Succession’s Mark Mylod wanted the camera to feel like a “sadist” in the newest episode

If scenes felt even more claustrophobic during the newest episode of Succession, that was exactly what director Mark Mylod intended. Following the airing of “Connor’s Wedding,” Mylod breaks down the decisions made behind the camera to effectively capture the shock and grief exhibited in the wake of Logan Roy’s death.

“With the treatment of the siblings on the boat, it seemed very apparent to me very quickly—immediately, really—on reading that, that the camera needed to be a sadist,” Mylod tells Variety in a new interview.

“It needed to stick the lens right in those poor people’s faces,” he continues. “In the worst kind of paparazzi style of, find the people that are in the most pain, and stick a lens right in their face. And don’t take it away—try to keep it there as long as possible, to be as unflinching as possible. It felt really cruel. But it also felt like exactly the right thing to do.”

The final effect is palpable throughout the episode, as we see every passing emotion on Shiv, Roman, and Kendall’s faces as they process their father’s sudden death.

The gravity of the events in “Connor’s Wedding” required the series to approach scene direction in a new way. The 30-minute continuously-shot scene at the center of the episode allows us to witness the Roy children grappling with Logan’s death in real-time, as well as track their every move. Since Succession is shot on 35mm, Mylod says taping the scene required quick film reloads and strategic camera positioning.

“I talked to the cast and the crew about, ‘Is there a way we can do this? Can we do a half-hour unbroken take?’ And that’s what we did,” Mylod explains. “The actors were up for it. The camera team were brilliant, in that we basically hid camera magazines all over the place, and a third camera body tucked behind the door, so that at least one camera could be running all the time, whilst the other camera was literally running to do a super-fast reload, and start shooting again.”

He continues, “We ended up with this extraordinary ballet between the cast and the camera crew, as the cast just kept going, kept going, kept going, kept going over this half-hour period, whilst the crew were dancing around them to cover it. And the results were—well, you see the results, if you’ve seen the episode. There is an intensity to it. And a huge chunk of that take is what made the final cut.”

Succession airs weekly on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.