The Cinematography of "Yellowjackets Season 3" (Part One) with DP Shasta Spahn
Wednesday, April 16th, 2025
Behind the scenes with Director of Photography Shasta Spahn on the set of Yellowjackets, episode 5, season 3, streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, 2025. Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
Now in its third season, “Yellowjackets” has proven to be a modern cult classic. Following a high school girl’s soccer team stranded in the Pacific Northwest wilderness after a devastating plane crash, the series blends interpersonal drama and survivalist horror for a heightened mixture of supernatural intrigue and grounded tension.
In anticipation of the highly awaited Season 3 finale, we connected with DP Shasta Spahn (Episodes 1, 3, 5, 7, & 9) to discuss everything Yellowjackets, from building a positive set environment, shooting in pitch black caves, and bringing a new look to surreal gas-induced visions, to continuously evolving the visual language of one of the best shot shows on television.
by Ryan Rosenblum
[This interview contains spoilers for Yellowjackets Season 3]
Coming into season three, was there anything unique about the approach to this season as opposed to the other two seasons?
I came in on season two to sort of change the look from season one, and I worked closely with Bart Nickerson, Ashley Lyle, and Jonathan Lisco, our creators and showrunners, about what that would look like. And then coming into season three, I knew because they had shared with me, that winter was over, and we were coming into spring and summer. So what I did is I actually put together a lookbook for the season, of where I thought we should go with the past storyline, where we should go visually with it, and how we should change it from what it was in season two.
In season two, we were locked in a cabin. We were on a stage. We didn't have scope. We had, you know, 12 Yellowjackets in a very small, two room dark cabin. Everything was piled in snow. And now we are moving into summer, and the Yellowjackets are gonna have food, and they're gonna have new shelter. We were gonna be shooting in this location that we found that was just so beautiful and so we weren't on stage. I put together a lookbook that was kind of this dreamy nightmare. I really wanted to embrace this color palette of greens and browns and yellows. I was very specific, I had certain framing choices I really wanted to use, for the past storyline. It was supposed to be sort of like this beautiful idyllic landscape that they were living in, and then we knew all of this horror was gonna happen. So we really wanted the contrast of beauty with blood. And we knew that, and I think the audience knows that, eventually it was all gonna fall apart, and that you were gonna see their cannibalism come out and the survival needs come out in this beautiful landscape. And so I presented that to JAB. We call them JAB, Jonathan, Ashley, and Bart. And they loved it. So that's where the season three past storyline changed visually. We didn't change too much in the present day storyline. Once we had the look set, I developed LUTs for production with Kath Raisch at Company 3.
I think the fun thing about the show is for season four, with the past storyline, there's the opportunity to, again, change it based on what's gonna unfold for the next season. So, usually, it's fun to break it up. The present day look, I changed it in season two, and then for season three I tried to keep it similar to season two, while trying to improve on it. There's always room for improvement. This season, the present day story was just as captivating as the past story, where I think maybe in season two, people wanted to watch more of the past storyline. But I think this season, they were so equally exciting. It was really fun to shoot both.
Liv Hewson as Teen Van in Yellowjackets, episode 1, season 3, streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, 2025. Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
To your point, we're kind of now quite a while into their time in the woods in the past and have begun circling back around to some flash forward events from earlier seasons. We're getting more beautiful imagery, out of the snow as things have warmed up and the seasons have changed. But at the same time, the circumstances are getting more and more dire for the Yellowjackets. In season three, despite the evolution of the look, there's a bigger mental strain on all the characters as they're starting to reconcile with, “we're here and might not be going home.” That visual contrast comes across very strongly. In terms of technical choices (cameras, lenses,) did you make different choices versus season two? What informed those specific choices?
In season two, I used the Vantage T1.4 lenses, which I actually loved. For many reasons, I actually couldn't get those lenses this season. I was very excited that I was able to work with Keslow again. In season two, I was sort of forced to use another camera house. That was not of my choosing, though they took very good care of us. Season three, I put my foot down so I could work with Keslow, which was great. But the T1.4’s were not available to me, so I decided to use the Leica R’s, based on testing. My partner is also a DP, and he’d used them for a show and loved them. So kind of based on talking to people and then in the lens testing I did, at Keslow in LA, I decided to go with the Leica’s.
