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I was really pushing myself in terms of the color grade.
We were asking, How far can you push an image before it breaks?
Can you give me an example?The section of episode four where Korey Wise is in solitary.
Its barely noticeable to some eyes, but on other screens, you could really see it.
This is a consideration filmmakers have to really pay attention to now.
How do you feel about that?Its not a drag to me.
It doesnt look like you did a lot of obvious lighting with a capitalL.Well, it was very lit!
We just lit so that it doesnt look like itslit, you know?
But we tried to do it so that you werent thinking about how it was lit.
It was built for lighting a lot of people.
Theres [artificial] light beyond the windows thats being pushed in so that itfeelslike natural light.
When you were restaging some of the videotaped confessions, you matched them closely tothe archival video.
That footage isinfamous, particularly in the black community and the justice community.
It just felt like the right thing to do.
Also I was fascinated by those frames.
Think about the environment being soordinary.
The flyers in the background for D.A.R.E, the stuff telling you Dont drink and drive.
And meanwhile, this injustice is happening.
We know the image has been used as a tool for bias since the birth of the image.
But thats not what happened.No, it isnt.
Every time a filmmaker of color makes a film, it is a rescue effort.
I noticed that you keep the camera far back a lot in this series.
You dont go in close unless you really, really feel like you’re gonna wanna.
Why is that?It becomes melodramatic.
You dont want to use the close-up all the time, because it loses its power.
We go close up on Kevin Richardsons face in episode one, when hes telling the lie.
Im like, Yup, Im super-sure.
And they never did.
How do you express that moment?
I remember saying that had to pop out, but I dont know if it was super-conscious.
Like,Im going to need this [close-up] as a big weapon, so lets save it.
We looked at a lot of Vivian Maier.
I watchedBattle of Algiersa lot because I wanted that very naturalistic, Is this real?
But I cant say we did a lot of conscious borrowing.
I know were constructing a cinematic image.
I have questions about a couple of the music choices.
The first is the use of Fight the Power.That was a debated one.
The year 1989 is right there in the lyrics, so theres a practical reason for using it.
But its also, of course, the theme toDo the Right Thing.
Out of all the songs you could have chosen, you chose that.
Why?Well, that song is formative for me personally.
It was a big, big song for me.
That was the summer of me going into my senior year.
It also gives you an immediate sense of place.
If you loved hip-hop, you loved that song.
If you were around during that time, you know that song was going to put you right there.
There was no heavy lifting that needed to be done.
And the lyrics also fit so beautifully into the fight thats ahead.
Its a tribute but also a testament to the power of that work.
The other one I want to ask about is Moon River.
Unless Im missing one, you use it twice, right?
But its notthe Audrey Hepburn versionfromBreakfast at Tiffanys.
Why that song, and why that version?Youre the first person to ask me about it.
Thats why I get the medium bucks.That song has always been a heartbreaker for me.
Theres a mournful quality.
Theres a longing in the song.
It is like an elegy.
It speaks to a desire for something more that most people will never get.
Its all the things that are just out of reach.
And so that song applied to the black image is something Ive always wanted to do.
It came from a story I heard from Korey Wise.
People do all kinds of things in prison, and he told me about a guy who would sing.
It always stuck with me.
The artist at the end is Frank Ocean.
Who gets to sing that song?
Who can really hear that song, and who cant and why?
Im proud of those moments.
You have two sets of actors for each of the main boys, except forJharrel Jerome.
Why did you have him play both incarnations of Korey?Because he has the physicality to do both.
A lot of the boys that we cast, they would not be able to pass as men.
The men that we cast, none of them could play boys cause they look like full-grown men.
It was only Jharrel who was able to do both.
The structure of this entire story is fascinating to me.
Then you concentrate on just Korey.
How did that come about?It really came from Korey Wise.
Were four plus one.
He was adamant and assertive about that, that they did not all experience the same thing.
Id never gone deep inside of the prison and dealt with the whole trajectory of criminalization.
The sweeping nature of the case is that it touches almost every aspect of the criminal-justice system.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
