Oscar winning cinematographer Robert Elswit, ASC on King Richard, Nightcrawler, Boogie Nights and Magnolia

Legendary cinematographer Robert Elswit has shot a wide range of
movies, including Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood- which won him
the Academy Award for Best Cinematography- Magnolia, Good Night and
Good Luck, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Bourne Legacy, two Mission
Impossible movies, and of course Return of the Living Dead Part 2.
Robert's latest film is King Richard, a biopic that tells the story
of how Richard Williams, the father of tennis players Venus and
Serena Williams, was determined to shape his daughters into
champions. From the beginning, Robert and director Reinaldo Marcus
Green wanted the tennis to be realistic. They watched many other
tennis movies and didn't find the speed and athleticism of the
actors to be believable. They knew it was going to be tricky
dealing with actors pretending to be tennis players. Fortunately,
the story was about Venus and Serena developing and honing their
tennis skills, so the playing didn't have to look perfect. The
matches were carefully designed around scripted beats that moved
the story forward. Robert and Green decided to show only specific
moments of the matches, including how Venus and Serena interacted
with other players, how the parents interacted with their kids, and
how Richard interacted with the coaches and his kids. They were
careful in thinking about how to shoot the match, keeping it as
interesting and as believable as it could be in terms of speed and
athleticism but also making sure that the audience understands what
is happening emotionally with the characters. For the look of King
Richard, Robert chose several different types of filters and
diffusion to represent the light in Compton, but didn't use as many
for Florida, so that the sun could feel more bright and harsh.
Robert's throughline for Los Angeles for the film Nightcrawler was
shooting the ribbons of freeways that run through the Valley, as
the main character Louis Bloom drives around LA looking for crime
as a news stringer. It was impossible to fake it with a green
screen. Robert, the cast and crew had to literally drive around and
shoot Los Angeles at night. They had no time or budget to light
things, so they scouted locations that were already lit. He took
advantage of the street lights and the ambient light from
billboards and stores. This approach gave the movie its distinctly
seedy look, and Robert felt it was clearly the only approach that
fit the script. You can see King Richard on HBO Max. Find out even
more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links:
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