[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
VANESSA JOY SMITH: "Mayans" season three,
we're really rooted in realism, but there's elements
that are more stylized.
ELGIN JAMES: I'm just excited for everyone
to get to see all the heartbreak, and joy,
and sorrow, and beauty.
It's dynamic this season.
[GRITTY ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC]
On your mark--
ELGIN JAMES: They were making TV for a very, very long time.
Not a lot of things have actually
changed, such a crusted, over, old boy network.
Oh, you can't do that, oh, we can't do this.
Oh, we have to center punch, whatever it is.
And I never felt comfortable in it.
I never felt part of it.
She gets about here, she's going to take off her helmet.
VANESSA JOY SMITH: Elgin knows exactly
what he wants with the feeling, the tone, the visuals.
And so, everything this season we've
taken it to the next level.
ELGIN JAMES: Vanessa Joy Smith, our DP, who's just my road
dog-- from the look to the overall culture of the show
is something that we really spent a lot of time
talking about and working on together.
And I say it all the time.
I do not have the grammar to be of help to you.
All I know is this is how I want to feel.
[GUITAR MUSIC]
And action.
ELGIN JAMES: Movies and TV can change the universe.
There's so many things that I've tried to express--
grief, joy, beauty, pain.
And that's what we're trying to do visually.
[SOFT GUITAR MUSIC]
VANESSA JOY SMITH: For season three,
I think that we're really rooted in the characters.
You now go home with them.
And so with that, we've also created
looks within their home.
Elgin really wanted the home environments to be very warm.
So any time we're in a space like the clubhouse, or Felipe's
house, or anywhere where it's homey, it's warm,
welcoming feeling.
That's with the lighting, with the color temperature
of the camera--
to make it feel as though this is their space
where they feel comfortable.
It's like a private invitation for the audience
to come sit down and be intimate with these characters.
VANESSA JOY SMITH: In the Galindo house,
that was a whole other feeling of wanting
it to feel very cold, so that it doesn't feel like home.
Because their home life is falling apart this season.
ELGIN JAMES: I want this to look like you found
an old photograph within you.
And trying to figure out how can we do that?
How can you have those feelings come across?
How deep can you go with the blacks?
Does that do it?
How can you make these different certain colors pop?
Is that what does it?
VANESSA JOY SMITH: Constructing the scene,
everything is how you want to see it, as a viewer.
You're looking at it through the lens of the viewer.
In that scene with Coco and Hope, we're in there with him.
We're right in his face.
When he looks down, the camera tilts down.
And we're finding everything kind of as he's finding it.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
Elgin and I came together and decided on certain lighting.
So a lot of our lighting is big, single-source lighting.
And so, a lot of the shadows become really deep
and the light falls off into the background.
We also, this season, let things live within the space,
so it allows you to have really big wides.
So if we're out in the desert, or out with the guys riding,
the space of it allows you to sit in it.
And we just sit in these wides that kind of make you
feel a little uncomfortable.
DEBRA MOORE MUNOZ: Elgin has a very
high standard of excellence, and everything is purposeful.
And everything is towards this larger
artistic vision that he has.
ELGIN JAMES: I don't know what anybody else feels,
but at least, to myself, where is it where
I feel this thing in my gut?
And I can look at a snapshot, I can
look at a frame of our show, and it can break my heart.
VANESSA JOY SMITH: Everything visually,
whether it's through the operating,
or through the lighting, it's just-- we've
just leveled up a little bit.
ELGIN JAMES: By the end of the day, you have to tap into--
am I feeling goosebumps?
VANESSA JOY SMITH: That's very much
the look and feel of ""Mayans."
[MUSIC PLAYING]