How Severance Uses Framing to Build Its World—And What Brands Can Learn From It
In the world of Severance, nothing is accidental—not even the camera angles. The hit Apple TV+ series created by Dan Erickson and directed in part by Ben Stiller is a masterclass in psychological storytelling. With its eerie tone, minimal dialogue, and sterile corporate aesthetic, Severance doesn’t just tell a story—it constructs a world. And at the heart of that world-building is framing.
Framing in film refers to the way subjects are placed within the camera’s view. It's not just about making a shot look good; it's about guiding how viewers feel, what they notice, and how they emotionally interpret a scene. In Severance, the use of framing is so precise that it becomes a character in its own right—one that reflects the inner turmoil of the show’s divided protagonists.
As a visual media company, we’re constantly helping brands shape narratives. And Severance offers a blueprint for how framing can be used to deliver not just content, but meaning.
The Geometry of Control
From the first episode of Season 1, Severance sets the tone through symmetrical, distant, and meticulously balanced compositions. When Helly awakens on the conference room table, the camera hovers above her in a top-down shot that’s clinical, detached, and almost surgical. This perspective not only reflects the dehumanizing nature of Lumon Industries, but also subtly tells us: You’re being watched.
S1 E1 - Good News About Hell
Throughout Season 1, much of the Innies’ experience inside Lumon is shown in wide shots with characters centered and surrounded by excessive negative space. In Episode 2 (“Half Loop”), Mark walks down a long hallway flanked by identical doors. He’s framed dead center, but the overwhelming emptiness on either side reinforces his isolation. These images aren’t just beautiful—they’re suffocating. They echo the central theme: workers are reduced to parts within a machine.
S1 E3 - In Perpetuity
A perfect example of this is the hallway standoff from Episode 3 (“In Perpetuity”), where Mark’s team encounters Burt and Ms. Casey. The shot is composed around a sharp corner, splitting the frame into two vanishing hallways. This use of architectural symmetry creates a visual divide between the characters, symbolizing their roles within Lumon’s rigid structure. Despite being in the same space, the two sides feel emotionally distant—boxed into different worlds by a literal wall. The sterile lighting, angular corridor lines, and distant camera position emphasize the psychological compartmentalization at the heart of the series.
This is the kind of framing that doesn’t just serve visual appeal—it tells the story. And for brands, it’s a reminder: the spaces we create, the angles we choose, and the negative space we leave all influence how a message is felt.
Camera as Surveillance
In Severance, the camera often acts like an ever-present eye—unblinking, unfeeling, and deeply embedded in the sterile walls of Lumon Industries. The show's frequent use of overheads, wide lenses, and static perspectives doesn’t just tell us what’s happening; it reminds us that someone—or something—is always watching.
S1 E6 - Hide and Seek
Take this chilling shot from Season 1 (above), which places the viewer squarely in the role of observer. The camera adopts a subjective point of view, as though we’re standing directly in front of the main cast (Mark, Helly, Irving, Burt, and other Lumon employees) as they all turn to look at us. The characters are arranged with calculated spacing, separated by the sterile white columns of the factory floor, stretching into infinity. The depth of field and rigid symmetry evoke a sense of order enforced by invisible eyes.
We don't just feel like we're watching them—they feel like they’re watching us watching them.
This is Severance at its most meta: the workers are dehumanized not just by their severed identities, but by the very way they are visually presented to us. The wide-angle lens exaggerates the distance and coldness of the space, while the actors' stillness and direct stares create a moment of psychological tension, where the camera itself becomes a tool of control.
The brilliance of this visual strategy is that it requires no dialogue. Just placement, distance, and angle. It’s a lesson in how composition alone can communicate power structures, distrust, and emotional vulnerability.
Spaces that Define Characters
One of the show's most unsettling elements is the use of space—or more accurately, the lack of meaningful space. Hallways are long and sterile. The break room is a bare, dimly lit chamber with a single table.
Season 2, Inside Lumon
This image from Season 2 further illustrates the idea: two characters walk down a hallway composed almost entirely of flat, sterile panels, lit by a harsh, institutional glow from the ceiling grid. The framing and design leave no visual markers of personality, warmth, or individuality. These are not spaces designed for humans—they’re built for containment.
There’s no color variation, no organic texture—just cold geometry and repetition. The characters, both women, are dressed in uniform tones and nearly blend into the environment, a visual metaphor for how Lumon suppresses identity.
In contrast, moments of rebellion or connection are often accompanied by visual changes. In the Season 1 finale, when Dylan holds the switch open to allow the others to “wake up,” the camera moves in for tight close-ups, allowing emotion to finally enter the frame. It’s one of the rare moments where the characters seem to reclaim control over their environment—and over the narrative itself.
What Brands Can Learn
So what does this have to do with brand storytelling? Everything.
In our work, we often say: the way you frame a story is the story. Severance teaches us that visual language—composition, symmetry, space—is not just aesthetic. It's psychological. It informs trust, emotion, and memory.
For example:
A symmetrical shot can communicate stability or formality.
Negative space can highlight a product—or evoke loneliness.
Off-center framing can suggest imbalance or tension, perfect for introducing a challenge your brand helps solve.
For brands looking to convey authority or clarity, clean and composed framing can do more than a script ever could. And for those wanting to show vulnerability, intimacy, or disruption, shifting the frame can change everything.
Framing the Future
As Season 2 expands the world outside Lumon, we start to see more fluidity in the show’s compositions. The outer world is softer, messier, and less symmetrical—visually cueing us to the difference between freedom and confinement. Yet even here, framing remains intentional.
Severance, Season 2
This dramatic close-up of Mark in Episode 9 (“The We We Are”), lit in jarring red and surrounded by blurred depth, marks a visual and emotional rupture. The carefully composed, symmetrical frames of the earlier episodes have given way to chaos. Blood stains his collar. His expression is panicked, raw. Behind him, Helly approaches, out of focus and bathed in the same emergency lighting.
Here, the camera abandons the show’s rigid formality and allows us into Mark’s subjective experience. The background lines converge sharply, but the perfect geometry is disrupted. We are no longer watching Severance’s world from a cold, detached viewpoint. We are inside it—confused, unmoored, and emotionally exposed.
This moment captures the beginning of the unraveling—not just of the characters’ compartmentalized identities, but of the visual system that held the show in place. And that’s the lesson for brands, too: when the story shifts, the visuals must follow. Framing isn’t a fixed rule—it’s a tool that evolves with your message.
At Benco, we help clients bring this level of visual intention to their videos—whether it's a 30-second promo or a longform documentary. Because framing isn’t just for fiction. It’s for anyone with a message worth showing.
