🎧 Altman, Ethan & Tulsa: Inside the Making of ‘The Lowdown’Production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly and cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard explain their influences for the new FX series
Art & Crafts is our podcast series that goes behind the scenes with the artisans who create the film and TV we love. This conversation is sponsored by FX. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
As the final season of FX’s Emmy Award-nominated comedy series Reservation Dogs was winding down, the show’s co-creator Sterlin Harjo invited his crew to watch Robert Altman’s 1973 detective story The Long Goodbye at Circle Cinema Theater in Tulsa, Okla. Though the screening wasn’t explicitly the launch of Harjo’s Reservation Dogs follow-up, the FX series The Lowdown, which just wrapped its first season earlier this month, production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly knew the selection held some significance. “It was more of an idea and a tone that he was exploring, and he wanted to invite people into that world to start the conversation,” Tonner-Connolly tells Ankler Media deputy editor Christopher Rosen on the latest episode of the Art & Crafts podcast. Based on Raymond Chandler’s novel of the same name, The Long Goodbye is synonymous with the 1970s New Hollywood noir style, something also present in 1974’s Chinatown and 1975’s Night Moves — and it’s easy to see the influence of all three on The Lowdown from the opening frames of the pilot episode. Inspired by the life of Tulsa historian Lee Roy Chapman, The Lowdown is a modern-day detective yarn about an investigative journalist named Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) who finds himself embroiled in a vast conspiracy that involves rare books, white supremacists, political operators and a real estate development group that traffics in stolen land. “It’s my favorite stuff,” cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard says of the 1970s influences on The Lowdown. “I feel like I’ve been lucky enough to have several jobs over the year that have fallen into my lap where we want to do ’70s Altman, so to get to do it here is just so much fun. I love the vibe. I love the kind of simplicity, honesty and wacko humanism of the whole thing. Every director of photography I know loves doing it.”  Filmed in Tulsa, the eight-episode first season of The Lowdown reunites several members of the Reservation Dogs team — including Hawke, who appeared as a guest star on the final season. (“I never saw him in a role quite like this, you know?” Schwartzbard says of the star. “He’s so versatile, but I don’t think he’s done a big comedy role like this.”) For Tonner-Connolly and Schwartzbard, who shot multiple episodes of season 1 after Adam Stone (The Bikeriders, Take Shelter) served as director of photography on the pilot, shared history was vital in turning The Lowdown into a success. “We have a creative shorthand, and also just an understanding about what’s important to each of us and what’s important to Sterlin,” Tonner-Connolly says. “It’s nice to be able to have a mutual understanding and just to really enjoy the collaboration.” But it was also their time spent in Tulsa while in production on Reservation Dogs that enhanced the new show’s authenticity. “Having spent three years there, I really observed the climate — during the summer, it’s extremely hot, and there’s a lot of direct sunlight throughout much of the year. During the winter, it’s extremely cold there; they definitely get seasons,” Tonner-Connolly says. “So we wanted to show the wear and tear and the colors on the buildings and sets. We wanted to showcase everything being worn in a realistic and grounded way. That helped us figure out the colors of it but also the combination of wanting to reference those New Hollywood movies subtly, and then make it specific and unique to Tulsa, to make it its own thing and its own world.”
Of all the lived-in spaces on the show, however, few could compete with Hoot Owl Books, the rare bookstore owned by Lee (who keeps a small, messy apartment in the space above the shop). Tonner-Connolly refashioned an entire city block of derelict buildings in downtown Tulsa to stand in for the main strip depicted in The Lowdown, and from there, he found literally thousands of rare books to stock on the shelves of Hoot Owl. “The books all made sense,” Schwartzbard says of the production designer’s effort. “A lot of designers just buy books by the foot, because it’s just for a wide shot of books. But here, it all bore up to incredible scrutiny.” “I think that everybody in the art department and the set decorator department is pretty tired of me saying to keep it specific. That was my catchphrase,” Tonner-Connolly says. “But we want the director, the actors, Mark — anybody to be able to walk down the aisles, pull out any book and say, ‘Oh, you know, this is great. This belongs here, and I can see why Lee, the character, would have this here.’” However, as Tonner-Connolly discovered, the authenticity he created had some unintended consequences. “I think it worked, because I saw Sterlin and Ethan more than once take up a book and look at it, and then either put it in their bag or just sneak out the door with it at the end of the day. I had to say, ‘Keep it on the shelf.’” Adds Schwartzbard, “The whole crew appreciates the lending library you built.” All episodes of The Lowdown season 1 are streaming now on Hulu.
