How ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Director Olivia Newman Brought the Marsh to Life in Louisiana
thewrap.com“Where the Crawdads Sing,” giving viewers a glimpse of the vast wetlands in which the film adaptation of Delia Owens’ novel is set.“We worked with a fantastic company,” director Olivia Newman told TheWrap in a recent interview about the film. “They just gave so much attention to detail to get the blue heron right, and we had a very specific idea in mind for how we wanted to lead the viewer into the swamp and first introduce them to the world of the marsh.”The bird eventually weaves past the coastline and then down into the swamps to land near Kya (Daisy Edgar-Joens), who is hiding from the sheriff that wants to track her down for questioning regarding the murder of Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson).“We worked with a drone company to get those shots exactly the way we wanted and then added the bird into the path.
We knew that we were going to be following a bird, and we had this specific movement that we wanted from the bird,” she added. “And so then we had the drone shots to kind of leave the bird and follow the bird, and we had to do it many, many times so that we got those shots, the movement of those shots and the time of day just right.
That was a labor of love.” Newman connected with Delia Owens’ novel — which mingles a coming of age story and a murder mystery — through her childhood memories, specifically those of vivid descriptions of nature like the ones Owens crafts.
Though Newman grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey, her father took yearly hunting trips to Mississippi, bringing back venison for his family, who would then share a first meal together while her father told the story of the hunt.“The most important part besides eating the venison was hearing the story of the hunt.
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