Recently, the “X-Files Diaries” podcast interviewed Chris Carter on his season 6 directorial riff on Hitchock’s “Rope”, the excellent fan-favorite “Triangle”! Carter was glad to get into the details here, on story choices, on technical details of making the episode itself, and reflecting back on the series that we cherish so many years later. Some insights on the larger structure of the series too — MSR and the mythology! Here is my summary/notes:

• He got the technical details of one camera reel holding 12 minutes while shooting in Vancouver. 
• He was interested in World War 2, and wanted to see TXF characters as a Nazi, a double agent, M&S saving the world. 
• He slept aboard the Queen Mary while shooting. 
• Bill Roe was the new director of photography. The problem was how to set up the lights when the shot shows everything. 
• He imagined it as set during night, but night also helped with hiding some cuts.
• Unheralded crew members for this episode in particular: steadicam operator Dave Luckenbach and focus puller Trevor… [No Trevor or focus puller is credited for the episode, unfortunately!]
• They just shot the episode and there was no space to edit, miraculously it added up to the exact 45 minutes needed! 
• David Nutter taught him how to block scenes, “the master”. 
• Production designer Korey Caplan gave him a paper with the set drawings, he did the choreography of the scene on paper.
• Moving to LA, Michael Watkins and Bernie Caulfield replaced Bob Goodwin to run the day-to-day business. 
• Praise for Kaplan. The trashed ballroom was made and unmade in hours. 
• The “Wizard of Oz” references were added in in order to fit in all the cameos. 
• The original script had Fowley as the ballroom singer. He doesn’t remember if it was actor availability or budget that cut her. 
• Mulder’s line for “what’s your name?” “John Brown. Ask me again, and I’ll knock you down. / Puddintame. Ask me again and I’ll tell you the same.” was from a 70s TV show, he doesn’t remember which! It was an inside joke with childhood friends. [Apparently it’s a quite old children’s rhyme from the US. There was even a 1960s Alley Cats song that used it!]
• The move to LA was a lot of work. During the Vancouver days he used Air Canada like a Greyhound bus. 
• He always wanted to shoot in the Queen Mary. 
• About the fan theory that the whole of season 6 was a dream: “I don’t know that we were so organized.” Things were made up on the fly. [I find that quite telling, on how well-planned everything was — or not! — and this can apply to the mythology as well.]
• If he wanted to have writing done, he’d have to do it before the phone rang. He’d get up early, get a Starbucks in Venice exit to Santa Monica at 4 am, becoming friends with the homeless, at 5 am he’d be at the office, and write till 9 am, then deal with the other parts of the job. 
• The FBI elevator shot, the set was redressed while the doors were closed. There was not enough time for many takes, thankfully DD & GA didn’t flub (make mistakes).
• The velocity of the episode allowed to include hidden cuts. 
• Mark Snow’s music: a riff on big band, 1940s music. The “Sing, Sing, Sing” song was in the script. 
• The M&S kiss: did we get because it was not for real? “Definitely!” It was a 1940s movie kiss.
• He rewatched the show from beginning to roughly end 2 years ago with his wife. The specifics of making it are all a blur. 
• About the shipper teases: “Hats off to the writers” for telling TXF stories and weaving in those threads. [He’s one of the writers, but the congratulations are for the whole team of writers.]
• They would often work on the mythology episodes together with Frank Spotnitz; they talked so much that the stories started to tell themselves. “The architecture of the mythology would oftentimes tell us rather than us tell it.” [How I would love to have a recording of one of those brainstorming sessions!]
• “I love you” at the end: the entire episode is silly, it calls on them to act out of character. “We all know they both love each other”, it’s just not vocalized. It satisfied expectations, and takes some “devilish liberties” with the characters. 
• Did it really happen? “It’s the ‘Wizard of Oz’!” [Take note, fans, not everything really needs to be unambiguous!]

Tags: 1013interviews, chris carter, triangle, xfdiaries

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