It’s all in the eyes, as they say, and Apple TV +’s “Severrance” gives these windows to the soul on almost uncomfortably close range. You can’t help but squeeze on the emotional complications of the show’s “Innie” (Work self) and “Outie” (Life self) characters within its changed parallel universe in Lumon Industries – and these eyes are often the key to decipizing both intentions.
One of the prominent season 2 sections, the moving seventh part with the title “Chika Bardo“(A Tibetan Buddhist phrase related to the death moment), reminds of Gemma (Duchen Lachman) and her court and marriage with Mark (Adam Scott). Personal tragedy on them before they unconsciously re-unite in Lumon Land, even though Mark’s Outie-thinking that Gemma died.
“During season 2 we go through many more things through eyes, through vision,” said Jessica Lee Gagné, who has been the Series Chief Cinematographer for almost all of its 19 sections. “I don’t think it was like a super -conscious motive in the beginning, but there was something within these transitions about moving through the subconscious psyche, access to parts of yourself and also memories. When creating a side image of someone’s face, just on that side of their eye, it is as if you are in their head.”
Her eye is one of the most important reasons why “Severance” is superior to artistic circles, but “Chikhai Bardo” showed Gagnés POV in a whole new light: it is her director’s debut. “They had the kind of hint,“ Do you want to direct? “Which is a way people are trying to keep DPS on shows, right?
Gagné was nervous about the commitment but felt nothing but support from Ben Stiller (an often director and her “Escape at Dannemora” master) and Showrunner Dan Erickson (who collects the section with EP Mark Friedman).
“There was a huge amount of confidence in myself that I had to just own,” Gagné said about being in the odd position not to have someone to bounce ideas when directing and movies on your own. The double customs are common for some large male directors (Paul Thomas Anderson And Steven Soderbergh does it regularly), but less for the small pool of female directors and the even smaller pool of female cinemas.
Due to the nature of creating television, the departure is not in succession; For example, the Flashback sequences are managed that dominate much of “Chikhai Bardo” at a movie store at the end of the Season 2 shot, which is why they have a certain grain and moody structure. The measures in the section are a mirror of the intense season finale, where Mark must make a crucial life decision that can save Gemma’s life.
Now that Gagné has made the move from Kinematographer to director, does she expect others to do the same? “It’s not an easy transition to do, to be honest, because people like to put others in boxes, right?” said Gagné. She is encouraged by women who Rachel Morrison (“The Fire Inside”) and Ellen Kuras (“Lee”) who made hope in recent years.
“I think TV is one of the best media that enables that transition, because not every cinematographer wants to become a director. It’s not everyone’s thing. I didn’t know to what extent it would be something I wanted, but over the years I realized that something was missing for me. TV lets you do it in a very supportive way.”
This story first ran in the drama issue of Thewraps Awards Magazine and came soon.
