OZ: the most realistic credits in series history

PODCAST

Clan wars, not-so-clear guards, violence and unparalleled concern for realism… This week, in SERIELAND, Clémence Olivier takes you behind the scenes of the credits the first series produced by HBO: OZ. 

Transcription

I too will talk about a series with cops and with criminals except that they are already behind bars!

I'm taking you to Oswald's American prison.

This is where the plot of the very first series of the American channel HBO is located.

We are in 1997, just before Sex and the City and almost 15 years before Game of Thrones.

This series is OZ.

The series tells the daily life of hyper violent criminals within Em City, a special prison unit supposed to promote reintegration.

And if I wanted to tell you about OZ, it's because she is the first to push realism to the maximum, whether in the choice of actors, in the dialogues and even in the credits! 

An original soundtrack that is like no other

Me, every time I watched an episode, I had the feeling of being transported with these criminals, as confined with Vernon, the neo-Nazi rapist, the Irishman Ryan O'Reilly, Adebisi, the leader of the afro gang. Americans convicted of having beheaded a policeman or Nino and the members of the Italian American mafia, still very influential since prison ...

The music, strident and scary, is surely for a lot.

The Oz soundtrack is truly unlike any other.

It was made from objects that could be found in prison! 

Doors slamming, the sound of the keys turning in the locks, the cries, the screams of the detainees, but also the drums that you can play by turning a trash can ... Diverting everyday objects of prisoners to make instruments, we you might think it's just good storytelling to sell the series.

In fact, it is the fruit of a real reflection and even of a commitment of the creator, Tom Fontana. 

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He wants to show the violence that reigns behind bars, their organization into clans but also the ambiguous role of prison guards and basically the failure of the prison system.

So that the fiction is as realistic as possible, the creator of the series gives of his person.

For two years, Tom Fontana visited American prisons, met inmates.

And one thing particularly marks him during his visits: it is the noise, it is omnipresent !!

It then becomes obvious.

The music, the soundtrack of Oz must reflect this noisy and oppressive atmosphere.

In the book "Series, a planetary addiction", the creator confides on this subject to the author, Charlotte Blum.

He explains that he quickly swept away the idea of ​​using more traditional music, as was the case in the series of the time, because, for him, music is first and foremost about well-being. .

And well-being doesn't exist in prison.

The name of the series on the arm

Tom Fontana is not limited to the soundtrack.

The realism and attention to detail that made OZ so successful will permeate the entire series.

The creator recruited former prisoners to act as extras.

But it is in the credits that realism is pushed to its paroxysm. 

A man is seen having the word "OZ" tattooed on his arm.

It's a close-up, we can't see his face but we see the ink getting into the skin, it almost hurts.

It's a real scene, with a real needle and the pain that goes with it.

And the tattooed is nothing of a stranger, it is Tom Fontana himself.

He had the name of his series engraved in his skin.

OZ (HBO)

1997

Six seasons, 56 episodes of 50min

Available on DVD