The pandemic and Ted Lasso were catalysts of sorts for Jim Frohna getting the cinematography gig on Shrinking, the Apple TV+ series which stars Jason Segel as a grieving therapist in a mental health wellness practice who defies his training and starts telling clients exactly what he thinks.
Frohna’s Shrinking adventure started when he read an industry trade blurb about a show which was being developed by creators Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein and Segel. The DP didn’t personally know any of this threesome but he knew what a remarkable job Lawrence and Goldstein did in bringing Ted Lasso to life, a series which struck a responsive chord and established a deep rapport with viewers.
Frohna is an unabashed fan of Ted Lasso so when he got wind of Lawrence and Goldstein being up to something new, the cinematographer asked his agent to help place him in consideration for Shrinking. Frohna wound up landing a Zoom call with Shrinking EP and director Randall Keenan Winston, who is Lawrence’s right-hand producing partner, as well as James Ponsoldt, an EP and director. Among the episodes which Ponsoldt wound up directing was the very first, which set the tone for the series.
In that remote meeting, Frohna shared his thoughts and possible approaches to take based on the first-rate script he had read for the pilot. He also shared what it would mean for him to work with the Shrinking team which included the core movers behind Ted Lasso. Frohna recalled saying to Winston and Ponsoldt that “during the darkest days of the pandemic, I felt Ted Lasso saved me and my family.” The DP wanted the opportunity to be involved in a story that had the potential to touch and move others as Ted Lasso did him.
While Shrinking is decidedly different from Ted Lasso, Frohna saw the promise the new show had to connect meaningfully with viewers. He was drawn to the blend of physical comedy and genuine pathos in the story, which in turn proved to be one of the prime challenges posed to him as a cinematographer. Frohna explained that “the first thing” he and director Ponsoldt talked about relative to the pilot was doing justice to the comedic moments while still being truly connected to and open about the grief felt by Jimmy (portrayed by Segel) over the death of his wife. Jimmy also has a frayed relationship with his teen daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), who’s also grieving.
From at times almost slapstick comedy to genuine, deeply personal feelings, Frohna felt a profound challenge to properly mesh that wide range of what the characters experience. He asked himself, “What is my job in terms of creating a world through the camera where it can hold all that? What is the best container for that?”
Frohna found that he and Ponsoldt separately saw the same path, one which they discovered in conversation that they shared. They felt the need to give the show “a grounded feeling,” said Frohna, so that the settings would look and feel like real places such as the mental health clinic in Pasadena, Calif. It had to be lit “naturalistically,” which made for the best environment to allow the show to be what it is.
Towards that end, Frohna opted for the ARRI Alexa Mini. The DP noted that he has long loved the way that the Alexa interprets images and colors. At the same time, vintage lenses were needed. Frohna explained that for almost a decade, older lenses have been brought back to life and rehoused to add a characteristic or quality that balances what digital cameras capture. In this digital cinematography age, related Frohna, it’s “very easy to let an image be super clean and crisp…kind of clinical at times.” Vintage lenses can bring a human feeling to the proceedings. In the case of Shrinking, Frohna ultimately gravitated to lenses from Panavision called PVintage. Frohna found that the lenses had “a compassion to them, a little bit of a softness,” delivering a look that was “slightly flawed, not perfect,” which reminded him of the characteristics of what’s going on in the series–where people and situations too are “not perfect, a little flawed.”
There is, however, a perfection that arose in the casting of Shrinking. Frohna was attracted to the show and the people behind it from the get-go. But he didn’t bargain on the bonus of Harrison Ford later agreeing to join the cast. Ford plays Paul, a tough, seasoned therapist who works with fellow therapists Jimmy and Gaby (Jessica Williams) at the mental wellness practice.
Getting the opportunity to work with Ford was a special treat for Frohna. “I grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee worshiping the movies,” recalled Frohna who in the summertime as a youngster would go to the movie theater most days. He recalled repeatedly seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark. Fast forward to adulthood and Frohna found himself “sitting five feet across from Harrison Ford,” an experience which the DP described as “incredible” and “mind blowing.” Even better, Frohna got to know Ford as a human being, witnessing first hand how he loves being on set, being in close proximity to and talking with the crew. Frohna described Ford as “very kind” and someone who “kept us laughing and surprising us with his silliness.” You can feel a smile in Frohna’s voice when he says, “I got to work with Indiana Jones.”
Shrinking, which was recently renewed for a second season on Apple TV+, adds to a body of work for Frohna which includes season 2 of HBO’s Big Little Lies for director Andrea Arnold, as well as lensing of the Amazon series Transparent. For the latter he earned an Emmy nomination in 2017 for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour) on the basis of the episode entitled “If I Were a Bell.” Frohna additionally directed a couple of Transparent episodes.
