Severance Cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné Won’t Be DP for Season 3
The lauded cinematographer for Apple TV’s hit series Severance will not return to the show as director of photography for season three.
Jessica Lee Gagné, the director of photography for 15 of the show’s 20 episodes, has been credited with crafting the show’s iconic look and masterminding shots such as when the characters switch between their outies and innies. But Slash Film reports that the 36-year-old Canadian won’t be returning for season three.
However, it’s important to note that this isn’t down to any falling out or fracas, far from it. Gagné is instead busy directing her debut feature-length movie. Fans may remember that she directed an episode in Severance season 2, Chikhai Bardo, some of which was shot on 16mm film.
“It’s not close at all to ‘Severance,’ but it’s very personal to me,” Gagné tells the Awards Buzz YouTube channel. “It’s an erotic thriller, very kind of 90s erotic thriller-esque. Those movies that, you know, we loved to watch in the theaters or even rent at the video store, but I’m kind of taking a feminist or feminine approach to it. I’m reappropriating the genre.”
Gagné has eft the door open on returning to Severance in some capacity. “I have to just let the universe decide,” she says.”We’re going to see what happens there. ‘Severance’ is a wild beast. You never know when it’s coming and how long it’s going to take.”
Slash Film reports that Gagné actually intended to leave Severance after season one but received an offer to direct an episode of season two which proved too tempting to turn down.
“[Directing] is often proposed to cinematographers so they come back for another season,” Gagné tells the Hollywood Reporter. “So I said no at first, but then I read the synopsis of season two, and episode seven really struck me as something that I could do and should do. I really had to look at myself in the mirror because I had blocked this desire out ever since film school. So I was like, ‘Okay, it’s now or never.'”
In an interview with PetaPixel earlier this year, Gagné said for the episode she directed — which focused on the back story of Mark S. and Ms. Casey — she shot most of it in-camera and hardly bothered the VFX department.
“I really didn’t use VFX much for the film stuff. It was quite simple. There are stitches where there’s VFX work that’s very obvious, and there’s this fun timelapse sequence. That whole timelapse was a proper old-school film school-style timelapse stuff. Literally, a camera was moving around the room and people in the art department were putting books, taking books away, and then we were shooting all these shots. A lot of people participated in that,” Gagné said.
Update 6/11: This article has been amended to clarify that Gagné may return to Severance in a different capacity.
Image credits: Courtesy of Apple.
