Hoyte van HoytemaandChristopher Nolanhave collaborated on some of the best looking films of recent years, and their latest film,Oppenheimer, is perhaps the pinnacle of their work together. A beautifully shot production, the film is a masterclass in character study and the use ofIMAX cameras to get up close and personal withCillian Murphyin the title role adds to the intimacy of the film.
Speaking with Collider’sSteve Weintraub, van Hoytema discussed Nolan’s method for shooting.Directors likeRidley Scottlike to employ as many as six or seven cameras, at various angles, to shoot a scene. This method allows Scott the chance to find an angle that works for the story he wants to tell. For Nolan, less is more.
The director, and his cinematographer, will use one camera to ensure that all focus is pushed towards itand that the attention to detail needs to be higher in order to meticulously plan the scene out. Nolan believes having more than one camera shooting at the same time will divert attention and cause the filmmakers' concentration to become divided due to the distraction caused by split focus.
“For most of the time, we work with one camera on set. Effectively shooting with Chris is like a one-camera show,” said van Hoytema. “The camera is sort of the magic box that everything that happens around has to be directed and evolving towards, getting sucked into that one little box. So that one camera really becomes an epicenter on our shoes. As soon as you put two cameras on the set, that attention gets somehow divided, and being with Chris on the set is [an] extremely focused group of people that really work towards a very specific goal.”
The Ultimate Way of Filmmaking
Van Hoytema revealed Nolan likes to be close to his camera at all times to fully experience what the camera — and therefore, the audience — will be seeing.There’s an air of a stage play in how he constructs his shots, and builds a scene, so that the camera can be in its exact position, and the actors are precisely where they need to be. Van Hoytema describes Nolan’s method as “ultimate filmmaking”.
“Chris is also somebody that loves to sit very close to the camera to understand what the camera is seeing, so he’s always very close by looking into the set next to the camera. He’s not a material collector or a cleaning lady or a vacuum cleaner, you know? It’s a very meticulous and very focused process. The actors know exactly towards where they’re working, the production designers, the prop people, the set dressers, but also, us, lighting, et cetera. It all has to evolve towards that one direction, and so the one camera should just feel very logical to us. It’s sort of a very ultimate way of filmmaking for us. It feels very focused.”
Oppenheimeris currently playing in theaters and IMAX. For more on the way Hoyte van Hoytema and Christopher Nolan worked together onOppenheimer, watch the full interview below.
