The painstaking, hyper-granular process behind Amazon’s artful Undone

Shot by Justin Wolfson, edited by Jeremy Smolik. Click here for transcript.

Let us be the 47th outlet to say it: Nothing else on TV or streaming looks like Undone. Amazon Prime's animated time-bending sci-fi series centers on a woman named Alma (played by Rosa Salazar, of Alita fame) who suffers an accident that changes her relationship to the world. And as Alma deals with that in-progress 180, she attempts to investigate the mysterious death of her father (played by Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul). The story... well, better to say less and avoid spoilers for any soon-to-be viewers.

Undone's style, however, deserves all the words one can devote. If you heard of the show before, it's likely because it represents the first major streaming series to be done entirely in rotoscope, an animation technique where artists paint over live actors using a variety of methods and styles. (Maybe you've seen the campus shooting documentary Tower or Richard Linkliter's Waking Life; that's rotoscoping in action.) Rotoscoped work can be dreamy, museum-like, nightmarish, disjointed, or other-worldly-sometimes all at once. In other words, it might be the perfect creative visual choice for a show like Undone.

Credit for executing this vision goes to a trio of production companies behind the scenes: Tornante in Southern California, Submarine Productions in Amsterdam, and Minnow Mountain in Austin, Texas. If that kind of globe-spanning collaboration doesn't already say it, we will: the process was complicated. But you don't have to take it from us, since Undone director and production designer Hisko Hulsing kindly sat down for our latest entertainment episode of "War Stories" and outlined the laborious process that makes the show seem so effortlessly beautiful to all of us watching at home.

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