Wakefield: behind the scenes

Director of Photography Martin McGrath discusses the methods he used in order to visually portray mental illness in the new dramatic series Wakefield.

Martin McGrath has been working in the film and television industry for decades and the new dramatic series Wakefield, which mixes drama, fantasy and comedy genres, gave him the opportunity to experiment and draw upon his experience in order to convey mental illness.

One such example was to use projection and project pre-recorded images onto the characters.

“We were trying to show disassociation and states of anxiety, in this case, a woman who has had a child and feels that she can’t quite cope with the responsibility… It seemed to work really well.”

McGrath also discusses the decision to use more blue colours during the picture grade process and more vibrant colours for the dancing sequences and why he chose to film some of the actors physically closer to the camera.

Wakefield is available to stream now on ABC iview and will broadcast weekly on ABC TV from 18 April 2021.