Sam Levinson and Marcell Rév collaborated with Kodak to give Euphoria season 3 a wider, more classical film look using 65mm and Verita 200D
The creative team behind Euphoria has made reinvention a central part of the show’s identity. Creator Sam Levinson and cinematographer Marcell Rév have repeatedly shifted the series’ palette and technique to match the story’s evolving tone. After a neon-drenched first season and a memory-like second season shot on Ektachrome, Season 3 pursues a more classical, composed aesthetic. The production leaned into large-format photography, tungsten-inspired lighting and wider framing to let characters inhabit a broader world, while working with Kodak to develop a new film stock tailored to that ambition. This new approach aims to feel less intimate subjectivity and more operatic, Old Hollywood presence.
Season 3 opens with imagery that nods to western cinema and a sense of open space; key scenes place characters against expansive landscapes to underline freedom and consequence. Practically, the show became the first television production to shoot significant volumes on 65mm film, and the crew used a new stock called Kodak Verita 200D in multiple formats. Initially the plan had favored 35mm anamorphic, but tests of large-format celluloid for a single sequence convinced Levinson and Rév to broaden its use across closeups and wide shots. Episode 2 airs Sunday, April 19 at 9 p.m. EST, reflecting the series’ commitment to pushing television cinematography forward.
Levinson and Rév describe the change as deliberate rather than decorative: the move toward wider compositions and slower, more patient camera work was intended to create distance from the intensely subjective camera language of earlier seasons. The production embraced the look of Old Hollywood through choices like tungsten lights and a film stock engineered to render color and skin tones differently than ultra-clean modern options. The shift away from constantly kinetic camerawork allows scenes to breathe, placing characters within environments that feel consequential. The collaboration with Kodak was central: the filmmakers articulated a desire for a stock that would behave like period emulsions but remain reliable for a contemporary shooting schedule.
The visual arc for the series has moved with its narratives. Season 1 relied on bold, synthetic hues and digital capture to sell a youthful, electric world. Season 2 used Ektachrome to suggest recollection and the sensation of things fading. For Season 3, the team wanted an image that suggested a cinematic lineage, with stronger blacks, denser color and a different highlight rolloff. That intent led directly to the decision to ask Kodak for a new stock: something with a particular density curve and a slightly narrower dynamic range that would evoke mid-20th-century color film while still accommodating modern lighting and exposure practices.
Kodak Verita 200D arrived as a response to that brief. Offered in 65mm, 35mm and 16mm, the stock is a medium-speed, daylight balanced negative designed to produce bold color, deep blacks and warm skin tones—qualities the filmmakers wanted for the season’s aesthetic. During production the crew exposed more than one million feet of the new stock across formats, making the series notable as one of the first television projects to embrace large-format film at scale. Cinematographer Rév praised the film’s ability to recall the “golden age” color palette while offering modern latitude for shooting complex scenes under varied lighting conditions.
Designing a new film stock proved technically challenging because the exact chemicals and materials used in historical emulsions are often no longer available. Kodak’s engineers had to reinvent formulations that mimic vintage response while complying with current manufacturing and environmental constraints. Filmmakers have increasingly asked for imperfections—visible grain, distinct color science and controlled highlight behavior—to distance their images from pristine digital capture. On set, practical decisions reinforced the aesthetic: the team adopted patient compositions, used large-format cameras when feasible, and gradually expanded 65mm usage after early tests convinced them to shoot not only wide landscapes but intimate closeups as well. The result is a season that both honors film history and recontextualizes it for television audiences.