'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' Director Loren Yaconelli, Cinematographer Ross Riege on Season Two
“THE THING THAT MAKES THIS SHOW UNIQUE IS THAT THIS IS THE FIRST CHANCE FOR THE AUDIENCE TO SEE THE PERSPECTIVE OF PEOPLE WHO GREW UP POST-APOCALYPSE.”
The universe of “The Walking Dead” has a distinctive, iconic visual style. For eleven seasons, the flagship series has portrayed a post-apocalyptic world in atrophy, from foliage steadily reclaiming the streets and even buildings of Atlanta, to the rapid collapse of faulty infrastructure with no one to maintain it. This is an aesthetic that the series’ visual style has consistently captured, despite showrunners coming and going, despite the plot of the show being radically different in this season than it was in the earliest ones, and despite the show’s shift from being shot for a decade on 35mm and 16mm to digital. As that original show nears its end, so too does its second spin-off, “The Walking Dead: World Beyond.”
The very premise of “World Beyond” presents a minor hurdle: rather than being set among a section of society that has completely collapsed and is desperately trying to rebuild, with cars having become useless shells, electricity being nonexistent, and food supplies fading, this show largely takes place in colonies that have managed to regain everything from the creature comforts of power to a proper economy. As a result, unlike “Fear the Walking Dead,” “World Beyond” features a largely different aesthetic to its sister shows. There are still times where the characters find themselves out in the wilderness, there are still enough duels with walkers to keep long-time fans happy...but there’s also something different, something cleaner and more domestic about “World Beyond” that doesn’t fully exist in the other two shows, and it’s something that takes a few episodes to get used to. However, for Ross Riege, who has served as the director of photography for six of this season’s episodes, this wasn’t so much a challenge as it was liberating. “I was excited when we started that there was this world we were all familiar with,” said Riege, “but there wasn’t this charge to have to fit in visually with the other shows. The thing that makes this show unique is that this is the first chance for the audience to see the perspective of people who grew up post-apocalypse.” Loren S. Yaconelli, who has directed five of the show’s episodes - including the opening and closing pairs of episodes for this final season - agrees, adding, “it was important to treat this like its own show.”
Riege and Yaconelli have formed a synergetic working relationship, often finding one another on the same page as far as visuals and storytelling are concerned, but their initial discoveries of filmmaking were fairly different. “I grew up in Wisconsin, so I didn’t have any exposure to the filmmaking world besides what we watched,” said Riege. “In high school we had a class that allowed us to, instead of doing a paper, make a video. A friend of mine and I took that opportunity, and they were heavily based in puppetry and animation. That became an interest beyond class, my intro to cameras. We both went on to film school, but that was the intro.” Yaconelli, on the other hand, was almost born into the art form. “My father was a cinematographer and a camera operator before that, my mom worked as a production supervisor, so I was exposed to sets early on. I saw my father operating and thought it was the center of the universe. He gave me my first job as a film loader.”
Despite the differences in how their first steps in filmmaking were, both would go on to build up sizable resumés working first in the camera department and then as cinematographers. Yaconelli’s work as a DP on episodes of “Shameless” and “Animal Kingdom” would lead to her first directorial credits in 2019, which in turn led to her being sought after for so many episodes of “World Beyond,” in addition to an episode of “The Walking Dead” that is set to air in 2022. “Television’s been really good to me,” said Yaconelli. “You get to tell different stories, and a lot of them, within the span of one year. I would love to direct a feature, but in the meantime, I have no complaints about where I am.” For Riege, however, he’s found a home as a cinematographer. “I don’t know how I would be able to direct something and take my hands off the job I currently do,” said Riege, “however working with Loren, someone who’s been in that position, opens up that door to make me more intrigued.” After season two of “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” and her episode of “The Walking Dead,” Yaconelli will be helming episodes of “NCIS: Hawai’i,” “SEAL Team,” and “FBI International.” Meanwhile, Riege’s next project as director of cinematography will be the upcoming Disney+ original film “Chang Can Dunk.”
The second and final season of “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” is currently airing on Sunday nights on AMC, with episodes releasing one week early on AMC+. Listen below to our interview with Loren S. Yaconelli and Ross Riege, where we discuss fan favorite character Elton, Riege’s work with Jordan Vogt-Roberts, why Yaconelli enjoys shooting flashback sequences, and more!