Us breaks down the design-heavy process behind its tear-jerker Black Mirror episode, Eulogy

Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor are the directing duo behind the studio Us. One of the pairs most recent directorial endeavours is Eulogy, a gripping TV episode on memory, desire, and acceptance, from the seventh instalment of Charlie Brooker’s hit TV show, Black Mirror. The episode’s main character, Phillip, portrayed by Academy award-nominee Paul Giamatti, seemingly lives in self-imposed isolation, before his world is ruptured by a system that allows users to travel into old photographs. The episode follows Phillip as he confronts past emotions and memories he’s buried deep within, and he steps into the role of detective in the case of his own life.

This isn’t the first time Chris and Luke have dipped their toes into narrative work, they’ve worked on a short film, Cautionary Tales, and they’re currently working on a feature film script. The pair are also well versed in creative visual worlds for musicians, working on music videos for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, and Harry Styles. Chris admits that “it’s obviously a big jump from 5 minutes to 1.5 hours”, but the duo have taken it in their stride.

When creating the episode’s narrative world, creating a sense of realism was key to suspend audience belief that the physics we believe to be so concrete could be bent and distorted in the service of memory exploration. Bringing on production designer Robin Brown, realism was locked in as a vital pillar of the episode. “We all agreed that if any of the elements from the past didn’t look 100 per cent accurate, we would fail,” says Luke. “It’s the worst thing when you are watching a film and a photo is clearly not real. It just pulls you out of the film.”

Likewise, close attention to detail in the space, setting and props of the episode was paramount. All the photos use throughout the scenes were shot considering the specific camera and stock, using 35mm across point-and-shoots, as well as Polaroids, and medium format. “We even thought about what cameras Phillip would have had at that point in his life.” This helped the pair develop and emotional connection to the lead character. What would it feel like for him to look down at these photos? Will the audience believe that he took these photos himself, not props department? Even greater lengths were gone to to maintain audience belief in this curated reality. “When we couldn’t find something, the art department and props department meticulously designed and made them,” explains Luke.

A burning question that comes to mind when watching the episode is how the photographic damage is visualised. Like the rest of the project, it was a pretty long and laborious process – the art department printed numerous photos, going through the task of exploring the many ways ageing could impact the image. “We had to really think about how the damage on the photo would translate to the physical memory,” Chris says. “Some would look really cool, but then when you imagined that brought to life, it would be too much or interfere with the scene.” Luke continues: “You don’t know what you’re going to get. The artefacts of a photo, like a light leak, motion blur, or haze, were crucial in this idea.” It’s clear that for Eulogy – unlike many of your typical TV episodes – dedication to design and art direction was the cornerstone.