Cinematographer spotlight
Jaryl Lim
How the camera tells the story in YAGA
Cinematographer spotlight
How the camera tells the story in YAGA
YAGA reimagines the Slavic myth of Baba Yaga in Whittock, a small coastal town where private investigator Rapp (Noah Reid) is searching for Henry Park (Hudson Williams), the missing heir to a powerful fishery. Adapted from Kat Sandler’s hit play, the eight-episode supernatural mystery thriller premiered on Crave on October 23, 2026, with Carrie-Anne Moss as Katherine and Clark Backo as Carson.
For the opening episodes, cinematographer Jaryl Lim built a visual system with two layers. The first is Whittock itself: real locations chosen for their texture, winter weather, silhouettes and reflections. The second is what the team called the “dream layer,” where light and camera break from realism as Rapp’s grip on what’s real slips. The nine scenes below, with Jaryl’s notes in his own words, show how each choice serves the story.
The look moves when the script does. The mood turns insidious on cue at the motel, and red light returns at the party at the exact moment the scene turns dark.
Clear visual rules, a grounded Whittock and an expressionistic dream layer, give every setup a reason and give directors a shared language across episodes.
Resourceful choices that put value on screen: complete practical locations, scheduling around the sun, winter weather used as atmosphere, and a bar’s storage area turned into a soft toplight.
The turning point. The series tips from small-town mystery into something insidious, and the supernatural is planted before anyone says it out loud.
“The first scene in the series to properly shift the mood into something insidious. Green-yellow shifted practicals inside the motel provided an unsettling intensity, and outside, red neon with a slightly elevated blue moonlight hint at the supernatural.”
The audience goes inside Rapp’s altered state, then the mood turns on a dime when Carson finds Logan.
“The dark solstice party was meant to feel slightly dangerous and sexy with a touch of the occult. We settled on a cool, saturated palette of purples, blues and pinks, continually pulsing and changing with the music. Pools of darkness accentuated by bold colour washes served to match the intensity of Rapp’s trip. A moving light on a jib arm outside the massive windows provided more dynamism. We introduce red light again when Carson discovers Logan and chases him into his bedroom, shifting the mood to something darker.”
The world opens up. A complete practical location let the camera move freely, with daylight doing the heavy lifting.
“Since the motel was a beautiful, physical location in its entirety, it afforded us the luxury of being able to move the camera freely through expansive wides. We worked around the sun position as much as possible to maintain favourable lighting.”
Katherine’s introduction has to work as an invitation and a warning at the same time.
“The first time Rapp meets Katherine, this scene needed to be seductive but dangerous. We leaned into a very warm but dense look that favoured skintones, with small practicals peppered all over the scene, along with a creative conversion of the circular bar’s upper storage area into a soft toplight.”
Rapp’s altered state is shown from the inside. Katherine stops being a person and becomes a vision.
“Fully tripping out, Rapp stumbles outside to see a surreal vision of Katherine. We leaned into light shafts and lens flares and shot wide open to create an ethereal, otherworldly vision of Katherine and Rapp in this mental state. Pinks and purples motivated by the party were exaggerated to support. SFX snow and wind added to the mood.”
An interrogation where the power keeps changing hands. Katherine owns every frame, whoever has the upper hand.
“Rapp and Carson question Katherine in her office. We took care to make sure that Katherine was always beautiful and powerful, and as she moves with the power dynamics of the scene, lighting on her shifts between beauty and mystery.”
Rapp’s dreams get their own visual language, so the audience feels the line between dream and reality erode.
“We had another “layer” of visuals that we would call the “dream layer,” which represented Rapp’s experiences as the lines between dream state and reality become increasingly blurred. This allowed us to be more creative, leaning more into less motivated, expressionistic lighting and camera moves.”
A friendly town hangout, with something darker just behind the counter.
“Sandeson’s Diner was a unique location that had a bright, approachable dining area, but a darker, almost cave-like kitchen area. This allowed us to create a space that is seemingly benign on the surface that belies something darker. We chose a lot of the locations in the show based, in part, on texture. Spaces like this felt lived in, and really contributed to the cinematography.”
The town is a character in its own right, a place where secrets can hide in plain sight.
“Throughout production, we used a variety of methods to portray the world of Whittock as the moody, foggy, mysterious place the story needed. The weather was on our side, shooting in winter, and we used silhouettes, foreground elements, frames within frames and reflections whenever possible.”