“Everyone had each other’s backs” — An interview with Adolescence director Philip Barantini

Hard-hitting and technically audacious, Adolescence is an international success story that demonstrates the agenda-setting power of TV drama.

Just a few days before the Prime Minister backed a plan to make Adolescence available to stream in UK Secondary Schools, we spoke to Philip Barantini about the rigorous preparation, the sensitivity, and the creative leadership that he brought to the show as director — and how that resulted in a drama that has broken records and started conversations everywhere from the front room to the classroom. 

Prep time is essential for directors – and the technical demands of Adolescence put extra pressure on rehearsals, too. You had two weeks of rehearsal and one week to shoot per episode. Did you have to negotiate for that rehearsal time, or was it baked in from the beginning?

Two weeks rehearsal and one week’s shoot was always the thing, right from the start. But prior to rehearsals, we had about six months of prep. During that prep we had to find the locations very quickly. On a conventional shoot you can look for your preferred locations within a certain mile radius, but this was different. Everything had to be timed. For example: once we found the studio, which was where we built the police station and secure training centre from episodes one and three, we then needed to find a house that was no more than three minutes away from there. 

All of that needed to be planned well in advance, so that myself, my cinematographer Matt Lewis and my 1st AD Sarah Lucas, were able to really meticulously choreograph the camera moves and place the actors where we think they should be. Then, obviously, you have to plot out where the rest of the crew are going to be, they can’t just be off in a room somewhere – and who’s following the vehicle, etc.? It was all one moving organism that we needed to prep.

When it came to the rehearsals themselves, the first week was just for myself and cast. It was essential to rehearse on location. The actors need to feel and see exactly where they have to move. If they need to squeeze past somewhere, or when they’re going upstairs, do they hug the right side of the stairs, or the left? We went through that beat by beat, made sure everyone was happy, and built that up in layers.

The second week was tech, where we did the same thing but with every single member of the team now on set. We’d then do a “stop-start” rehearsal, just making sure everyone was happy with how they were set for individual beats – and we’d only run the whole thing through in a dress rehearsal on the last day of tech week.

Throughout rehearsals, I’m walking around with a handheld monitor, so that I can shout things to the actors, or shout things to Matt, or the sound team. That way I know where everybody needs to be, so I’m orchestrating the whole thing. But it was also important for me to be able to watch from video village – to take myself away from set and try to see it as a viewer, although of course I never quite managed that. 

And how was your shooting week scheduled?

We shot twice a day. We’d do ten o’clock, turn over, shoot for an hour or however long the episode was, then cut. I’d then go and review footage with Matt and the producers, and everyone else would take around four hours to rest – which is also when I would go round the unit base and deliver notes to the actors, because I’m constantly making notes as I go along. Then we’d come back after lunch and do it again, with all of those notes applied. And we would do that for five days, ten takes in total.

And was that a hard ten takes every time? You didn’t squeeze another in, or stop if you had it in the bag?

It was. We knew we couldn’t do any more than two takes a day because it’s exhausting, and you’re not going to get the best out of people, cast and crew. But we knew we had contingencies. If we didn’t get it in that week, then we could spill into the next week — but we never did, because as we’re going along, we’re banking takes. So, when we’re shooting, we’re like, ‘Okay, that was a great take today, let’s put it in the bank. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.’ And then tomorrow comes and you go, ‘Right, take that one out because that one’s better.’

So, by the end of the week, we would probably have two, sometimes three takes that we were really happy with, and then we would go back and review them properly again, pick out things that we liked best and identify any issues we’d have to deal with. Because it’s one continuous take, you haven’t got the luxury of going, ‘Let’s cut this bit here and cut that bit there.’ You’ve just got to be like, ‘Right, I’m going to have to deal with this, because that bit is better – and that’s the most important bit.’ And obviously, sometimes we agreed, sometimes we disagreed, and that was a part of the process.

With the slates, we did do more than ten takes sometimes, because we had to stop the take mid-way through or ten minutes in. That obviously then goes onto the next slate – but I think the most we did was 16 takes in a week. But they weren’t full takes. It was ten full takes and then six that we stopped, basically. 

As director, you’re the creative lead on set. When the stakes are so high with each take, how did you set a tone that made sure everyone could do their best work?

Generally I’m quite a calm person on the surface, and I think it’s really important as a director to have that persona, because if I’m freaking out or I’m nervous, it’s going to make everyone else nervous. And then you don’t get the best out of people, and you certainly don’t get the best product at the end of it.

But also, it’s about putting my trust in the team and giving them the power to have a voice, and be able to voice their opinions or speak up. It’s about creating a family that is supportive of each other. The actors are going to be nervous because they’re on camera, and if they mess up, then the pressure’s on for them. But also, the pressure’s on for everyone. No one wants to be the person to stop a take, but what I made sure I said was, ‘If we do have to stop a take, it’s fine. Let’s not get too worried about these things, because we will get it.’ We would have a meeting at the beginning of each day, where Stephen (Graham) would give these amazing talks, and I would give a talk to the whole cast and crew, we would rile everyone up, and then we’d go down to set and be like, ‘Right, we’re doing this.’ I think everyone had each other’s backs, and that is so important.