Got a tip or story pitch? Email tips@theankler.com ICYMI from The AnklerThe Wakeup PAR’s Running Man trips as LGF’s magic pulls out win Adult Animation Boom: Inside TV’s Hot Sellers’ Market, Studio by Studio Netflix, HBO Max, Fox & Hulu, Amazon: The industry is bullish on toons, even with the AI elephant in room. Here’s who’s spending — and what they want TV in 3 Acts: Mad Men Returns, Poker Face Folds, More Paramount Carnage Lesley Goldberg’s new weekly wrap on the small-screen headlines worth your time The Fence That Broke Brentwood: A Country Club’s Barbed Wire Ignites War The prison-like partition mysteriously sprung up along scenic San Vicente Blvd. without warning. Says one homeowner to Nicole LaPorte: ‘It’s like I live next to Sing Sing!’ A Fascinating (and Unsettling) Conversation with Tilly Norwood’s Creator In an interview with Janice Min, Eline Van der Velden reveals new footage, responds to outrage and says her AI actress will be able to think all on her own next year Is Disney Only for Rich People Now? With affordability America’s top worry, the studio’s push toward big spenders could alienate the next generation of fans, Entertainment Strategy Guy warns Indie Box Office Bloodbath: Awards Season Is Driving Films Off a Cliff Everyone is caught in the 2,000-screen trap, writes Richard Rushfield. Plus: Congress demands answers on Paramount & Trump Ghosts in the Balcony: A Cross-Country Trip to 58 Theaters Fighting to Survive Introducing Crowd Pleaser, The Ankler’s new newsletter in partnership with Letterboxd: In the worst October for moviegoing since the ’90s, Matthew Frank crossed 20 states to hear the primal screen from people keeping film alive — even when Hollywood won’t $100 Million Hate-Watch: Inside Hulu’s All’s Fair Trainwreck — and How It Turned Around Lesley has scoop on the budget, cast paydays and behind-the-scenes drama from Kim Kardashian’s critically-savaged series that’s gone ‘zero to hero’ Film Crowdfunding 2.0: An Indie Studio Got 60,000 Fans to Invest $25 Million. How? Ashley Cullins reports on how players like Legion M, Bleecker Street and Eli Roth’s Horror Section are turning to ‘fan-vestors’ to finance films and activate audiences The Death of Dramatic Films: Hollywood Fades into Emotional Flatline Richard asks: Are we really okay with just white men making action comedies? Governors Awards: My Night Inside Hollywood’s Starry Power Room Tom Cruise got an Oscar, the One Battle cast rolled deep and Timothée Chalamet was MIA (again!). Katey Rich reports on the awards event of the season so far June Squibb, 96, Is Having the Career Surge of a Lifetime The Oscar nominee is back on the circuit, headed to Broadway — and still waiting for her Western 🎬 Richard & Sean: Avatar vs. Wicked Showdown Coming — And Why Running Man Stumbled Breaking down Glen Powell’s disappointing opening 🎬 Mike De Luca & Pam Abdy on Making Box Office History in the Face of ‘Surreal’ Criticism The Warner Bros. bosses are wrapping the greatest year of hits in Hollywood and explain to Richard how they did it: ‘I refuse to believe we are in the end times’ 🎧 AI Warning Signs — How Hollywood Invited the Enemy Inside Tilly Norwood is the headline. The real story is the jobs collapse already underway 🎧 Gus Van Sant: ‘You Have To Be Obsessed’ The Oscar-nominated director of Good Will Hunting and Milk is back with Dead Man’s Wire, his first film in almost a decade More from Ankler Media
New from Natalie Jarvey’s creator economy newsletter: Exclusive: What 188 Influencer Marketing Deals Signal About 2026’s Coming M&A Wave ‘IMDb for Creators’: How Famous Birthdays Took Over Gen Z — and Became Agents’ Scouting Tool
Andy Lewis’ latest IP picks: A Groundhog Day Meets Only Murders Whodunit, a Hitchcockian Thriller A Descent into LA’s Dark Underbelly & A Southern Gothic Mystery
|
