Oppenheimer cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC

Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC and director Christopher
Nolan have crafted some of the most visually stunning and
intellectually stimulating films of the 21st century. The film
Oppenheimer marks their fourth collaboration, and they've achieved
an ease and rapport with each other over time. “In all these years,
we've spent so many endless hours in scouting vans and on airplanes
and on film sets. So we have done a lot of the talking together.
Chris is a very meticulous filmmaker, but this process has also
allowed us to be very intuitive and we can kind of skim through a
lot of bullshit just by knowing each other,” Hoyte says. Hoyte
first began working with Nolan on Interstellar in 2014. At first he
found the scale of the film extremely daunting. “I was literally
looking up at that crazy, gigantic mountain in front of me and
thinking, how am I going to do this and how am I going to even
technically wrap my head around this? But (Nolan) was always very
calm and very reassuring and he said, 'Let's just start'.” Despite
it being their first project together, the synergy between Nolan's
bold vision and Hoyte's keen eye for detail was immediately
apparent. They employed a combination of practical effects and
cutting-edge visual techniques to bring the vastness of space and
the intricacies of theoretical physics to life on the screen. Nolan
uses practical effects as much as possible, and he needed creative
techniques to get across the idea of atomic energy on Oppenheimer.
The second unit crew spent time experimenting with shots to create
the effects of atomic particles and atoms interacting for scenes
when Robert Oppenheimer envisions harnessing nuclear energy. To
tell a story as big and complex as Oppenheimer, Nolan and Hoyte
chose to shoot on IMAX. This required some invention and
innovation. Nolan wanted to shoot the congressional hearing scenes
in black and white, but black and white film stock for IMAX did not
exist. Kodak was happy to manufacture it for the movie, although it
was challenging to use. The black and white film didn't fit into
the camera the same way, so they had to re-engineer the camera
gates and pressure plates. Even though they were shooting with an
extremely large format camera, Hoyte wanted to get very intimate,
close shots. “Chris and I had to decide that our vistas in this
film, our scope, is not something that comes from landscapes or
wideness or action, but it has to come from faces, you know? I
always say the faces kind of became our landscapes. But I also
believe that scope is something that comes from what you as an
audience project onto something.” They opted for a very simple,
naturalistic style to the cinematography to support the unfolding
psychological drama. Each frame is not just a visual composition
but a narrative device, serving to deepen the emotional resonance
of the story and engage the audience on a visceral level.
Oppenheimer is playing in theaters, available on VOD, or streaming
on Peacock starting February 16. Hoyte Van Hoytema is nominated for
an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Sponsored by Hot Rod
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