Exclusive: Gia-Rayne Harris On Directing Episode 5 Of Bridgeton Season 4 Part 2
Now playing on Netflix is Part 2 of Season 4 of its acclaimed series Bridgerton, which stars Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha, Jonathan Bailey, Victor Alli, Adjoa Andoh, Julie Andrews, Lorraine Ashbourne, Masali Baduza, Nicola Coughlan,Hannah Dodd, Daniel Francis, Ruth Gemmell, Florence Hunt, Martins Imhangbe, Claudia Jessie, Luke Newton, Golda Rosheuvel, Isabella Wei, Michelle Mao, and Katie Leung.
From Shondaland and Jess Brownell, BRIDGERTON returns for a fairy-tale inspired fourth season. Bohemian second son Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) refuses to settle down, despite pleas to the contrary from matriarch Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell). Until — at Violet’s masquerade ball, Benedict is awestruck by a masked, mysterious Lady in Silver. With the reluctant help of his sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie), Benedict sets out in society to uncover the young lady’s identity. But in fact, his heart’s desire is not in society at all — she is a resourceful maid called Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), working for the formidable Lady of the house, Araminta Gun (Katie Leung).
When fate brings Benedict and Sophie back together, Benedict wrestles between the reality of his affection for this intriguing maid and the fantasy of the Lady in Silver — unaware that they are the same person. Will Benedict’s inability to see these women as one in the same derail the undeniable spark between him and Sophie? And can love truly conquer anything — even a cross-class connection forbidden by society?
Inspiring Benedict’s journey are the marriages of his siblings —including Francesca (Hannah Dodd) to John Stirling (Victor Alli), and Colin (Luke Newton) to Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), who faces new challenges as a now public gossip columnist.
Directing Episode 5, which is the start of Part 2 is Gia-Rayne Harris. Harris is the winner of the Shondaland and SeriesFest's 2022 Women Directing Mentorship. Shondaland and SeriesFest collaborated in 2018 to offer a unique opportunity for a rising female director to shadow an already established episodic director on a Shondaland produced series. Previous winners have gone on to direct on our ABC production, Station 19, and have shadowed on previous seasons of Bridgerton. Rayne shadowed Bridgerton's producing director, Tom Verica on season 3 and was offered episode 5 of this season.
Harris had previously directed 12 short films to date – which have screened at such festivals as the Pan African Film Festival, Outfest and the American Black Film Festival where she was a finalist for the HBO Short Film Award.
Rayne Harris is also a fellow alumni of Shondaland Series Director Program, Netflix’s premier talent development program that launched in 2020. Rayne joined the program shortly after directing her episode of Bridgerton, where she followed an extensive training curriculum covering all aspects of episodic directing from pre to post-production. She also met with and learned from industry-leading professionals, in addition to working alongside Netflix creative executives.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks to Gia-Rayne Harris on on directing Episode 5 of Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2