Through the Car Window: Inside the Incredible Climatic Shot of ‘Sing Sing’ That Was Almost Too Much for Colman Domingo
[Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for the end of “Sing Sing.”]
It’s one of the most powerful scenes of the year.
John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo) exits the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, after 25 years of wrongful imprisonment, and is greeted by Clarence Maclin (playing himself), the recently released inmate whose life Divine G helped change through the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) theater program that is at the heart of the film “Sing Sing.”
There are so many different emotions converging in this reunion that it is overwhelming to watch — so much so the filmmakers decided to create some distance for the audience by shooting it through a car window. But for Domingo, there was no buffer, and what was being released was coming from inside his performance.
After rehearsing the blocking for the one-shot scene, the film’s lead actor pulled “Sing Sing” director Greg Kwedar aside. “He was like, ‘I can’t take it right now. I cannot handle it. You have to promise me that Clarence will not touch me. And I said, ‘I promise.’ And this is the only lie I’ve ever told Colman,” said Kwedar, while a guest on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast. “I heard what [Colman] was saying, but I also heard what he was saying, you know what he maybe needed. And so I promised him, underneath this little white lie, I would give him what he needed.”
Domingo had spent the previous three weeks shooting inside real prisons, both active and decommissioned facilities that were repurposed for the film production. And a majority of the ensemble, including Maclin, who Domingo had been working closely with in creating the onscreen bond of the RTA theater trope, were actual RTA graduates. Much of “Sing Sing” is based on their real-life stories and experiences.
“Colman had been carrying a lot with this character, coming into the world of these men, and being around their stories,” said Kwedar. “The realization what his character had just endured, just being inside this facility for a few weeks, you [wonder], ‘How did you hold on for 25 years? How did you hold on to that light? How was it not crushed out of you? How’d you have anything left?’”
After talking to Domingo, Kwedar informed Maclin what his scene partner was going through and his request not to be touched. But the director’s instructions to Maclin were the opposite: “‘Whatever you do, don’t let him go.’ That was the only thing I promised Colman that that wouldn’t happen, and I made Clarence promise, ‘Whatever it takes, bring him close.'”
Rewatching the scene and knowing this backstory, it’s interesting to watch Domingo pause in his approach, and actually back away before Maclin even moves.
“You can almost see Colman be like, ‘Nope, nope,’ like try to push away, and then you see Clarence come in,” said Kwedar. “And when he grabs him in that embrace, this primal, guttural cry comes out of Colman that emanated from the depth of his being because of what was released by that embrace. Everything he was holding too tight onto he was able to let go into Clarence’s arms.”
It’s a release felt by both the audience and the actors, and as the gravity of the scene evaporates the two actors just naturally flowed with the tonal shift. Explained Kwedar, “Everything else in that scene, once they start to lighten up, is just in their own words. There was nothing else scripted in that moment. They were just so in tune with their characters and what they were feeling and being together again in that reunion.”
The take that is in the final film is the first and only one that was shot — with the exception of filming the initial blocking rehearsal, which prompted Domingo’s request not to be touched.
“After we did that [take], I was just sitting back and before we moved on, I was like, ‘Pat [cinematographer Patrick Scola], should we move in and get some coverage?,’” said Kwedar, who recalled just how defiant (and correct) his cinematographer was in his response, “‘Are you kidding me?’ He was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ And I was like, ‘You’re right. You’re right. You’re right.’”
While on the podcast, Kwedar talked about how much he leaned on Scola’s storytelling instincts. This included the unusal, but effective choice to film this reunion scene from inside Maclin’s vehicle, with the camera pointed out the driver’s side window, following Domingo, and then panning right, so the camera is now pointed out the windshield, as the two men are reunited in the frame.
“[Scola’s] creative decisions are not precious about just wanting to make pretty images, but ones that convey some undercurrent of what’s actually being felt and happening,” said Kwedar. “He really liked this idea [of shooting from inside the vehicle], almost like we were spying on this moment. It was almost too intimate to be close to with a camera.”
In the editing room and in screening the film numerous times, Kwedar has come to appreciate the layers of storytelling accomplished with this one shot. “I think part of why this shot works from inside the car is it’s establishing that someone’s there to get him, to pick him up. And as it moves [pans, following Domingo as he approaches] through the windows, we’re starting to wonder, ‘Who is it? Is it his family there? Is it a friend?’ And then [the reveal], ‘Oh, it’s the friend.’ And I think it locks something in there, sort of a little bit of a mystery being unveiled within the movement of the camera through the vehicle,” he said. “And then all of these miles of razor wire behind them, what they’re leaving behind. There’s sort of three dimensions of the shot, communicating something.”
