Clubhouse Conversations — Nope – The American Society of Cinematographers

Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC is joined by interviewer James Whitaker, ASC for this episode on his work in Nope — the strange and spectacular sci-fi horror feature from writer-director Jordan Peele.   In Nope, brother and sister Otis “OJ” Haywood Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald “Em” Haywood (Keke Palmer) attempt to gather evidence of an extraterrestrial creature lurking in the skies above their family-owned horse ranch. The film features a wealth of eye-popping set pieces — some of which are unpacked, here — but perhaps its most daunting challenge was in how the cinematographer would shoot their night-time sequences with no available light. In this interview, van Hoytema breaks down how he solved this problem — mounting two cameras on decommissioned 3D-stereo camera rigs, and aligning the cameras so that both could capture the same images in a way that would allow for each frame to be seamlessly overlaid in postproduction. He also shares how he connected with Peele to collaborate on Nope; his views on shooting naturalistic exterior lighting; how he and Peele approached the film’s much-buzzed-about “monkey scene,” and other insights on bringing this singular sci-fi vision to life.  Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC graduated from the Łódź Film School in Poland, where, soon after, he
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