I always love the Alexa Mini LFs. I love it for the size. I love the chip. I just really have loved working with that camera. So I continue to do so if it works for the project. So I brought the Mini LFs back as well this season.
Diving a little bit into the season itself, one thing that stood out to me just on a storytelling level, and it definitely comes through in the visuals as well, is that there's an increase in supernatural visions that these characters are experiencing, especially in the present day where we start getting this more surreal imagery coming through. A lot of that obviously comes in the past storylines through the caves where everyone is going and experiencing these deliberate hallucinations. In a lot of those moments, I've noticed that there's a lot of overlays, and filtering and distortion that is happening. What impacted the approach to those sequences?
We really wanted to play with, visually, a literal altered state. We see it in the present day with Van, as she's kind of going in and out of consciousness with her cancer treatments. We saw it with Tai in the second season as well. When she's sort of going in between, we call it ‘good Tai’ and ‘bad Tai’ or ‘dark Tai,’ you know, her split personalities. But we went for it in the past storyline this season. And the hallucinations were an easy way to get there. And then also too with, Travis' story. For the first half of the season, he's high on mushrooms or some sort of mushroom tea. So we just kinda had fun with it.
We used Lensbaby’s, glass pieces in front of lenses, tons of stuff. We were shooting through, like, crystals and glass pieces and pieces of plastic, and I love all that so much. We really leaned into literally altering the visual frame, with everything we could. And I think it was super fun, and it worked, a lot of times. I'm not sure we'll do it next season. It just depends on where the story goes.
And, of course, we have some amazing visual hallucinatory sequences in episode nine where Tai is in what almost looks like a black void, but may have been in the woods, answering this glowing pink phone.
I have to say, I have a lot of favorite episodes from this season, and the directors that I worked with were just, quite amazing, as they were in season two as well. They really bring incredible talent to the show. But episode nine was with Ben Semenoff, who also directed two episodes in season two. He is just an incredible director to collaborate with, and we had so much fun in that episode visually. It was that kind of collaboration where you can kind of go to the next level visually with what we wanted to do with camera movement and blocking. We were so in sync.
Episode nine was really fun. Tai was actually in the center of the cave for that sequence, which you're really not supposed to be able to tell, but you kinda know it's the cave, and that's where the pink phone was. It's supposed to be where the gas is forming, and that's where everyone goes into hallucinations.
L-R: Sophie Nélisse as Teen Shauna and Sophie Thatcher as Teen Natalie in Yellowjackets, episode 3, season 3, streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, 2025. Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
Starting to transition into those new spaces, such as the caves, is also something unique for season three as well. What was the process like determining the look and feel of these dark, claustrophobic spaces?
Jonathan Lisco, who is one of our showrunners and creators and writers, he's the “J” in JAB. He directed episode three. We knew we were gonna go into the caves this season. We had talked about it in season two. I just didn't know that they wanted to go into the caves with no light. They wanted to make this very claustrophobic, underground world, which, our production designer, Margot Ready, did to the next level. I had so much anxiety going into this episode just knowing how challenging it was gonna be, to light it, to get cameras in there, to get operators in there. And Jonathan kept coming up to me and saying, “we don't want any light in there. We want no light in there.” And I'm like, “Okay, okay. So how are we gonna see this?” And then all that I kept thinking in my mind was, when you go into a dark space, and you're in there for ten minutes and your eyes adjust, and then you just sort of see this ambient world. That's really what we wanted the tunnels to feel like.
