MAGNUM P.I. Post-Mortem: Zachary Knighton Shares His Favorite Sequence to Direct in ‘Consciousness of Guilt’

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Wednesday, December 6 episode of MAGNUM P.I.]

When MAGNUM P.I. star Zachary Knighton stepped behind the camera for the Wednesday, December 6 episode, “Consciousness of Guilt,” he had to juggle multiple timelines—a storytelling device that the series has used before, but difficult to contend with, production-wise.

“[Since] there is a flashback where you see two characters, who we’re seeing in present day, 20 years ago…you’re dealing with what’s the look of that with the camera?” Knighton shares with Give Me My Remote. “Are we going to have a sepia tone? What are the indicators that let the audience know, okay, we’re popping into a flashback? Obviously, when somebody’s telling a story, and you pop back, that’s a good way to convey that to the audience.”

“Also, we had to deal with hair and makeup, hair lines,” he continues. “How are we going to dye these guys’ beard? What are we going to do? So it’s all very technical.”

But the actor-director thrived in the (expected) chaos. “I mean, directing is basically answering emails all day long,” he says. “Because you’re picking everything down to like how much blood are we going to have in this scene? Is it going to be liquid blood? Are we gonna do these latex things they have? It’s so particular. And it’s a whole lot about a whole lot of nothing, in a lot of ways. And then it’s a whole lot about a whole lot of something.”

“You have to learn what do you spend your time on?” he continues. “What’s the most important scene that you want to shoot? What do you want to fight for? What are you willing to compromise on? So it’s really fun. It’s sort of engaging on all levels. And I’ll tell you what: Being a waiter and a bartender for years in New York City, while I was trying to get my acting career started, really helps with directing, because it’s all about multitasking.”

As for Knighton’s favorite scenes to shoot, he pointed to the (gorgeously handled) scene of Higgins (Perdita Weeks) saving a trapped-in-a-trunk Jin (Bobby Lee)…while she was in a helicopter.

“I have a big helicopter sequence in the show,” he says. “And I got to throw an actress who happens to be one of the leads on our show in that helicopter, so that was fun. And I had a great cameraman, Ruben Carrillo, who was literally hanging out of a chopper with a camera on a builder. He was standing on the skids strapped in. I mean, incredibly brave to do that kind of work, which is testament to him. And Perdy to jump in that chopper.”

“That, to me, is the best sequence,” he says. ”We storyboarded that, we worked really hard. I wanted to make sure obviously it went well. Everyone was safe. You’re ultimately the responsible one for everybody’s safety. So I was hyper-concerned about that sequence. But we have the best pilots on the island, and probably some of the best pilots in the world, over here at Magnum [Helicopters] choppers. They did an incredible job. But I would say that’s the sequence I’m most proud of. And Perdy kicked ass in that sequence.”

Knighton, who previously called his directorial debut a “dream come true,” praises everyone involved in the show for helping him take on this big, ambitious hour.

“Obviously, years of working on this show and other shows have seasoned me to know how to run a film set efficiently,” he says. “I would say things that were sort of in an unknown area for me like stunts and stunt sequences, I had a great stunt coordinator in Eric Norris, who helped tremendously with all the car stuff and making sure we were being safe with the chopper and shooting second unit for me. So I’m entirely indebted to him.”

“It’s having the people around, your guys, your crew that you’ve been working with for six years,” he continues. “Nobody wants me to fail. Everybody wanted me to win. Everybody was incredibly supportive. I told them before we started: ‘This is a collaborative process. If you see me screwing up, please do not hesitate to come talk to me. If you have a good idea, come talk to me. I want it.’ And that’s what everybody did. It made for a great experience. I’d like to think that everybody had a damn good time making that episode.”

MAGNUM P.I., Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC

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