All About The Chillingly-Corporate Sets In 'Severance'

We may be encouraged to bring our “whole selves” to work. But what if that self was somebody else? That’s the premise of Severance, Apple TV+’s 2022 hit psychological thriller, in which employees of a mysterious biotechnology company, Lumen Industries, opt to receive a surgical implant that allows them to separate their work consciousness from their off-the-clock ones. The series received rave reviews from critics and viewers alike, and racked up 14 Emmy nominations that year. But fans of the series have had to wait three arduous years to learn the fate of a band of so-called “innies,” led by Mark Scout (Adam Scott).

The wait is finally over.

Just as chilling as the plot are the uncanny sets, props, and filming locations, which vaguely reference mid-century modernism, but also are not moored in a particular time and place. That was precisely the point, according to production designer Jeremy Hindle. “All those companies in the ‘50s and ‘60s, they had so much style, they had the most beautiful spaces, and they were proud of what they were doing,” Hindle was quoted in an interview. “They believed in it and their aesthetic was part of that. It was about power and control and commerce and everything rolled into one.” That uncanny corporate feel continues in season 2, though this series presented new hurdles. “The challenge is making a show where it’s basically in a room that has no windows and just a bunch of hallways,” says Ben Stiller, an executive producer and director in the series’ production notes. “Though this season, we definitely got outside more and we also moved the camera a lot more.” Adds writer and series’ creator Mark Erickson, “Every mystery opens up a whole new room of other mysteries.”

And that’s exactly how season 2 opens. We see Mark dashing through a labyrinth of hallways on Lumen Industries’ so-called “severed floor” in a madcap dash to find the office belonging to his teammates in the Macrodata Refinement Department. In the two-minute-long sequence—which was filmed on-stage at York Studios in the Bronx, New York— we follow Mark as he rounds corners, reverses course, and sprints down fluorescent-lit hallways.Though simple in concept, this two-minute scene required weeks of planning and several days to shoot. “It’s always a challenge to run as fast as our actors with the camera,” the series’ cinematographer, Jessica Lee Gagné, says in the production notes. The filming team relied on a high-speed robotic camera called the Bolt to capture Mark’s movements. The visual effects team took care of the rest to create a seamless tracking shot that leaves viewers dizzy.

A figure that’s more imposing than Lumen Industries’ mythical founder, Kier Eagan? Lumen Industries’ imposing headquarters building, the exteriors of which were shot on-location at the Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in Monmouth County, New Jersey during the first season. The corporate campus, built as a research hub for the Bell Labs division of AT&T, was designed by legendary Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. The centerpiece of the campus’s ovoid masterplan is a vast low-slung rectilinear building clad with a mirrored glass facade. In its heyday, the building comprised a mind-boggling two million square feet and housed some 6,000 researchers.

“I always felt a sense of power in these spaces,” Hindle, who was initially drawn to Saarinen’s John Deere headquarters in Illinois, told a publication. “They’re there to dominate you and make sure that you know the rules.” Though we don’t see an exterior shot of the building in season 2’s first episode, we get a glimpse of it during a bizarre promotional video in which an unnervingly-friendly claymation version of Saarinens’ building speaks to the Macrodata Refinement Team. “Not to brag, but my basement floor is one of the premier severed workplaces in the 206 countries from which Lumen operates,” the building says.

In the window-less spaces of the severed floor, the color palette and props maintain the same feel of season 1. The cold gray-and-white walls and fluorescent coffered ceilings (a Saarinen classic) are contrasted by jolts of purple, blue, and—most notably—green furnishings and carpet. “Green is the most common color to your eye, like that’s the theory that it’s calming, it makes you feel calm,” Hindle was quoted in an interview. “Some of the colors, the theories were kind of who they are as characters and what they needed to survive. I think green is something you need to survive.” “I keep saying the finale is like ‘Temple of Doom.'" Though much of season 2 was shot on a sound stage and relied on the magic of visual effects to heighten the dystopian vibe, the series shot all over New York state, including in Beacon, Kingston, Ossining, Hudson, Utica, Nyack, Long Island, and Brooklyn. Some scenes (no spoilers here) were even shot north of the border, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. But to see those filming locations, viewers will have to hang on for the remainder of the 10-episode ride. “I keep saying the finale is like ‘Temple of Doom,’" Scott hints in the production notes. “It gets shot out of a cannon and doesn’t stop until the end. It’s one big event after another.”
Though much of season 2 was shot on a sound stage and relied on the magic of visual effects to heighten the dystopian vibe, the series shot all over New York state, including in Beacon, Kingston, Ossining, Hudson, Utica, Nyack, Long Island, and Brooklyn. Some scenes (no spoilers here) were even shot north of the border, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. But to see those filming locations, viewers will have to hang on for the remainder of the 10-episode ride.  “I keep saying the finale is like ‘Temple of Doom,’" Scott says in the production notes. “It gets shot out of a cannon and doesn’t stop until the end. It’s one big event after another.”

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Read the original article in ELLE DECOR.