Outlander fans, there’s something new to obsess over while we wait out the last three months of the Droughtlander:The Making of Outlander: The Official Guide to Seasons Three & Four.
Tara Bennett, the author of the book, spoke to Parade all about The Making of Outlander and what she did differently with the second book of her series. The first volume, predictably, is The Making of Outlander: The Official Guide to Seasons One & Two.
"We spent a lot of time on the first one trying to frame it with new voices and different ways of telling the stories, or with people that aren’t covered by typical press for the show, and it went over well. Because of that, we wanted the second book to look and feel similar, as if you were making a collection on your shelf, and so we kept the format, we kept the relative design, and then we looked into spotlights and head-of-department features, so we could change it out, so you didn’t feel like you were learning the same thing but for a different year."
If you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift for the Outlander fan in your life, this is it.
Thank you to @poisonedpen for a wonderful copy of The Making of Outlander signed by @TaraDBennett and @Writer_DG It came with a protected dust cover and was packaged with care. Look at this beauty! 😍🙌🏻🎉 #Outlander pic.twitter.com/r0WTHprht4
— Nordy 💁🏻♀️ (@NordyJenn) October 29, 2019
The best thing about this book is that Bennett made sure to include things that we can’t just Google on the internet, read in the books, or get from the series. This is some quality stuff, folks!
"I did a cross check of everything that was available to the public via press versus what was made available to us for the book. We tried to put in as much new stuff as possible, otherwise, why bother buying the book? I literally made a huge Excel spreadsheet of what was given to press, and then what was given to us, and then made sure that we leaned into those things. If there was a beautiful picture that STARZ and Sony gave the regular press, it was still nice to be able to find a way to feature it, so that you could really look at it in a different way than looking at it on your tablet or your laptop."
Bennett went as far as speaking with Outlander stars Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan to make sure fans could get truly exclusive content. This includes asking both of them what it’s like to play parents onscreen when they don’t have that experience in real life.
"They both spent a lot of time trying to establish and understand that dynamic and really create that rapport with their costars. Sam has some really great stories about the hesitancy of that, working with the little boy that plays Willie, his son, and creating that rapport. Then several of the actors also talk about watching him with the young actor and how endearing that was. I think that’s just a nice testament to both of them as actors is the level that they go to, to try to create the authenticity with Jamie and Claire."
Compared to the first book, Bennett dove a bit deeper into the production and visual effects of Outlander. If you’ve watched the series, then you know the production is next level, taking us all around the world and keeping things as authentic as possible. But what about visual effects? I don’t think it’s always obvious that they use those, so it’ll be interesting to see what Bennett learned there!
"We went into a lot more, specifically, about the production design and visual effects, how they worked in tandem, which was a lot more subtle in the first two years. Then in season three and four, you had tall ships that had to be created in visual effects, you had shooting Scotland for the United States, so for a lot of the environment, they would have to use blue screen to create Jocasta’s plantation house in season four. That doesn’t exist in Scotland. And so, they basically had to do a lot of visual effects to that house, including an entire second floor, and the environment around it to make it look like it was truly in Wilmington. We decided to peel back a layer with that."
I would have never guessed that Jocasta’s plantation incorporated visual effects like that!
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Along with pictures from the set, Bennett has included sketches, special stories and much more! If you’re so inclined, you can head to Amazon and snag a copy for yourself or that special Sassanech in your life.
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