Reasonable Doubt

Approach

At the intersection of law, lust and disorder is the life of Jax Stewart. She’s the most brilliant and fearless defense attorney in Los Angeles who bucks the justice system at every chance she gets. We took it to the courtroom, the living room and the streets of LA for our main title of Hulu’s series Reasonable Doubt, Produced and Directed by Kerry Washington, that follows Jax as she juggles personal and professional drama to bring order to her life.

Showrunner Raamla Mohhamed tasked us to create a sequence that would put a lens on the complicated life of her main character, so our opening for Reasonable Doubt is both a portrait of Jax and a distinct perspective of her LA. Inspired by classic album covers and silk screen designs, stylized windows shift to show a voyeuristic view of Jax’s personal and professional life. Set to a soulful score by Adrian Younge and Ai Shaheed Muhammad, we travel from her home in the Baldwin Hills to the high powered law corridors of Century City. As Anglenos ourselves, we enjoyed shooting and incorporating the parts of the city known to locals⸺such as Ladeira Heights, and the oil fields off Stocker. Split screens change the boundaries constantly, moving through juxtapositions as easily as Jax does…yet, like her, always a move away from the brink of collapse.

Final Frames

For Reasonable Doubt, our look development process went through several rounds of iteration before we landed on a bold, graphic sun as the central through line of the piece. Its shifting gradients and colors draw direct inspiration from California sunsets, grounding the design in place and mood. The sun also serves as a visual metaphor, alluding to the multiple worlds the protagonist navigates in her day-to-day life and the tension between them.