Cinematographers Daniel Grant, CSC and Steve Cosens, CSC on shooting the series Station Eleven on HBOMax

Station Eleven is an HBOMax series based on the book by Emily St.
John Mandel. The story focuses on several characters who are
survivors of a devastating flu pandemic that wipes out most of the
human population, completely collapsing modern civilization. The
series mixes together the storylines of characters whose past and
present timelines interconnect, weaving together the time during
the pandemic, the days and months afterward, and then how the
characters have adapted twenty years into the future. Art, music
and theater have thrived in a small band of actors and musicians
known as the Traveling Symphony. Kirsten, played by Mackenzie
Davis, is the main character and a lead actor in the Traveling
Symphony, going from settlement to settlement performing
Shakespeare. Each community still remains under threat of hostile
invaders, and a dangerous cult whose beliefs are based on a story
from a graphic novel written before the pandemic appears to be on
the rise. Daniel Grant, CSC and Steve Cosens, CSC, both Canadian
cinematographers, were hired as DPs for four episodes apiece for
Station Eleven. They were happy to know that they'd be working
closely together because they were familiar with each other's work
and comfortable with each other's aesthetic. Executive producer
Hiro Murai directed the first block of episodes- Episodes 1 and 3-
with Christian Sprenger as the director of photography, and they
established the initial look of the show. Murai and Sprenger shot
two episodes in Chicago as COVID hit, and then production shut down
for several months. Daniel and Steve were brought on to shoot the
next blocks in Toronto, Canada, which felt weird and surreal as
they developed the look and feel of a fictional post-pandemic
world, while living through a real global pandemic. As Daniel and
Steve began prep, they were able to contribute their own ideas for
the look and feel of Year 20 in Station Eleven's post-pandemic
world. Steve noted that the pacing of the show was very deliberate,
and they would purposefully let shots hold for several beats. Each
shot was nicely framed and the lighting was very naturalistic and
organic- it was not a slick show with fast edits. With less humans
around, they wanted to depict the earth returning to the natural
world in the future, instead of the typical post-apocalyptic barren
scorched landscape look. They wanted Station Eleven to feel
positive and life-affirming, although still fraught with potential
dangers. Since the main storyline follows a roving band of
theatrical performers, the show was always on the move with many
different locations, and Daniel and Steve had to fuse the
challenges of the logistics with the creative. Many episodes
required different seasons or the same location dressed for
different years. The hardest episodes and locations to shoot took
place at the airport, set during Station Eleven's pre-pandemic and
then twenty years after the pandemic. The two cinematographers
stayed in close contact and were true collaborators, sharing
information and communicating to make it easier for each other as
they switched off shooting in the airport location. Steve and
Daniel would often have early morning phone calls to constantly
feed each other information about the shoot day, and would watch
each other's dailies to match each other's shots. Find Daniel
Grant: https://www.danielgrantdp.com/ Instagram: @danielgrant_dp
Find Steve Cosens: https://www.stevecosens.com/ Instagram:
@cosenssteve You can see all episodes of Station Eleven on HBOMax
Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes
and links: http://camnoir.com//ep157/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras:
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