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        <title><![CDATA[First-time ‘Ozark’ Emmy nominee on working with star Jason Bateman]]></title>
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            <media:title type="html">First-time ‘Ozark’ Emmy nominee on working with star Jason Bateman</media:title>
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        <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This year&#8217;s long list of Emmy nominees has its share of surprises &#8212; mostly regarding on-screen talent.</p><p>What you likely haven&#8217;t heard about are the nods for behind-the-camera talent &#8212; including Ben Semanoff, who garnered his <strong>first Emmy nomination</strong> for directing &#8220;Su Casa Es Mi Casa,&#8221; the game-changing Season 3 episode of &#8220;<strong>Ozark</strong>&#8221; in which Marty and Wendy Byrd (Jason Bateman, Laura Linney) angrily confront each other about their teetering marriage (with ugly ramifications).</p><p>&#8220;I was close to not submitting the episode [for <strong>Emmy consideration</strong>],&#8221; says Semanoff, 41. &#8220;A day or two before it was due, I turned to my wife and said, &#8216;Should I submit it? Is this a waste of $250?&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;About a week before the nominations came out, I caught wind of a bunch of panels happening around &#8216;Ozark,&#8217;&#8221; he says. &#8220;I Googled my name and one of the first things that came up was a thread on [awards site] Gold Derby. I thought, &#8216;Why did my name come up?&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;One of the staffers predicted I was going to get nominated.&#8221;</p><p>Remarkably, &#8220;Su Casa Es Mi Casa&#8221; was only Semanoff&#8217;s second time in the director&#8217;s chair after spending 20 years as a highly regarded, award-winning chief cameraman (A-Camera operator) on projects including &#8220;Creed,&#8221; &#8220;Collateral Beauty,&#8221; &#8220;The Leftovers,&#8221; &#8220;The Night Of,&#8221; &#8220;Billions,&#8221; &#8220;The Upside&#8221; and &#8220;The Affair.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I had been looking for opportunities to direct for a couple of years prior to &#8216;Ozark,&#8217;&#8221; he says. &#8220;I did a movie that Jason Bateman directed called &#8216;The Family Fang&#8217; and we hit it off. He started telling me about &#8216;Ozark&#8217; &#8230; and called me when it was greenlit and they were going to be [shooting] in Atlanta.&#8221; Semanoff initially passed on the offer to join &#8220;Ozark&#8221; because he wanted to stay close to home (Bucks County, Pa.) with his wife and two small children.</p><p>&#8220;He was very gracious and e-mailed me about two months into the first season and said, &#8216;I know you&#8217;re probably going to pass again, but you were my first choice [as lead cameraman] &#8212; do you want to come down and join us?&#8217;,&#8221; Semanoff says. &#8220;The guy they&#8217;d hired to operate the camera was getting an opportunity to direct on another show &#8230; so this was the perfect springboard.&#8221;</p><p>His big break came when Bateman, who&#8217;s also an &#8220;Ozark&#8221; executive producer, offered Semanoff the chance to direct the penultimate Season 2 episode, &#8220;The Badger,&#8221; in which <strong>Darlene Snell (Lisa Emery)</strong> poisons her husband, Jacob (Peter Mullan), who collapses and dies as they stroll in the woods.</p><p>Semanoff says that Bateman gave him 24 hours to decide if he wanted to direct &#8220;Su Casa Es Mi Casa&#8221; &#8212; and, once he agreed, he took a few weeks off to prepare for the job.</p><p>&#8220;I wanted it to look like a rollercoaster ride, with spikes and falls in the right places,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Through planning, I felt there were a lot of opportunities for the camera to be quiet, to allow the drama to present itself in an interesting way. There&#8217;s a real art to the single take and I would wager that I&#8217;m pretty good at it.&#8221;</p><p>He credits Bateman for making him feel comfortable in the director&#8217;s chair.</p><p>&#8220;We have similar sensibilities,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I pitched him some crazy stuff when he was directing a few episodes. What&#8217;s amazing is that Jason creates an environment &#8230; much more akin to [shooting] a feature film. He empowers directors to try different things and have fun and be creative. Some directors who come to the show don&#8217;t do that, but I ran with it.</p><p>&#8220;Jason has the pull to change anything if he wants to,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I learned quickly that if I was planning something with him, to discuss it with him ahead of time or else it was wasted work.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been five feet away from each other for years doing this dance, with me moving the camera and giving him notes on blocking,&#8221; he says, &#8220;so we&#8217;re very comfortable.&#8221;</p>]]></content:encoded>
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