they're in charge of their actual continuity. Uh, because you know, we might shoot one thing one day and then three months later we pick it up when they go outside and they need to have the hair exactly the same. Therefore, it's really important that this one person takes care of these people so that they know exactly, because I don't know how many actual cars we've got, but we're in the hundred, aren't we? And then, and then we got the supporting artists, which is even more so that I couldn't do that. I had to concentrate on only the design. So when these actors go on to set, if it's a new look, I follow them to set to make sure that they look good on camera, and then I will leave them with my wonderful team and they will make sure they look flawless. And you can well. You know that they do their job very well indeed, because they do look flawless, whereas I then go back and then continue designing, because every single time you see a person on screen with a new dress, they've got a new look, and also there's a lot of new introductions with new characters. I have to fit them haircuts and all that kind of stuff, uh. 

29:07
But I mean, um, it's very much a collaboration. I would never force a look upon an actor. We have a sort of a conversation before anything happens. And then also, you know, the makeup artists and hair artists who are working with this actor might also have an input, and I think that that's what makes this so beautiful is that we collaborate with each other. Nothing is set in stone, and I think you can see that that it's a collaboration. And the other reason why it's so important that one person is taking care, let's say, the person is taking care of Cressida. The person who does her hair and the person who does her makeup knows her look DNA, which means if you saw Cressida anywhere, even though she's got loads of different, crazy hairstyles, they're always different. If you saw her in a silhouette, you knew it was Cressida immediately and that's really important that you recognize that character, even though she's something totally different. 

30:05 - Speaker 7 (Host)
But those actors are maintained all day long from the time they leave the makeup trailer to the set. And the same thing with our costumes Once they're dressed and they're approved and we say that's the look, there's someone with them all day long that's constantly making them look the same as when they left the trailer in the Even if it's raining, even if it's in the wind, you know, got silk and the rain. 

30:31 - Speaker 8 (Host)
they will still make them look like flawless. We've got rain in, like I don't know, the Queen's wig. What do you do? These people who are on set are magicians. They've got everything. They also make sure as much as possible, that people are not cold. They make sure that you know they're not being burnt under the sun, so they got sunscreen. 

30:51 - Speaker 7 (Host)
And everything on camera looks, I'm sure, to the eye looks nice and fresh and pretty, but at the end of the day it's sweaty and smelly and dirty and it's been through quite a lot, you know it's not as glamorous as it appears. 

31:06 - Speaker 8 (Host)
It's all a fantasy and a facade, and it's not just the actors that are sweaty, tired and broken. 

31:10 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yeah, john, fantastic costumes, we do feel the fantasy. And Erica, thank you so much for the beautiful hairstyles and makeup, and thank you both for talking to women in film and video in our podcast Media and Monuments. I thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, it was a pleasure. So much Thank you. 

31:31 - Speaker 8 (Host)
Have a lovely day, bye-bye. 

31:36 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Finally, in the last set of interviews you will hear from choreographer Jack Murphy. He explains why a certain couple is doing the tango even though it was not invented until the 1880s, and the music team of Chris Bauer, the composer, justin Camps, the music supervisor, and Sarah Bridges, another music supervisor. The team explains how they got their start in the business but also how they created the romantic tone for the Fantasy Period piece. I want to talk about Bridgerton in season three, because what's happening, especially with the music? You're bringing modern melodies to this proper world of the Regency world and last season you had songs like from Gianna's Diamonds. You had Madonna's Material Girl, alanis Morissette's you Ought to Know. So what were you going to do for season three? Because it is focused colin and penelope and their story. What did you conceive and saying, okay, we have a different couple. How did you outdo yourself? What were your challenges in doing that, crafting the music for this season? 

32:49 - Speaker 9 (Host)
yeah, I mean. So we're we take a look at the, the main characters and the type of story that we're telling. Uh, that's being told in the show this season and it's more of a friends to lovers theme than we have, and we're seeing like characters that we've now people have now grown up with for two seasons now, getting their chance to kind of, like, you know, come out of their shells and fall in love together and uh and so, yeah, it gives us a whole different, you know, set of themes that we're going to look at when we're thinking of the music for the season, and I can't wait for everyone to discover all the covers that are going to be in there this season. It's going to be very fun, but we had a lot of fun playing with those tropes. 

33:27 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I understand that you gave the showrunner a playlist with the best of the Vitamin String Quartet versions of pop song, so can you give us any insight as to what was on that playlist? 

