Yellowjackets cinematographer Michael Wale describes lighting that stunning Sleepwalking sequence where we get a creepy glimpse of the Antler Queen.
Yellowjackets Season 3 finale features a sequence to the original song “Sleepwalking” that includes a creepy glimpse of the Antler Queen in a cave. In order to take audiences into this “fantasy land,” cinematographer Michael Wale says he tested it out on his phone.
“We actually shot on my iPhone and shot up a test during prep,” says Wale, “because what happens is the other DP, Shasta Spahn, and I alternate one episode after another, sort of leapfrogging through the series. And during the prep, we wanted to create this dream sequence, so I started with my iPhone, and we had it with an XFX projector light in the background, so it was a very simple setup.”
The crew had a mystery stand-in for the Antler Queen, and they found a spot in the cave that worked well with placing the light.
“It was a really simple setup of a rotating light that had a gobo that rotates, so there’s a projection that creates a pattern, and we just used a really strong backlight and put a bit of color on it, shot the test, which worked really well, and showed it to [co-creator and co-showrunner] Bart [Nickerson] and the gang, and it was approved.”
To make it look like the Antler Queen’s hands were glowing, they worked with visual effects, starting with the concept of the silhouette.
“Then, the idea was that the Antler Queen would sort of turn into a tree. At one point, I think the concept was the antler was going to go, and it was going to be a big thing, but we looked at it, and thought the hand growth was quite nice, so it was a combination of basically a really interesting set, which is great for a cinematographer to start off with that foundation of a wonderful set, and that’s Margot Reddy, who’s our production designer.”
Wale says the cave presented a lot of lighting difficulties this season.
“Because it’s very much like a practical cave, we had one or two portions of it that we could remove, but for the most part, it got some very narrow spots we had to crawl through and some twisty corners. How do you light a place that’s supposed to be dark? Shasta and I spoke about that for quite a bit. Fortunately, for the most part, the Yellowjackets come in with lanterns and later on a flashlight.”
However, there’s supposed to be no light in the central core of the cave. Wale says you take a bit of license with movie light and in the finale, he played it low-key and soft.
“You want to see the faces, and you want to get a sense of the environment, but you don’t want to see too much of it. I think it’s often nice if part of it’s left to the imagination, that certainly contributes to the tone, because that’s a big part of it, too; you want to light and shoot to support a tone, and a story, so that’s great.”
One scene that had a lot of light to work with was Lottie’s death scene. Were those candles all really there? Or a manifestation of the wilderness?
“When Misty’s looking online and sees a photo [of Lottie], the candles are in that photo, and they’ve burnt down, so there’s a realistic element to it, that they were burning and they’re out, and they’re being photographed, and you see them. It’s an interesting question, I never thought that Callie didn’t see them. I think the backstory is that Lottie is very much connected to this wilderness and the spirit, and this is part of her ceremonial preparation, so my understanding is that Lottie lit all these candles, had this altar set up, and this is her space, her place where she does her thing.”
Yellowjackets Season 3 is streaming on Paramount+.
