Silver Tree ‘I almost had to come up with a new language of expression’
AS A FORMER SCRIPT SUPERVISOR, Silver Tree was in the unique position of being a “co-pilot” for many directors. This inspired her to take the leap and rebrand herself as a director, first with a feature film she co-wrote (“Deep Dark Canyon”). For the better part of the past decade, though, Tree has worked on some of the most tonally unique series, from the dark and delicious “You” on Netflix, to the twisted humor of Showtime’s “Shameless” and the Globes and guilds-eligible traumedy “Dead to Me” (Netflix). With there being even fewer female directors when you started than now, what do you think helped you push through? I became a producing director very quickly and then after I left Toronto where I was producing “Suits,” my agents and I decided I would go on a journey of genre where I directed every kind of genre I could get my hands on, in an effort to not be put into a particular genre as a woman directing at that time. So I did a lot of stunt-heavy shows, like “Lethal Weapon” and “SEAL Team” and other classically male-directed shows. And a lot of edgy comedies, from “Suburgatory” to “Dead to Me.” What draws you to that style? Liz Feldman from “Dead to Me” coined the term “traumedy,” which for the first time really describes to me exactly what I was drawn to. It represents the lens through which I saw my life growing up: complicated characters who are flawed, but ultimately really interesting. What are the tone meetings like on “Dead To Me”? Liz is an incredibly involved showrunner. So from the moment you get there, you realize that this ship has a very strong captain, which is really fun. From the very beginning, she and I were just discussing the balance between drama and comedy in these last two episodes because they’re very, very heavy at times. The writing does a lot of the work for you on her show, and then it’s just finding a way to unfurl that final story with the emotion that it deserves, but without it being so heavy that viewers who need a taste of comedy tune out. How complicated was the finale’s stunt and cliffhanger? In terms of the actual logistics of filming the stunt, I think it was actually dumb luck that they happened to end up with a director that had a lot of experience with that. In terms of deciding how we were going to tell the story, we gave ourselves a lot of options. We weren’t sure when we filmed that if we wanted the audience to be thinking that everyone survived that crash. We covered ourselves and made sure Liz had freedom in editing. What has been the biggest change to how you do your job because of new COVIDSAFE protocols? I can’t see my actors’ faces when I’m blocking a scene because they have to be masked, so it’s very difficult to sometimes even tell if a moment is landing until I’m already rolling. You also can’t tell how the actors are feeling about what you’re doing. We joke about this a lot [on “You”] that I now have just started exaggerating my eyes or jumping up and down when I tell them I love something so they can actually feel it. I almost had to come up with a new language of expression.