This article appears in the new issue ofDEN OF GEEKmagazine.
For better or worse, his has been a talent that shaped worlds.
Christopher Nolanhas spent nearly a quarter-century pushing the envelope of cinematic spectacle to its most audacious and overwhelming.
Perhaps thats why van Hoytemas chuckle is so knowing when we point out these similarities between artist and subject.
AsOppenheimers director of photography admits, the comparison is tempting.
But for the first time, this is looking inwards.
It suddenly was people in small, smoky, nicotine-drenched rooms reciting political and scientific rhetoric… To disappear into those reservoirs meant rethinking how to use Nolans beloved IMAX cameras as well.
We were always trying to keep pushing the IMAX camera.
Hence van Hoytema likening pre-production on a Nolan picture to that of moviemaking R&D.
Its like a micro-lens that has a much bigger depth of field.
He started to understand something that very few people understood.
So how can we show this with film, and how can we show that through his eyes?
That aforementioned snorkel lens?
Still, there are times where visual effects will take you only so far.
Just how big it was, van Hoytema remains circumspect about.
But he laughs, We had to be far away because otherwise your eyebrows would burn off.
Recreating that demonstration is to capture world history at a turning point.
It wants to feel pure and raw.
In that way, they can also become very distant-shaded.
Perhaps he was less the destroyer of worlds than the architect of our new one.
Its a concept that might appeal to a builder of cinematic landscapes too.
Im very proud of the movie, and Im very proud of Chris, van Hoytema says.
Oppenheimeropens in theaters on July 21.
