Apples Never Fall, Peacock’s limited series thriller about a family unraveling in the wake of their mother’s disappearance, comes on the heels of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers as the third major television series to be adapted from Liane Moriarty’s novels. While the action of the story has been relocated from the novel’s original setting of Australia to West Palm Beach, Florida, the series itself was primarily an Australian production, shooting mostly in Queensland.
For this Camera Operator video feature, we were able to talk to A camera and B camera operator Steve Atkin and A camera and Steadicam operator Simon Harding about working on the series, from the physical challenge of shooting the show—more than 95% handheld—to the more nuanced task of working alongside the series’ ensemble cast to allow performance to guide the movement of the camera.
Following a long career as tennis players, coaches, and owners of a tennis school, the Delaneys are well-known and respected in their community of West Palm Beach, Florida. Behind closed doors, however, there is deep dysfunction between Joy and Stan Delaney and their four semi-estranged children. When Joy goes missing under mysterious circumstances, these dysfunctions bubble up to the surface, exposing deep wounds and mistrust as the search for a missing person steadily progresses into an investigation of a suspected murder. Apples Never Fall is based on the novel by Liane Moriarty and is developed by Melanie Marnich. The limited series stars Annette Bening, Sam Neill, Jake Lacy, Conor Merrigan-Turner, Essie Randles, Georgia Flood, Jeanine Serralles, Dylan Thuraisingham, and Alison Brie.
