Nope Cinematography Shines with Innovative Day-for-Night Technique and Sweeping Landscapes
Nope is a modern horror classic that offers a unique and innovative approach to shooting night sequences. The cinematographer, Hoyte Van Hoytema FSF NSC ACS, faced a significant challenge in shooting convincing night-time sequences with no available light. However, he reinvented the way filmmakers approach shooting day-for-night scenes by using a hybrid of film and digital cameras.
Throughout the film, Van Hoytema expertly crafts a haunting atmosphere using a combination of techniques, from stunning wide shots of the vast Californian landscape to intimate close-ups that make the audience feel uncomfortably close to the characters.
One of the most impressive aspects of Van Hoytema’s work on Nope is the way he uses the camera to create a sense of unease and disorientation. In certain scenes, the camera will tilt at an angle, creating a skewed perspective that throws the viewer off balance. In others, he’ll use a wide-angle lens to stretch the image, distorting the characters and their surroundings. These choices create a sense of claustrophobia and unease that permeates the entire film.
In addition to these innovative techniques, Van Hoytema also makes use of color and light to create a unique visual palette. The film’s daytime scenes are drenched in warm, golden light, while the nighttime sequences are rendered in eerie shades of blue and black. This contrast helps to underscore the film’s central themes of light and dark, and the ways in which they intersect and overlap.
Van Hoytema’s work on Nope also showcases his mastery of both digital and film formats.
Van Hoytema and his team purchased two decommissioned 3D-stereo camera rigs, one customized to capture infrared with an ARRI Alexa camera and the other a regular 35mm film camera. By aligning the cameras and shooting the exact same image, every frame overlaid perfectly later in post-production. This allowed the vital color and texture needed for the image to be captured by the 35mm camera, while the infrared camera picked up the brightness and contrast of the scene.
In addition, Van Hoytema and his team worked closely with ARRI and Panavision to create a specialist rig that allowed for the movement and flexibility necessary to shoot on location. The retrofit of a gyro-stabilized Edge crane vehicle to fit the rig allowed the team to follow running horses and capture other dramatic action scenes.
The result of this groundbreaking approach is some of the best day-for-night shots in all of cinema, including the stillness of a horse looking out into the vastness of a California valley and the entirety of the blood rain sequence. By capturing the essence of natural sunlight with infrared cameras and overlaying the color and texture needed for the image with a 35mm camera, Van Hoytema created a perfect composition that gives viewers an immersive and convincing night-time experience.
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