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Poseidon is the Greek God who looms largest in the life of his demigod son, Perseus “Percy” Jackson (Walker Scobell). But it’s Helios and Apollo that the film crew of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” has to contend with the most.
Season 2 of the Disney+ series follows Percy and his friends/frienemies from Camp Half Blood on a quest for the Golden Fleece (yes, that one), but the show shoots in and around Vancouver — and the key to successfully integrating the live action and VFX elements, grounding the actions of Gods and mortals, is the right kind of light.
You do kind of have to sacrifice a goat to grab a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest in the fall.
“I always say, as the DP, if this is going to be on stage, it has to be under a heavy, cloudy sky because it’s gotta be soft light. And I know I can create soft light realistically on set. If there’s sun, it’s gotta be sunrise or sunset. The sun has to be coming through at a really low angle and really warm. But if you want this scene to be under a sun at 10 a.m., no, we can’t pull that off on stage,” series cinematographer Jules O’Loughlin told IndieWire.
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” does both, making use of massive stage spaces but also spending a lot of Season 2 outdoors. If an environment takes place outside with a sunny or at least a clear feel, they shoot it outside. It doesn’t always work out, as with the daughter of Athena Annabeth’s (Leah Jeffries) tense encounter with the Sirens (yes, those ones) in Season 2. “It poured with rain, and we had screens over the top of the set keeping the rain off the actors, and you’ve only got six or seven hours of daylight, and you’ve gotta go fast,” O’Loughlin said. “But if there’s a chance that there could be sun, we want to shoot outside.”
Behind the scenes of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Courtesy of Jules O’LoughlinEven in one of the most complex scenes of the season, the Episode 2 chariot race (obviously, a camp for the children of Greek Gods has a chariot course), O’Loughlin and his team had to account for variable conditions across shooting days to achieve a normalized look. “With the weather during the chariot race, we had cloud, pouring rain, we had full sun. It’s not just the horses going around, but it’s the sequence that takes place in the stadium as well. We had a complete mix, and so my job in that situation is to try and match as much as possible using massive black solids held up by machines to create negative fill and to create shape on the faces, and also to cover the set from rain.”
Controlling the weather was the least of it. “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” built a custom process rig with two chariot cockpits — one that could move north-south and one that could move east-to-west — where the actors could safely stand; then the shot could have real horse-drawn chariots being driven behind them, and a truck pulling the rig at some speed in front. O’Loughlin obviously studied the 1925 and 1959 versions of “Ben-Hur” closely while planning the race. But he also took technical cues from Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” to visually convey the chariot-driving with real intensity without killing 100 horses (allegedly).
“For me, it was about working out the reduced shutter — shooting at 19 and 20 frames and playing it back at 24 just to give it extra speed,” O’Loughlin said. “Then being able to speed it up and also doing long lens [shots] from outside the course, with the vehicle flying around the outside. So, fence posts and spectators and flags are flying through the foreground, with the chariot behind.”
Behind the scenes of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Courtesy of Jules O’LoughlinBut the main focus of the chariot race, and of all television really, is what’s happening on the actors’ faces. One of the most important things that O’Loughlin has done on all three seasons of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” (the Season 3 shoot is scheduled to wrap in March 2026) is the work he’s done behind the camera with the show’s young cast.
“I really took it on board to try and help them learn about what the camera is doing and what the camera is actually seeing,” O’Loughlin said. “I’ll say, ‘Listen, this is a 75mm [lens]. If you throw a look just past camera here or there, it’ll be much more powerful. If your look is too wide, your audience is not going to connect with you as much as if you throw the look here.’”
The cast responded to O’Loughlin and then some. Dior Goodjohn, who plays the brash daughter of Ares Clarisse, was the first member of the “Percy Jackson” cast who asked to shadow O’Loughlin on one of her days off, and now all the core members of the Quest for the Golden Fleece and their nemesis Luke (Charlie Bushnell) have done so.
“Dior turned up with a notebook and a pen and asked me a million questions and then followed me around everywhere on set,” O’Loughlin said. “For me, it’s the most rewarding thing to be able to talk about my craft to people who are really interested, right? And also to help them as actors. Over the seasons, they’re growing in leaps and bounds.”
So, what is a cinematographer’s advice to young actors to use the tools of cinematography to their advantage?
“I say to them, ‘Listen, this season has been released. Watch it and enjoy it, but then go back and watch your performance in a physical way. Watch the light and the lens and the camera placement, how where you are in relation to the camera changes your performance and what it does for you. Learn that about yourself [and learn] what works for you,’” O’Loughlin said. “At the end of the day, it is a dance between actor and camera and lights and all the other aspects.”
Season 2 of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is streaming on Disney+.
English (US) ·