33:36 - Speaker 9 (Host)
It's a pop song, so can you give us any insight as to what was on that playlist? Oh, I mean, I've said we sent a ton of Vitamin String quartet songs down. We were. You know they put out some new. They put out some new albums this year that you can look and see. You know they they put out like a bunch of Prince covers, a bunch of Taylor Swift covers. So we had a combination of all sorts of things that went over to them on that. Also stuff by people that aren't vitamin string quartet too, because there's a lot of other groups. 

34:07 - Speaker 5 (Host)
I was going to say. It's amazing how many between Justin and myself, the amount of covers we get sent. I'm always forwarding the moment to Justin and being like you are technically so, but there's a lot of yeah, we got approached by, you know, I guess, classical players or cortex that are suggesting songs for the show as well. 

34:26 - Speaker 9 (Host)
And I don't want to, I don't want to. You know, I don't want to give out any specific titles just because, you know, even if they didn't make it into this season, there's always more coming. 

34:35 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So you know, we like to keep them in play, in case in case we want to come back to something I understand in season two you played the harpsichord, which you do have a piano background. I read that you have your master's in jazz study from Juilliard. So what instrument are you playing behind the scenes or that you can tell us about and share with us for this particular season three, on Bridgerton? 

35:00 - Speaker 6 (Host)
Yeah, you know, unfortunately piano is kind of the only instrument I play, so it's only different versions of piano Piano forte for Queen Charlotte, just regular piano for this one. So yeah, but it was a lot of fun to figure out by other collaborators to bring a different sound to this season as well. 

35:21 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So, Sarah, I wanted to ask you your role in putting this all together. What can you share with us about your role for Season 3 in Bridgeton? 

35:32 - Speaker 5 (Host)
So my role since kind of through Season 1 to end of Season 3, so far I'm the on-camera supervisor, so I'm the music personcamera supervisor, so I'm music person on the ground in the uk across all the shoot dates oh, bless you. And so I collaborate a lot with justin and the showrunner and directors and producers in terms of like us looking at, like doing script breakdowns, looking at what scenes we need music for, getting song ideas across, and I'm working quite closely with cast in terms of any on-camera performances. Also, obviously, collaborating with jack and across he loves to talk to me in dance language and I don't understand it, but I'm getting better now it's like talking to me in quadrille, um, yeah, and then I also work a lot with, like art department. I'm kind of across everything that's happening through pre-production and shooting and then it is very much over to to Justin at that stage on Chris, obviously, but, um, in terms of the source, music aspects or any on-camera performances. So, and that can be from like getting you know, coaching lessons for the cast to, yeah, overseeing anything and performing on camera and hiring musicians etc. Any pre-records like in the past I've done all the opera pre-records here in the uk um, or piano anything. 

36:47
Yeah, so it's quite. It's quite varied and it's a lot of. The difference with me on this particular show is I don't see it through in post. It goes use stateside and and justin looks after all that. But actually we are working together quite a lot through the free production and production side of things and, as justin suggested, there's a lot of different songs that might be played on the day of filming but that might change in post as well. So it's kind of it's all quite an ongoing experiment and I don't always know what the final result's going to be until I sit down and watch the show when it ends. Um, in terms of the actual final music choices. Um, yeah, it's fun. 

37:24 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, it sounds like there is a lot of collaboration, especially between the music and the choreography, and that's why I wanted to ask jack um. It's kind of like the chicken and egg question, so you come up with the choreography idea and then you go to the music people, or the music people are. He says just any. Chris says okay, I, we've already decided on this, you have to go. No, I want this choreography. So therefore, how does that work? 

37:48 - Speaker 10 (Host)
there's never a no, never, ever has never been a no, which is fantastic. But we are all on the same page, no intended, but every single one of us on this screen right now. Our ideas come from the writers. So I don't start the choreography from the music, I start the choreography from a wonderful team of writers. What's been absolutely superb I've worked with Sarah from WordGo is that I'm not a pop music person and I've been able to get lots of support both from Sarah and Justin about which tracks would be suitable for this set of circumstances, for these characters right now. 

38:27
And so, after season one, Justin and Sarah send me this whole catalogue of Witterman's Dream Quartet and others Wonderful and I get them too. These composers send them to me too and I forward them on, which is fabulous. So it starts from the script. And then I get this wonderful catalog and then if I want to do something like a Polonaise and I want the stress to be a little bit more on two rather than one I go back to Justin, and Justin does his magic. It continues to do so. That's, that's our process, and it's fun. It's, you know, it's really, really cool way of working. 

39:11 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, jack, the choreography for especially for the Regency period, was for people at that time. That was the only time when they were dancing, when people were able to touch. 

