In the series, Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) is desperate to revive his struggling community. There’s no Wi-Fi, cell reception is spotty and he must contend with superstitious locals who believe their island is cursed. Tom, however, remains dismissive of those superstitions.
In early conversations with Dippold, cinematographer Christian Sprenger agreed they had to be careful not to tip the audience off. We were very aware of the fact that we needed to be riding this razor’s edge of tone the whole time,” he says. Visually, Sprenger says he wanted to serve the story that they were telling.
He recalls Murai saying, “‘What’s interesting about those movies is they’re not extremely contrasty or use high-icon lighting approaches. There aren’t tons of super dark, moody moments. A lot of times, there’s this interesting contrast that’s built with pacing, anticipation and tension, but it’s something that you can see everything and that everything is lit.’” Sprenger primarily shot on large-format cameras, specifically the Arri Alexa 35, so that the visuals didn’t feel like an uber-modern, ultrasharp, slick-looking image.
Instead, the goal was for it to feel cinematic, as if it could have come out 20 or more years ago. The key was to keep everything as grounded in realism as possible. Episode 6, titled “Our History,” flashes back to 1702, revealing the origins of the cursed village.
Betty Gilpin stars as Sarah Warren, who arrives as part of an arranged marriage to Richard Warren (Hamish Linklater). The episode needed to stand out from the rest, so Sprenger shot on an Arri Alexa 265 to give the visuals a cinematic feeling. He also used 1.43:1, the Imax aspect ratio — which is notably square and much taller than the widescreen formats most TV audiences are used to.
This gave the episode a heightened sense of claustrophobia. Sprenger also took a new approach to lighting since the episode is set in the 1700s. The entire episode was shot using a handheld camera.
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