‘Loot’ Season 3 Explodes in a Cornucopia of Color With DP Jason Oldak

Finding a New Look for Season 3 of Loot

The third season of Loot would be Oldak’s first time with the project and its unique brand of storytelling. While no stranger to Apple TV+ projects, the cinematographer would be treading new ground with the Maya Rudolph-led comedy. 

"The show is hilarious. I've watched it just as a fan for the first two seasons, I've always been a fan of Maya Rudolph, and in terms of comedies, it was more compelling than the average comedy to me because it always seemed to have a visual intent,” Oldak said. “It had  a visual language, and I think that had to do with creator Alan Yang and the previous DPs. It had a presence, and I appreciated that.”

With such a solid foundation already in place, Oldak’s challenge would be to discover opportunities to push the show's visual language while keeping it consistent with what has already been done. 

“As a cinematographer, and especially with television, I never feel like I just want to come in and rock the boat. Because the show has created a language for itself, I am brought in to continue that language. I am not there to just do my own thing. That is never my intention,” Oldak said. “However, when I first came in, the structure of the season really did appear to be going in a different direction. [Molly is] now retaliating against the billionaires that she's been surrounded by. She seemed to have a clear mindset in terms of her own life and to separate herself from these other money hungry forces.”

“Instead of just totally changing what DPs Mark [Schwartzbard] and Blake [McClure] had created, it was more about what can we pull away slightly to define where Molly is in her own mindset, in her life right now. And so visually, we discussed pulling away some of the heavy contrast, pulling away some of the greener tone, making a cleaner more well defined image to mirror Molly’s outlook on the season. 

The cinematographer found his solution in subtle changes to the show LUT and using a different set of lenses. These choices gave Oldak critical control over color, a crucial storytelling tool for the show.

“Last season, they used Supreme Primes, which I thought were a little sharper to my liking and maybe created a little more contrast than needed for this season,” Oldak said. “I landed on using Zeiss Master Primes, but I tended to use them wide open. When we were at a T1.3, T2 split, it was softer on the faces and softer on the backgrounds, but not enough that it felt like you were using an old lens.  There was a smoothness to the image and a glamorous shaping to the faces, especially in our close ups.”

“The colors always seemed an important element to this show, and I think that immediately is defined from our very talented and bold art and costume department,” Oldak continued. “Loot has a rich palette of color. I wanted to continue this trend to compliment the billionaire lifestyle that Molly still lives.”

“And it's easy to achieve when you have a fantastic costume and art team collaborating incessantly, working as a team. So it wasn't about me taking away the color, it was just about balancing the physical color, with our camera temperature setting and our physical lighting temperatures to make sure that the image wasn’t overly saturated.”

For Season 3, Loot also had several in-universe commercials and a Korean drama. Oldak wanted these to stand out from the show's visual language while still feeling like they belonged to the world. Once again, lens choice became the first step in finding subtle changes. 

“[Director] Claire Scanlon and I wanted to create a big and bold image for our Super Bowl ads that start off Episode 2. We initially started to talk about anamorphic lenses,” Oldak said. “I feel like when you see one of these Super Bowl ads, they tend to sometimes have an ‘in your face’ bold lens choice, that characterizes itself with flares and other out of the box characteristics, it's something different. I really wanted to differentiate our world, but not enough that I’m in a sci-fi movie.”

“So we found the Cooke anamorphics, [which were] subtle in flares, but enough that you knew you were in a different world. And they also added a little bit of desaturated warmth to the image, which we pushed further in final color.”

Balancing the Color of Loot with Sony VENICE 2

To capture the vast palette of colors and the different story layers within the show, Oldak relied on a camera system that he knew well. The Sony VENICE 2 gave him control over his color and saturation, allowing him to be bold on set while still feeling confident that he had enough to explore in final color. 

“If we had multiple different shades of color within the frame, everything seemed to hold up,” Oldak said. “The show LUT that we designed had a slightly softer and lower contrast to it, so when we had all these colors in front of the lens, the camera and lenses took to them without feeling too jarring with the level of chroma. Sometimes when you have higher contrast, it raises highlights, it raises saturation. The camera and designed LUT, helped create a more pleasing image."

“Everything held up once we were in final color as well. It wasn't something where we peaked in one direction, and I think that's a credit to the camera with the amount of latitude you can play with. Hopefully, I'm nailing it on set, but the cameras these days, specifically the VENICE 2, are just fantastic in terms of latitude and color science.”

This gave Oldak opportunities to step away from the foundational visual language to punctuate certain story beats. The season opener referenced the pilot episode of Lost, and a pivotal dramatic moment looked back to Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s.

“In episode eight, there's a scene where Molly and Arthur are almost seemingly going to break up, and Arthur arrives at her dressing room, and he does not want to wear the outfit that she had intended for this gala that they were supposed to attend,” Oldak said. It's a big moment for them, and the director, Carrie Brownstein, sent me some images a few days earlier from a filmmaker named Douglas Sirk. We discussed the tone of the scene and felt the Sirk images were a perfect jumping off point for lighting reference. They were silhouetted, just beautiful images, but very different from what we usually do on the show, and especially for that set in that dressing room.”

“The emotionality in the scene felt like we were about to experience this breakup of two of our favorite characters. We went with a darker approached inspired by Sirk, and I loved it. It was a bold choice, and it felt very appropriate for the scene. Cinematography choices should always be inspired by the page. I felt we nailed it on this one.”

The Diversity of Visual Language in Loot

Coming onto a show that already has a set foundation can pose a challenge to cinematographers who want to try something new. With Loot, Oldak found not only an opportunity but a playground of moments that existed outside the show. 

“This show and this season in particular…had some very interesting looks outside of the look of the show. And to me, coming in and flexing my own muscles, giving my own look, that was exciting because I wasn't just picking up somebody else's work,” Oldak said. “We had the Super Bowl ads, we created a slightly different look for the show, entirely, and we had a Korean drama within a show.”

“And then we were supposed to be in different countries. In Italy. In England. So I think for me, those were very exciting moments because I do feel like I left a mark.”

Watch Season 3 of Loot now on Apple TV+ to see Oldak’s work. To learn more about the Sony VENICE 2 and the other cameras in the Sony Cinema Line, visit our Camera Comparison Chart.