Netflix: How was a terrifying scene from the new series #1 filmed on the platform?

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 also managed to take the top spot on Netflix’s most-watched series, previously held by Season 2 of Squid Game.

This western mini-series, directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and written by Mark L. Smith, screenwriter of The Revenant. Diving into the American West shatters all the clichés we have about the Wild West. All is darkness and extreme violence, from the first episode, which sees a convoy of wagons brutally attacked.

During this shocking sequence and among the many killings depicted on screen, many Internet users took note of Dane DeHaan’s scalping of the character. Rarely, if ever, has this type of injury been portrayed with such realism in a TV series.

The make-up of the series was entrusted to the cinema legend

to our colleagues The Hollywood ReporterThe American actress reveals that she was inundated with messages about the sequence. “For the past week, people have been texting me with videos and pictures of me being scalped. I have to say we’re very proud of the footage, but we have to stop there (laughs). It’s starting to bother me.”

This series was directed by make-up and special effects legend Howard Berger. In order to be as realistic as possible, the latter extensively documented this bloody practice and the medical treatment of scalps during the years in which the series takes place.

“That scene is so intense. I’ve never seen a fight scene in a Western look like this.” Dane DeHaan told our colleagues. “I can’t believe how they were able to do that and what they did was done almost entirely without digital special effects.”

The episodes were not shot chronologically

Before the shoot, Howard Berger and his teams from KNB EFX studio made some suggestions. The idea that was finally chosen was to make a silicone mold of Dane DeHaan’s skull, which would then go through several intensive make-up steps.

A real trust was established between the two men, who had already collaborated on Oppenheimer before (in scenes where Dane DeHaan’s character appears older). The filming of the series did not take place chronologically, and the first scene in which the actress appears with makeup takes place in the last episode. Therefore, the series where the latter is scalped was filmed later.

“The starting point is the scene where he’s being scalped, and then there are different stages where his condition is deteriorating and his flesh is falling apart. We went with a combination of prosthetics and contact lenses. I wanted his eyes to look bloodshot.” Howard Berger commented.

Shooting under high pressure

Initially, the scalp scene relied on a combination of makeup and digital special effects. Using fake blood would have affected the pace of the shoot and required costume changes and cleaning of shots between each take. Make-up artists Jamie Kelman and Dane DeHaan campaigned to film the scene entirely with practical special effects.

On the day of filming, director Peter Berg considered two tests to be unsuccessful. That’s when Howard Berger offered to shoot fake blood injected from a tube and two coats of makeup for the character’s bloody skull and hair, respectively. Filming delays meant that the team was only able to shoot a scene once using this traditional method.

With 41 years of experience, Howard Berger says he’s never felt so much pressure before shooting a scene. Fortunately, the first take was correct and the result was so good that the team then replayed the sequence.

The Western mini-series on American Dawn is now available exclusively on Netflix.

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