39:21 - Speaker 10 (Host)
Yeah, and to get away from their chaperone, which is, you know, not just touching, is very, very high stakes, which is great, but also to speak, which is why we have so much dialogue on dancers as well. They're able to say things privately. 

39:37 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I understand there is a scene with Benedict and they're doing has a bit of a tango influence and the tango is a very sexy dance. So what was the behind the scenes discussion like when you wanted to introduce this? 

39:53 - Speaker 10 (Host)
Do you know? I love that you picked up on that because we were discussing because Regency, I would be talking reels and jigs primarily, and a waltz, although the waltzing I do in bridgeton is quite, quite modern in comparison to what they were dancing. Recently we're dancing what we call an open hold and I often use a close, close hold in in bridgeton. So it's interesting if it was a track that justin sent me, and because of the relationship between benedict and lady tilly and because it was at the inventor's ball, so it came from the script. It was the inventor's ball not had to invent, it invented. What does that mean? Was that? Why should I choose anything like this in an eventable? 

40:30
Well, for me, an invention is about creation, so it's a bit like a bit monstery, it's a little bit like frankenstein, and so I wanted something that was really kind of quivery and had lots of kind of oh, I don't want to, does this work, does this not work? I don't know the process of invention and they just sent me this wonderful tango modern piece that had a tango feel. For me, it has a tango rhythm in it, so it's a quick, quick, slow, and it was just the bowing that they were using and it was because of the quiver and it's all very sexual between them. So and of course, jess said go for it Again. You know, I said, jess, this is a tango, this is not, this is not a reel. And she said lovely, great, good, go for it. Wonderful. And that's how it came about. 

41:16 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Fantastic. No. Thank you for sharing that insight with us. People can look for that scene. I wanted to also ask the musicians. I wanted to talk about licensing for Bridgerton. Who does licensing? Are there challenges there? And, according to Jack, you're never told no and you're always told yes. So can anybody give any insight into the licensing? Because that's one of the issues for our membership is licensing and researching and making sure attributions. 

41:54 - Speaker 9 (Host)
Yeah, I handle, for all the covers and any other you know, like library pieces or classical pieces that we're clearing. I handle all the clearance and licensing for that and yeah, it's interesting, you know, it's a lot of like, you know, managing the budget that we have for each episode and I would say, luckily for us, there's a lot of excitement about being having, like your cover in Bridgerton. So we we haven't received a lot of no's, Not that we haven't gotten any no's in the past, but this season we got all yeses, so that's good. But it can be tricky, you know, and we're often dealing with these. You know really successful writers and artists and so you know, sometimes they command high fees and we have to make sure we can manage that within the budget we've been given. 

42:44 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
And I wanted to ask is that a long process, because you're saying, okay, we want to use this song, but does it take a while, or do you usually get a quick turnaround? 

42:54 - Speaker 9 (Host)
It can vary. It kind of varies depending on the rights holders. You know, some people are quick to respond, Other people it might take a couple of weeks or something. It's not usually a drawn out process where it's over like a month or something, but it can honestly depend on each individual song. 

43:19 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So how many hours is that when you're working on putting this music together? Because there's an expectation that people have with Bridgerton and the fantasy and escape and the music plays such a big part of that. So how long is you know? Can you give it like when you were doing the first scene for season three? Or you know the first episode? How long does that take and how long are you working? Or you know the first episode how long? 

43:39 - Speaker 9 (Host)
does that take and how long are you working? Oh boy, I think I think for me, like, my first emails on this season are all the way back in 2022. So, if you're, if you're going to go, if you're, if you're going to go, yeah, I don't know how many hours, but you know there's also been several delays this season due to strikes and stuff, so things have been stretched out more than usual. But I don't know if there's a specific set of hours, but you know we're, we're working. We're working while it's in production, we're working almost every day, probably on stuff, working ahead from things in the scripts, and then once we get into post, you know um, that's. You know, can. It's maybe not working every day, but we're, we're working, you know, constantly to get things clear and or pitch new options may I answer that question? 

44:23 - Speaker 10 (Host)
yes, absolutely, I know not music, but it's interesting, you say, because I think people would be absolutely staggered to hear this. So, any ball that takes place, my team are the dancers, the, the extraordinary dancers of Bridgerton for the last three seasons and, of course, queen Charlotte. If we film a ball on a Sunday, they've learned the dances on the Friday and the Saturday and they film them on the Sunday live Fantastic, you know fantastic. And the actors on average have three session, three, three hour sessions to learn their dances. So and the only reason for that is it's not bridgerton being mean or anything, they're filming or they're having horse riding lessons or they're learning to play the harpsichord with chris bowers. 

45:15 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So so you're learning from someone wonderful. 

