One of the most striking aspects of the new Disney+ series Loki is its idiosyncratic look. Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw was brought on by director Kate Herron to create the ominous world into which the God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston) is sucked following his Avengers: Endgame escape, with Loki's time travel hijinks captured with a visual style which, as Durald Arkapaw told Collider in a recent one-on-one interview, was definitely inspired by both David Fincher and Terry Gilliam.

Durald Arkapaw has been working on Loki since October 2019, and she's thoroughly enjoyed the experience. "I like the process so much and I'm friends with everybody, so I'm on another project now and we just finished delivering episode six and I was color correcting it the whole time as well with Kate. So, it's nice to complete as far as people seeing it, but I'm OCD. I like to make sure everything is right. I had no problem working on it for this long, and I think the joy is that people like it. You work hard and then they like it."

Below, Durald Arkapaw reveals how she got hired to take on this project, why it was important her to do as much in camera as possible, what was involved in the process of creating that breath-taking Episode 3 "one-er," and a whole lot more.

Collider: When it came to the shoot, were you shooting in blocks?

AUTUMN DURALD ARKAPAW: We have the same filmmakers on the whole project. So, we had as of a prep as we could get away with and once you start shooting, you're just always chasing the next episode. And so the break in between we had [due to the pandemic], we couldn't all be around each other, but obviously we still did meetings and we still prepped stuff, and we shot all the way through once we got back. So, we didn't have a different crew or anything or swap out the crew. We just shot it like a movie, but straight through.

So were you essentially shooting one location at a time?

DURALD ARKAPAW: Yeah. We did. We tried to shoot at most locations, and then since we were all in Atlanta, trying to get our day exteriors out of the way and work with the weather and stuff like that posed its own issues at times. The schedule is always a puzzle on these series, but because we didn't travel a lot like some of the other shows did, we were able to stay more set-bound which is helpful.

Yeah, according to Sophia Di Martino, a lot of what was there was very practically built.

DURALD ARKAPAW: Yeah, and I have to believe that that's one aspect of why people enjoy it so much, because the more that you can do in-camera, in any aspect of filmmaking, the more beautiful it's going to be. We're not always able to do a lot of stuff in camera because of restrictions dependent on story and travel and character. There's a lot of elements that have to allow us to do the effects or not go to the actual location. But the production designer did such a great job of building as much of the tactile environment. So when an actor walks on set, they're looking at a real ceiling and real light and keeping it feeling real, which ultimately I would assume helps them in their performance.

What's cool is that it makes sense to create a set like the TVA, because you know you're going to be in there a lot, but I was really impressed by the fact that the set used for the end of Episode 3 was also real. It's just featured in one sequence so far, but it seems like, just based on what you were trying to do with essentially that "last shot," it was really helpful to have that built out.

DURALD ARKAPAW: Yeah. I think that we had a lot of prep and a lot of previews on that. So, our whole team worked around what our needs were — we want to make a left turn here, we want this explosion to happen, we want them to jump over this or fly by this. And the production design has to support all of those different moves and make it feel like it's not the same space. So, it was a really nice opportunity to have an idea prior and then build a set that supports that shot or that sequence, which you're not always able to do. But in this environment with this studio, they were very supportive in giving us the best tools to execute these really cool ideas.

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Image via Disney+

What was the process of deciding to do that last shot as a one-er?

DURALD ARKAPAW: That's probably one of the things we started talking about really early on, when Kate and I started prepping in L.A. actually, because on the page it lists what the beats are, but it doesn't say exactly what you see in the episode. So, it was a big discussion on what does that mean? We knew what needed to happen. We knew that they need to get from point A to point B and the writer writes the energy and the vibe that it should have. But as far as what does this space look like? And Kate was really interested in it feeling like the Children of Men kind of sequence, where you want to be with the character. You want it to feel real. It shouldn't feel like you have a very visually affected environment because there's a lot of the effects, but if you really watch it, it does feel still gritty and real, like you could be there.

That was really important to her. And we talked about that stuff and we're very aware of the one-ers that have existed prior. Not that ours is a true one-er, because we do have some blends there, but True Detective Season 1 did such a great job of giving us that shot, that felt like holy shit, you're with them and are they going to make it? What's going to happen next? So we did our best in creating an environment where we could do these stitches while also hitting those beats of the planet is falling and they're trying to go into this space. They have to fight these people. So yeah, it took a lot of prep and previews and working with all the various departments. And then obviously the design element is amazing. That set that [Kasra Farahani] built was fantastic.

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It sounds like you were able to shoot everything with just a couple of takes per stitch?

DURALD ARKAPAW: Yeah, the prep was probably more frustrating than the actual shoot itself because so much has to go into stuff like that. All of our teams working on stunts, SFX, camera, lighting, actors. And so when we were actually there on the day, we had done enough prep and the AD is fantastic, who I've worked with before, who I love. Everyone was organized in the way that we know what is needed for the shot. That's the biggest thing when you're doing these kind of one-ers. And maybe I shouldn't even say one-er, just when you're doing very particular sequences where you need to hit certain beats and all the departments need to be on the same page. It takes rehearsal and it takes a lot of thought. We had done previous rehearsals before the night that we shot those scenes, a few nights, and by the time we got there, it fell into place nicely. And we got lucky with the weather because we thought it was going to start storming, but it didn't. So we got lucky there.

In general, how did you come to finding the aesthetic for the show? What were the conversations with Kate like in finding the right visual tone?

