Interview: Director Laura Belsey talks The Walking Dead ‘The Calm Before’
Undead Walking had a chance to talk with director Laura Belsey about bringing The Walking Dead “The Calm Before” to life, and filming that scene.
The penultimate episode of The Walking Dead season 9 more closely resembled a season finale, and the extended run time gave it an almost cinematic feel. While every episode of the show is different (perhaps more so in season 9 than in previous seasons) “The Calm Before” was a massive undertaking and it was director Laura Belsey who brought the episode to life.
You’ve likely seen Belsey’s work before. This prolific and talented director has helmed such popular shows as The Flash, Arrow, New Amsterdam, Instinct and even AMC’s Preacher, among other things. The Walking Dead can be daunting under the best of circumstances but “The Calm Before” featured an extended run time and lots of ground to cover.
As it happens, Belsey was the perfect fit for the job.
(Sarabeth Pollock) The scope of this episode is huge. What are the challenges when you’re filming something that’s not only an extended episode with a longer run time but something that has so much story to get through?
(Laura Belsey) As a director I couldn’t be happier. It’s a dream come true. I love big. I like epic and I like emotional so it’s everything I love. It was pretty amazing.
The way you brought it all together was almost theatrical. There’s a first act, second act and third act.
It was very defined. First of all, the crew there is amazing. They’re unbelievable, and they’re the reason we could do this episode in the amount of time we had. Every single scene, every single shot was planned and walked through before we shot the whole thing.
The beauty of this episode is that even if there were no words in this script, the story could tell itself by the visuals alone. Was that something that you were looking to do?
Very much so. For me, it was very much about telling the story in pictures. You’re at the fair, and there’s a celebration but then there’s the pike scene. It was all very much inspired by the comics. I read the comics. The official style of the comics is extraordinary and was essentially the inspiration. Robert [Kirkman] explained that some of the shots we were doing were lifted directly from the comics. I was very much inspired by the comics.