For me, I’m not the type of director who comes on and plays the dictator. I’m not someone who goes, ‘Right, this is the way we have to do it. This is my way or no way.’ I’m somebody who hopefully employs the best people at their job, people who are super passionate, and are going to really want to make something, and be as enthusiastic and as excited as I am to make it.

Yes, there were times when it was stressful, I’m not going to lie. But I also had Jo Johnson, the Series Producer, who’s just the most wonderful human being. She was my rock. She was by my side the whole time, through everything, through thick and thin, and she’s also someone who’s just incredibly calm. We both felt very Zen about the whole thing: ‘We’re doing something really different here and there’s no right or wrong way of doing it, let’s just crack on.’ 

You started as an actor. I was interested in whether you draw upon that in your own directing, and particularly when directing the amazing debut performance from Owen Cooper. As a director, what did you feel your responsibility was to him and the cast?

My responsibility ultimately is to protect him, to make him feel like he’s welcome, and also make him feel like he’s heard. He was 14 at the time when we shot it, and he’s not Jamie by any stretch, he’s just not that person. So, there were moments in that third episode, during that the first week of rehearsals — or maybe even the first day to be honest with you — where I really wanted him to be a bit nasty and a bit horrible to Erin (Doherty) in the scene. He was holding back, but I was giving him little notes, and whispering in his ear about trying this thing or that thing. Then he really went for it. And I think he scared himself, because he’s just never been that aggressive or horrible to anybody. I made sure he was able to take a breath, and we stepped outside and talked through it for a bit.

Every actor has their process. Owen is someone who just really feels it, and he listens. It was just amazing. From that moment on it was like, ‘I know we’re going to get absolute gold out of this kid.’ I think he’s just someone who’s very instinctive, and I said to him, ‘Look, I don’t have all the answers. We’re here together. I might try something with you, but if you don’t think it’s going to work or you don’t feel it, please tell me and let’s come up with something together. This is a partnership. We’re in this together, and it always has to be a partnership.’ 

I’m not someone who can come in and go, ‘This is how you act,’ you know what I mean? I can just push you and nudge you this way. I’m someone who just gives tiny, subtle notes, because I don’t like bombarding actors with too much information. I always like to give notes to the opposite actor, as long as I know that the actors are listening to each other. As soon as they lock in and start listening, then it’s really exciting for me to work with that.

What does the edit look like on a one-shot series? What was your part in it as a director?

You’re editing as you go along, because the take is the take. You might have to live with some things you’re not too happy with. I’m a bit of a perfectionist anyway, so there’d be moments where I’d be like, ‘I am not happy with that bit,’ or, ‘That camera move there wasn’t quite what we’d planned.’ But you’ve got to remember, the audience has no idea what’s supposed to be coming next.

Still, you can’t just take the SD card out of the camera and give it to Netflix, you know what I mean? We had an Assembly Editor, Jasmin John, and after each take, the SD card would go to her and she would put it in the system for us, and then we would go and watch it back at the end of each night. Then the ones that we wanted, she would bank them. Sometimes, I’d like to go in there and play with some sound stuff, or some temp music. For example, the bit when Jamie is getting arrested and he’s put in the van, I wanted to add this piece of music that I had an idea for. I wanted to try it and then let the composers go away and do their own thing. We would do all that while we were still shooting or in rehearsals. She was always on site, in the studio.

That was really helpful for Netflix, too, so that when they watched something they were able to see it with a bit of sound design. Because while we couldn’t edit the image, we could certainly manipulate certain moments with sound. For example, with the drone shot, I had another piece of music that I wanted to try as a temp thing — which was a school choir, but a different song that I found online. I would just say, ‘I want to try this, so when I come in at lunch time can I have a look at this?’ And she would have set it all up for me. Then, once we’d finished, we went into post. 

How did you decide which takes were going to be the ones you were putting out to viewers?

That was up to myself, Stephen, Hannah Walters, Mark Herbert, Emily Feller, all the team at Warp, Plan B, all of us. Everyone’s watching the takes every day, whether that’s on set or the likes of Plan B who are in LA, and would get sent a take around an hour after we shot it. We were all pretty much on the same page, although obviously not all the time, and the decisions came down to just the little things: what we could fix with sound or in the grade, whether we could get rid of shadows or camera reflections in post – things like that.

On a recent episode of the Filmmakers Podcast, yourself and Jack Thorne were asked about the state of UK drama, and Jack was quite outspoken about the fact that he thinks it’s in crisis. Do you think it needs supporting, and what changes would you like to see to help do that?

I think it does need supporting. There’s a huge demand for content out there, and we all need to be entertained, but within that I think there’s definitely a space for work that’s relatable and speaks to the deeper meaning of things: Mr Bates vs The Post Office is one example that got people talking, and Adolescence is definitely another. 

What I hope is that commissioners take more of a risk. The commissioners we had on Adolescence, I’ve never experienced anything like it. Normally you’d come in with a project like this and expect to be bombarded with questions. Obviously, they wanted to know how we were actually going to do it, but they were supportive, never had any doubt, and had an attitude of ‘yes, go and do it’. There needs to be more of that, in my opinion.

Photos: Netflix.