I had worked with our Key Grip and Gaffer and experimented with maybe putting some lighting elements built into the cave so I could have some sort of ambiance in there. And you could just see where the source was, and I just didn't like it. It didn't look right. It looked artificial. It looked cheesy. So I took all the lights out of the tunnels, and pretty much just lit it with a little Astera block in front of the camera at incredibly low levels. And sometimes, I was lucky enough to have a candle. One of the actors would have the candle in frame. But, you know, as they go through the squish, it’s literally big enough to crawl on your hands and knees. This is when Shauna and Van are crawling on their hands and knees. Vincent built this rig, and it just it pulls straight in and out of the squish. So we were able to get the camera all the way to the beginning of the run of them crawling on their hands and knees all the way to the end. If water hits their candles, all the light goes away. So it was an exciting challenge.
In terms of dark cave work, I will embrace all of it now and look forward to the next cave I have to shoot. It was an exciting challenge to have and try to figure out, and, you know, we definitely did testing for it. For the actual squish, Vincent Phillips, our key grip, he built this incredible rig that was able to put a nose mount camera at the end of it, and it slid all the way in.
On that note, were there any other challenges unique to season 3 that stand out, looking back?
We did have to climb a cliff side for Episode 7. We had to climb up and hand build everything. It was four flights of stairs straight up this rocky cliff, to shoot where the frog scientists were camping. And so we had to hand carry all of our gear up four flights of stairs, to this climbing rock area in this beautiful part of Vancouver. I think that was the hardest physical part of my episodes. But I you know, it's Yellowjackets; every episode has challenges, and you kinda go in expecting that on every level.
L-R: Nelson Franklin as Edwin, Ashley Sutton as Hanna and Joel McHale as Kodiak in Yellowjackets, episode 7, season 3, streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, 2025. Photo Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.
I recently spoke with Michael Wale, CSC, about the process of making season 3, and one of the things that really stuck with Michael from his experience was just how much like a family the whole team was, and what a positive environment it was working with you and with the entire production team. How do you maintain and foster that level of camaraderie?
I've been on sets for many years, and I've sort of seen every type of set being run-in every type of way, and what I respond to is a positive set, surrounded by people who respect each other. So when I go into a project and bring a team together, I do very intensive interviewing, and I talk to a lot of references. And I think, as you probably know, you can meet someone and kind of get an instinct of who that person is. I think that it's possible to put together a team that's not only super talented at what they do, but also has a great energy and vibe on set. I find it incredibly important for actors to have a set that is in harmony, and not tense or anxious, or angry. And especially for our younger actors, and our more experienced actors, they expect nothing less than professionalism.
And so I just try really hard to bring that team together. I found most of our team in season two, and then they came back for season three. We knew each other from season two, and then it was even better for season three. And I think the actors appreciated the crew consistency too. It's nice for them to be familiar with the operators and the focus pullers. You're working closely with all these people, so it's nice that you have some familiarity. It's a fun, positive vibe. It is a very focused set, but I think you can do that and still have fun. I think we're very lucky that we get to do what we do. I enjoy every day on set, and it's even better when you're with people that you really like to be with, because you're with them for so long.
In season two, it was a little bit more chaotic with our alternating DPs. I think out of the nine episodes we shot, I shot five. Another DP shot one. Another DP shot three. And they were great DPs, but nothing really clicked. And so finding Michael Wale, CSC for this season was just such a great thing. He's such a supportive director of photography. He was really communicative. We had a really great time just being on the same page with everything for the season. So he was the missing part to our family. It was really great to find him and have him do so well.
In terms of the actors and how the crew dynamic extends to the relationships the actors have on set; this is Yellowjackets, and so there's a lot of pain and misery, and blood and death. Was it emotional when you were handling some of these big goodbyes with the cast?
Yeah. It was emotional. I mean, I love Steven Krueger (Coach Scott.) I love him as an actor and a person, and I loved his character. It was really sad to see him go. I was actually really sad to see Mari go just because I think highly of Alexa Barajas as an actress, and I think she's been so great on the show. And I was just sad because I was like, oh, no. I want you to stay and still be a part of this.
And then adult Van was really sad. Lauren Ambrose is incredible to work with, and that was really an emotional episode on many levels. It's always hard, I think, to say goodbye to a character. I mean, it made for an incredibly exciting read when you're getting all the scripts. You're like, “No way! That can't happen.” The writers and creators, Ashley, Jonathan, and Bart, they're just so brave in their choices of what they do because it's probably not always what the audience wants to happen, but it's just such good storytelling. It makes it so exciting.
