Film School: Heated Rivalry (series, 2025)

How a phenomenon was produced on a shoestring budget.

Heated Rivalry Executive Producers Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady explain how they worked with a small budget to create their hit show (via Pivot):

As series director of photography Jackson Parrell explains, director Jacob Tierney gave him “free rein over the show’s visual language, from lighting to color to composition”. The crew was instructed that ‘nothing onscreen could feel like a giveaway’ of the show’s low budget – so they were given room to play to their strengths (via Vulture):

When he signed on as cinematographer of ‘Heated Rivalry,’ Jackson Parrell worried the series would “look Canadian,” industry shorthand for “visibly underfunded.” Months earlier, Jacob Tierney, a friend of a friend, mentioned a project he was developing for Crave: a drama about… pic.twitter.com/ltEFas37o1
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) February 7, 2026

Cinematography Breakdowns

Cinematographer Valentina Vee did not personally work on the series. However, she combines her own experience as a director of photography with information from the show’s crew, to create a series breaking down production techniques on Heated Rivalry. Some highlights:

Underlighting

Heated Rivalry (2025) — *Heated Rivalry* (2025)

Valentina explains why the show owes its cinematic quality to its lack of lighting:

@valentina_vee
I couldn’t stop myself, I had to talk about Heated Rivalry’s use of light.
♬ original sound – Valentina Vee

Mirrors and Windows

Valentina explains how in the many scenes with mirrors and windows, we never see the camera:

@valentina_vee
Replying to @Giada Heated Rivalry has a lot of mirrors, windows, and helmets. So how do we not see the camera? It’s a VFX technique called “painting out” … well … sometimes. Thanks to camera operator James Poremba for the inside scoop!
♬ original sound – Valentina Vee

Faking Locations

Valentina reveals the clever use of virtual production to make scenes look and feel like location shoots:

@valentina_vee
Breaking the 4th wall to talk about THE WALL: Heated Rivalry’s use of virtual production and their block-shot schedule.
♬ original sound – Valentina Vee

Surprise!

Valentina breaks down Ilya’s Russian monologue scene – in Russian, because of course she does:

@valentina_vee
Replying to @_🍒Darling🍒_🇵🇸 Breaking down Ilya’s Russian monologue scene from Heated Rivalry … in Russian! Thanks Kate Yablunovsky for your terrific dialect coaching work on the show!
♬ original sound – Valentina Vee

Further Viewing

An insightful thread on Hudson Williams’ use of the Meisner technique in his portrayal of Shane Hollander:

I wanted to talk a little about hudson's acting and about the mesiner technique which he noticeably used in heated rivalry and some of his other works as well

so here's a little thread: pic.twitter.com/z38j2N8Mus
— 🦇 (@LESM4ND) March 13, 2026

Probably deserving of a whole entry of its own – the montage skills on display in fan edits the series has inspired in its active and vocal fandom (via alexei)…

@alexeifiore
can’t wait for angst city aka season 2 🥀 the chasing cars edit #heatedrivalry #hollanov #heatedrivalryedit #shanehollander #fypシ
♬ original sound – 🚒 alexei *✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ

… and for what it’s worth, this is one of my faves:

shane hollander ilya rozanov hollanov heated rivalry fancam edit pic.twitter.com/JQBC7J04vt
— uhbucky studios (@editsbymel) December 28, 2025

Nothing to do with cinematography, but everything to do with Heated Rivalry – ladies and gentlemen, WolvesofGlendale:

@wolvesofglendale
wrote a pop-punk song using lines from Heated Rivalry #heatedrivalry #poppunk
♬ [Raw recording] Record playback noise 01 (3 minutes) – Icy Light

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