DURALD ARKAPAW: The great thing is that this has been a long project, but it's been a joy because I enjoy everyone that I've worked with. The people that you pick to be on these projects, the costume designer, production designer, and even producer — if you pick the right group of people, that can be amazing. Everyone's getting along, everyone works very hard. Everyone has the same taste and the same visual style and references. And that's what happened here. And it starts from the top. So, when I interviewed with Kate, she had a bunch of references that were already up my alley and I went into that interview with thinking the same thing.

It's like, "Yes, you're speaking my language. If I'm going to shoot Loki, this is, in my brain, how I would shoot it." Because I'm very much like if I read something I know exactly in my mind the intention of the light and how I would want to visually tell that story. And so when I went into the meeting, we had so many references that were similar and we just got along really well. And then fast forward to meeting the production designer who I fell in love with. Who's amazing. We also had similar tastes. So, everyone's supporting each other's best qualities and what they like. I'm coming to the table and [Herron's] very familiar with my sensibility of light. I'm big on lighting and I love shooting anamorphically so she's in support of that and she's driving that move forward in the sense that she's not afraid of things falling in and out of shadows or having the light be its own character.

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So, it was great working with both of them and having that trust. When you're trusted to impose your take on something or put your own taste level on it, it's really nice. And so building the lenses and working with my team who I work with often and bringing them on this project, everyone was supported in that regard. And, it was a lot of discussions up front with references and textual references. And I like to use haze and I like to have shadows and depth with light. And she's just a huge fan of that stuff.

So I have two questions I want to ask riffing on that. One is, how did you get into that meeting? What is the process of being hired as a Marvel Cinematic Universe cinematographer?

DURALD ARKAPAW: At the end of the day, these series are new as far as the three that have aired. It's under the film umbrella. So, it's treated like a movie. It feels like a movie, at least ours felt like that when we made it. And, same process that she's interviewing people. I heard about it from my agent. I had not met her previously or anybody actually on the project. The only person I knew previously, randomly, or two people is the costume designer, I had worked with previously on a commercial. And I love her. She's great. And then the AD, but that's after the fact that he was hired, we had done a movie I did before together.

And so, you have the meeting and you just hit it off. You kind of know. I knew after I took that meeting because I wasn't so sure... I'd been meeting on a lot of series projects, but I have a son who's five and my husband's also a DP. So, it's hard to commit to something that is that long that takes you away from home. But I had a good feeling after meeting that group and I trusted that whatever we were trying to do was going to be original and not feel like what had been done before. And I think that, that trust was very much carried out because what you don't want to happen is to have an interview and be like, "This is what I want it to look like. It should feel like Zodiac or Blade Runner." And then you get there and they're like, "No, let's turn on all the lights, but you have to do it this way." And that's just not what this team is. we're very much supported and it was there from that one interview. So, I got very lucky.

Great. And then what were some of the reference points that you had in common?

DURALD ARKAPAW: Zodiac was a big reference point. Brazil, the original Blade Runner. She had many other references, but those three films stood strong, Zodiac being a big one. And so when I went in there and I had the same ones. It was like, "Oh, well this is meant to be." And I think as far as playing off of this tension with framing, tension with light storytelling, very 70s filmmaking and being very thoughtful about how characters are moving through space. You find that a lot in these older films that we love. Klute, for instance, is a big reference of mine and we looked at it after the fact, I think I showed her some stuff, but you're telling a story with this interesting framing and the production design is also so beautiful that you can frame things really nice and mysteriously. And it was really fun to go over that stuff.

With this show, especially when you're in locations like the TVA, the background always feels like it's really popping with details for people to freeze-frame and look at. For you, as the DP, how conscious are you of the details that are in the frame that are clearly meant to be planted for fans to check out? Is it something you're conscious of, like, "Oh, if I adjust the frame an inch this way you'll get more of this poster?"

DURALD ARKAPAW: Kate's great about that. I'm OCD. So, as far as framing and everything in the frame, I'm very much symmetry and it's super important to me. So, when you're seeing those little touches, she's definitely reminding me, this is a story point, how can we incorporate this? I was very much aware of those moments where we needed to have those in there or create shots off of those. But, she's very smart about that. And it was fun to have those elements, obviously, in the Marvel Universe — those are fun because the audience is going to pick up on all that stuff. It's not just there for no reason.

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Image via Disney+

Where do you land on things like the Volume? Is that technology you're excited to play with in the future?

DURALD ARKAPAW: Yeah. We didn't do any Volume work on this — I have in the past on some commercials, not on a narrative project yet, but obviously it requires a certain size narrative project to be able to use that. And, I've watched The Mandalorian, which is the project that everyone's more familiar with as far as Volume work. And it's hard for me. I evolve dependent on the project as DP. I pick projects that interest me and it derives from the person as well. Because I tend to work with a lot of my friends and I don't have to always work back to back. So, I try to pick, if I hang out with people, that's a big thing for me and then story, also.

But, I'm a big fan of in-camera. So what was great about this project is we tried as hard as we could to do as much as we could in-camera. And the stuff that we did outside of camera was great as well. That kind of collaboration with VFX informs that. So I'm not opposed to doing volume work. I think what's fun about it is if you are having blue screen or green screen, you're not staring at nothing. You actually have the plates there and it feels more real. So, I'm open to that as well. My husband's on a project now where they're doing a lot of Volume. You evolve as a DP as far as the project goes — if it interests you, then you open your mind up to what you need to do for that one.

New episodes of Loki premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.

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