I know you mentioned earlier in our conversation that season three was your opportunity to push to get Keslow to support the project. How long have you been working with Keslow, and what was that relationship like on the production?
I came up through camera, as an AC. I remember prepping at Keslow when you were very small decades ago. I love working with Keslow. I love your gear and the entire team. Keslow has always been so supportive of my career. When I started to shoot, I started in commercials. As you start to transition into being a DP, a lot of times you have to do freebies and you do low paying projects. You do whatever you can just to get your hands on a camera and to light and to shoot. Keslow has always been supportive of me, regardless of the budget. So it was really great to pay back, in a way, but also just to work with Keslow again.
I love Mel Mathis (SVP Marketing.) I love Robert Keslow (CEO & Founder,) and Dennis McDonald (COO.) I love the gear, and I shoot a lot in Canada. Keslow has a huge inventory in Canada. I shot a film in Oklahoma, and Keslow was able to ship gear out for my movie. It's just been a really lovely friendship, and Keslow has really supported my career, which I deeply appreciate. Court Weeks (General Manager & Business Development, Vancouver,) and Steve Demeter (Executive Director of Business Development, Vancouver), were just so supportive. Anything we needed, they were able to get. Sometimes we would have to add a third camera the day before, and get an extra set of lenses. Our lens set wasn't the easiest lens set to get. None of the lens sets I use usually are easy to get, but there was never an issue. Anything we asked for was always there. It was so lovely, and sometimes it was a big ask.
I have worked with Freddy Saladin (Senior Lens Technician, Los Angeles) for a long, long time in lenses, and I call him often to talk to him about lenses. I've known him since Clairmont Camera days. Shout out to Freddy for sure. He always talks to me for a long time about nerdy things with lenses, and he's always been a huge help on every show that I do, because I geek out and look at too many sets of lenses. He's the best. I don't get to go into camera houses that often anymore unless I'm lens testing, or doing some sort of test, but it's always nice to go to Keslow LA and see all the familiar faces.
L-R: Behind the scenes with Executive Producer, Showrunner and Director Jonathan Lisco, Director of Photography Shasta Spahn and crew on the set of Yellowjackets, episode 3, season 3, streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
On the team that you were working with on Yellowjackets, is there anyone that you wanna shout out for their invaluable contributions to the camera department?
The team is just wonderful. I'm actually driving to Vancouver now for another show, and parts of that team will be on this new show with me. Vincent Phillips and I have the best dolly grip, a camera dolly grip in Vancouver named Robert O'Hara. Anytime I get a show in Canada, I make sure Robert is available first along with Vincent.
I find it to be such an important position as part of our team because he can make any of our dreams come true, but it's just all about timing and movement and being able to build the things that we need to make the shot happen. Robert is just incredible. I love working with him, and he's been a huge part of making what we need to happen for Yellowjackets. We did these incredibly complicated transitions and moves, and Robert made it all happen, and they were very, very difficult. So huge shout out to him.
What advice would you give to people who are coming up in the industry these days that want to become cinematographers? How do you stay inspired creatively?
My advice for new cinematographers, I think just get out there and shoot as much as you can on your own and experiment. I wish I had done more of that. I wish I had really experimented more on my own time, and I did to an extent. But, I think that just anytime you get behind a camera, anytime you get looking at light, playing with light, it's good to fail and then figure it out. Maybe not on a TV show, but, you know, in a safe space. I think just experimenting and breaking the rules and learning the rules just so you know, and so that you can have those conversations, intelligently.
Just get out there and get your hands on everything. I constantly feel inspired. For example, right now, I'm driving for thirteen hours up to Vancouver, and I look at the light, and I look at landscapes, and I get inspired by that. I find inspiration everywhere. And also, too, I'm always inspired on set, and I feel like every day I'm on set, I learn something new, and I push myself. [x]