‘Euphoria’ Was Always Supposed to Be Shot on Film
Euphoria has been praised for its gorgeous cinematography since the very first season. Marcell Rév, the show’s director of photography, has worked hard to give the show a unique look and feel. But Rév took things up a notch for the show’s sophomore season. The cinematographer chose to shoot the entirety of season 2 on film.
‘Euphoria’ Season 2 was shot entirely on film
For, Euphoria Season 2, Rév unitized Kodak’s EKTACHROME and VISION3 500T. The former was brought back into production specifically for the hit HBO show. Sam Levinson, who created the show, has shared that the switch to film was sparked by the need to make the sophomore season look and feel different tonally.
Writer, creator, and director, Sam Levinson, wanted the sophomore season to feel different
“The biggest fear was that we were gonna go back and do the same thing,” Levinson shared in a behind-the-scenes interview. “So despite how popular the look of Euphoria was, I wanted to create something that had the heart and soul of Euphoria, but it looks different, and it feels different. If season 1 was sort of a house party at 2:00 AM., season 2 should feel like 5:00 PM., way past the point in which everyone should have gone home.”
Interestingly enough, Rév and Levinson had dreams of shooting Euphoria on film from the very beginning. In an interview with Kodak, the director explained why he preferred film as the medium for Euphoria over the look and feel of digital.
Levinson reveals he wanted to shoot ‘Euphoria’ on film from the beginning
“We shot season two the way we initially intended to shoot season one,” Levinson revealed. “We always imagined the show being shot on film. There is an inherent nostalgia to film. Each character, in their head, is the star of their own movie, which [for this show] immediately breaks it from the realism of being a teenager and into the imagination. Film has always been larger than life, and we wanted the ways in which we pushed and manipulated film stock to echo that.”
But why was the first season of Euphoria shot on digital if Levinson always had film in mind? According to the writer, HBO really pushed for a digital season one. However, because the first season was so successful, the streaming giant allowed them a lot more leeway with the second season.
Kodak remade EKTACHROME for 35 to achieve the look of ‘Euphoria’ Season 2
Once HBO was on board, Rév and Levinson reached out to Kodak. The film company ended up converting its factory to remake EKTACHROME for 35. The results were something that both the cinematographer and the director were extremely pleased with.
“Season 1 was like a very in-the-moment, very present feel to it,” Rév shared in the aforementioned behind-the-scenes interview. “This feels like some sort of memory of high school, I think. Just emotionally, film felt like the right choice.” It’ll certainly be interesting to see where Rév chooses to take the show visually for season 3.
