Depicting a parasitic plague that turns its victims into vampires, The Strain is a mashup of creature feature and procedural drama produced by Guillermo del Toro for FX. The screenplay is adapted from the Strain Trilogy, which del Toro co-wrote with American crime fiction writer Chuck Hogan.

To translate the novels' mixture of taut thriller and visceral horror into a visual medium, Checco Varese—DP for the first three episodes—helped del Toro build a trademark look using a distinct color palette. Said Varese:

"We created a bible of colors, filters, lighting, camera language and so on, which became the signature of the series."

Vibrant yellows, blues, and reds pop out of dark, richly-detailed backdrops in low-key scenes. Daylight shots and brighter indoor scenes maintain the show's look using blues, whites, and greens to highlight more vivid imagery.

The distinct, high-contrast palette required del Toro to use a camera that could reliably pull detail from both shadows and highlights. Varese relates that this is why the EPIC MYSTERIUM-X was chosen as their go-to camera for the series:

"Guillermo had a good experience with RED for Pacific Rim. After many conversations with Guillermo, we came to the conclusion that the EPIC's color rendering, saturation and flexibility in terms of different [shooting] speeds made it our camera of choice."

The Strain premiered at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas in June, and was well received. RED is proud to add it to our list of critically-acclaimed productions Shot on RED. To watch it yourself or learn more about The Strain, visit the FX website.