FALL 2019
Thereweresomechallenges in making
Deadwood: The Movie, including all the
mud and the need to address electric light-
ing. According to Klein, “Towards the end
of the Western era, electric lighting showed
up in Deadwood, and that presented its
own challenges but also gave me more
options in terms of lighting,” explained
Klein. “There was still a good mix of fire-
light, oil lamps and electric street lights,
none of which really overpowered the oth-
ers. We just let them be integrated into the
night lighting of the town.”
This mixture of light sources alsohelps
the movie look visually different from the
series. “I needed to be respectful of the
original series but used softer, more
natural-looking light sources while still
trying to be honest to the previous pho-
tography,” said Klein. “So the light is
warmer, limited in its source options, and
it needed to feel very real, because ifthe
lighting doesn’t feel real and is noticeable
for any reason, I haven’t done my job. On
Deadwood: The Movie, there were simply
more rules put on me by the story, sets and
locations, but it was brilliant to shake up
my standard light sources for a while.”
The Firepower
that the actors use period-correct firearms
and react accordingly. “We had phenom-
enal armorers who were more experienced
with these types of weapons than anyI’ve
worked with before, and they trainedwith
the actors endlessly,” said Klein. “Even pull-
ing a six-shooter out of its holster looks silly
if it seems like the first time it’s been done.”
Still, the production wasn’t allowed to
use full-load blanks because of the neigh-
borhood that surrounds Melody Ranch.
“That’s one thing that always bothers
me when we’re using firearms,” admitted
Klein. “Actors don’t react to a half-load
blank cartridge. It doesn’t have any kick-
back, and they just don’t react to it the
way one does to a full-load blank, which
has almost the kick of a live round.”
But, just as Deadwood: The Movieof fers
arealisticlookatlifeonthefrontierat
the end of the 19th century, it also wasn’t
meant to be an action film. Violence and
gunplay were certainly part of the Old
West, but it was far less rip roaring than
mostmightexpect,andtheproduction
went for a subtle approach. “We photo-
graphed authentic-looking shootouts that
weren’t over the top,” said Klein. “And to
me, we were grounded in reality.” ✪
18 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
DEADWOOD RETURNS
I recently spoke to armorer Joey Dillon about what went into arming
the characters of Deadwood: The Movie. Here’s what he had to say.
The movie takes place 10 years after the show ended. Did the firepower change?
That was considered, but while it was a decade later, we didn’t think things would
have changed too much. One example is that we didn’t include any cartridge con-
version firearms and felt there was no need to include those.
How important are specific guns to the characters?
anything flashy. We wanted to stay pretty traditional with most of the guns.
There were mostly the same type of firearms that we had in the series, but we
changed the belts and holsters to show some of the characters’ progress. For exam-
ple, Bullock used the same gun from the series—a Remington Model 1875—but
we gave him a much nicer holster. We also looked at period photos of Calamity
Jane and tried to replicate the holster she wore, and Carrico’s Leatherworks was
able to make one that matched perfectly.
Tell us about some of the smaller details.
We included some cool stuff, such as the Single Action Army
Model 3 with ivory grips that we used in the Netflix series Godless.
thing that could have been customized in the West. Dan Dority had cleaned up
a lot by the time of the movie, and he carries a Rossi Overland coach gun with
external hammers. And there are some older guns, like Winchester Model 1873s.
Do viewers expect more realism today?
I think they do. Viewers are much more knowledgeable today. Movies and videos
The shooting styles were different back then, so what
to avoid the tactical look in favor of one-handed shooting.
On Deadwood: The Movie, I worked with everyone to make sure
that the stances and techniques were accurate. The actors had to
reholster their sidearms like it was second nature. But the draws were
more important—they had to look suave and realistic at the same time.