45:20 - Speaker 10 (Host)
I just, you know, time For me. I'm on it all the way through. But for the actors, it's really time pressed. And for the dancers, who are just, they're just magic. They really are beautiful artists. They learn the dances of the balls two days before. 

45:38 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's a quick turnaround and that's a lot of learning to do immediately. I wanted to know if you could also talk about so when you are on set you're bringing in so many musicians, what is that like? And are the musicians you're putting music in later? But there has to be, it has to look realistic. It has to look like oh, the musicians are going at the same time in all these dances. Anybody Sarah or Chris or Justin if you could speak to, how is that on set with the musicians? 

46:11 - Speaker 5 (Host)
That kind of falls to me most of the time. So yeah, we actually work with the NSO. I was like I've had it since we started filming season three. I've had a baby and he's 13 months already. So that's how long I've been working. It's funny how long it's been. As I said, there's been some delays and there's been like rifle strikes and stuff. It's obviously they just take a bit longer and I was like where's that orchestra called that I work with every season on Bridgerton my brain isn't working, but they're called the National Symphony Orchestra At the end of the show. 

46:45
We worked a lot with the new players from there and most of the time they're miming because the music's going to be changed in post. Sometimes they play a bit. If there's close-ups and stuff, we obviously get them to play the instrument fully. And then there's other things that it depends. We've done like live recordings of trumpets and like various other kind of when there's smaller ensembles, but a lot of the the bigger ball scenes tend to be um miming on camera and then they're more intricate, kind of obviously the piano pieces. 

47:13
Like Francesca she wanted to, I think you'll find most cast always want to have a good go at learning the piece and being able to play it themselves. 

47:20
So there's been quite a lot of coaching sessions, and particularly early on with Phoebe, for example. She was like I'm going to learn to play the piano and had never played the piano in her life at that point and was, you know, by the end, doing pretty well at it, and whether we'd like to select pieces of sections of the music. Where she would, the camera would be literally on her hands and that we would do that, but they would be performing live. So, yeah, so there was kind of, yeah, a bit of a mix of everything really, to be honest. But, yeah, luckily able to stop into the guy called justin who runs the nsl, and they just love being part of it and it's also obviously great for an old player to, you know, have quiet periods as well and just keep them busy. Just a lot of on-camera performance and the balls can run across, like you know, two to four days I wanted to circle back on the choreography and ask you a question, jack. 

48:10 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So you're training and teaching uh the actors to do the dance, but once they're in costume, you know, is there any changes uh that come about because they are in? Uh now they're period costumes and women are wearing long gloves and they start pulling on them. What and any changes that came about once they were in the costumes? 

48:32 - Speaker 10 (Host)
because I've worked with doggies since day one. Who's the associate costume designer? We've always had, uh, prototypes of dresses that now have trains, so that we actually don't have those problems on set. So that is all addressed because, you know, on set time is money and if I haven't already addressed that, it's my responsibility as the movement director, and the character as well, to raise. And shoes come to rehearsals and practice dresses come to rehearsals, and gloves if need be. And also we speak about the time that the uh she was, the necklace was undressed and blamed the class. So all of that is dealt with almost like it's a theatrical rehearsal for theater. It would be very remiss to leave that to to day. But it isn't just as a costume, because in my world, the world of theatre, we don't say they wear costumes, we say they wear clothes, because that society spent a lot of money on buying those clothes for a reason. 

49:30 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Chris, I wanted to ask you one final question. 

49:55 - Speaker 6 (Host)
So when you look back on season three can, but also just the way that we approach it tonally has a lot more lightness and fun. Maybe that's a bit of what Justin said in terms of this being much more about friends that fall in love, but it has the stakes. I think feel high when we're talking about Penelope's identity and all of those things, but as far as like their relationship, I feel like it's um a much more fun approach to the score well. 

50:22 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Thank you, jack, justin, chris and sarah. So much for speaking to me, sandra, abrams and women in film and video. I appreciate it very much and congratulations on season three. Thank you so much, John Thank you To watch season three of Bridgerton, go to wwwnetflixcom. Wwwnetflixcom. Forward slash Bridgerton. 

50:50 - VO (Host)
Thank you for listening to Media and Monuments, a service of women in film and video. Please remember to review, rate and subscribe wherever you listen to this podcast. For more information about WIF, please visit our website at w-i-f-as-in-frank-v-as-in-victororg. Media and Monuments is produced by Sandra Abrams, candice Block, brandon Ferry and Tara Jabari, and edited by Emma Klein and Juliana Yellen, with audio production and mix by Steve Lack Audio. For more information about our podcast, visit mediaandmonumentscom.