Behind The Irishman Netflix

The Irishman is based on the book about the life of hitman and union official Frank Sheeran. Hear Frank’s story from the man he chose to tell it: Charlie Brandt, author of “I Heard You Paint Houses.” Plus, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese discuss how they discovered the story themselves and what drove them to bring it to the big screen.

The cast and crew recount the decade-long process of adapting of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran’s story from best-selling book to big budget film. While Robert De Niro secures funding and Martin Scorsese assembles his cast—even luring Joe Pesci out of retirement—Industrial Light and Magic’s Pablo Helman turns back the clock with a technological proof-of-concept.

The Irishman’s epic scope required unprecedented coordination between every department. Hear about the trials, techniques and triumphs in costuming, production design, visual effects and location scouting—from the award-winning artisans and long-time Scorsese collaborators that made it possible to tell an intimate story spanning five decades.

Rodrigo Prieto is the Oscar-nominated cinematographer behind films such as “25th Hour,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “Argo.” In recent years he has worked with filmmaker Martin Scorsese on projects like “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Silence.” This year they have “The Irishman,” which, on a technical level, was an absolute beast to tackle. On this episode of “The Call Sheet” you’ll learn about the R&D that went into developing a proprietary camera rig to allow visual effects artists to “de-age” the film’s stars to play through a series of decades. Prieto also discusses his game plan for visually representing the three distinct time periods of this mammoth 3-and-a-half hour opus.

Visual storytelling in cinema stretches to every department, including costumes. What characters wear says as much about them as any other element, and telling the story through clothing is as vital as telling it through photography, production design, sound design and all other aspects of the trade.
 
Costume designer Sandy Powell is a legend in this regard. She’s racked up 14 Oscar nominations and three wins throughout her 30-plus-year career for films like "Shakespeare in Love," "Hugo" and "The Favourite." Halfway through his own career, Christopher Peterson began collaborating with Powell as an assistant on projects like “The Departed,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Carol.” The two took up the reins together on Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” a decades-spanning epic about the life and times of Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa.
 
On this episode of “The Call Sheet,” Powell and Peterson discuss working with limited historical details, dig in on the particulars of specific outfits in the film and much, much more.

Thelma Schoonmaker is the legendary, now eight-time Oscar-nominated, three-time Oscar-winning editor of pretty much all of director Martin Scorsese’s portfolio. She’s as integral to the success of his films as the maestro himself. Their latest work together is “The Irishman,” the Netflix original film that recently racked up 10 Oscar nominations, Schoonmaker’s work among them. At three-and-a-half hours, the film is a contemporary American epic, and yet it moves like lightning. Each sequence propels the vast narrative forward. 
On this episode of “The Call Sheet,” Schoonmaker details the work that went into assembling the film, discusses Robert De Niro’s brilliant performance (after having observed his trajectory from the editing suite for decades) and much more. Also, in a bonus interview, sound mixer Tom Fleischman and sound editor Eugene Gearty explain how the power of the film lies in its subtlety and quiet moments.