Hoyte van Hoytema Movies & Cinematography Style Explained

One element that really stands out is the use of monochromatic color schemes. It’s almost a fusion of classic and modern sci-fi aesthetics and somehow it works beautifully. It’s always inspiring to see how a simple element like colored lighting can help put us mentally and emotionally in such fantastical settings.

The theory goes: the larger and clearer the image, the more immersive the experience. That was the goal behind Nolan and Hoytema’s choice to shoot their white-knuckle spectacle using large format and IMAX cameras. Smartly, they also knew that because the image is bigger, you should keep the compositions cleaner. 

Center framing helps keep what matters most in focus and the audience won’t have to turn their heads to follow the action. With the subject centered, the rest of the massive image is there to provide that immersive context.

When you couple that with the jaw-dropping, practically-shot aerial cinematography, you get a truly unique cinematic experience. As Nolan put it, he was aiming for “virtual reality without the goggles.” And if you were lucky enough to see Dunkirk in IMAX, that’s exactly what it was.

Obviously, the handheld shots keep us grounded. Building on that is the “home video aesthetic” that makes it more than real, it makes it personal. This is another example of how Hoyte van Hoytema movies are tailormade for the story they tell. 

When people think of “good” cinematography, they naturally think of beautiful images. But actually good cinematography is whatever is best for the story, as The Fighter proves.

Her is a fascinating example of how to present a near-future world. It looks and feels like “the future” without over-extending that idea. And a large part of this is the soft lighting and lens flares. 

One method to get these soft and warm flares was to use lenses without coatings. Most of the time, artifacts like lens flares are to be eliminated with these coatings. But it just goes to show that sometimes these “mistakes” can actually add a layer or texture to evoke a certain mood.

There are elements in Interstellar that make it such a gripping spectacle. First and most obviously, the scale of space, strange new planets, and black holes leave us awestruck. But, secondly, the close-ups keep the story anchored by the family story at its core.

It’s a tightrope act to present a film on both a macro and micro level. Too much in any one direction, and we lose the connection between them. Hoytema shot the film using anamorphic lenses, perfect for the widescreen spectacle. 

But to accent the human drama, anamorphic diopters allow the camera to be physically closer to the actors and remain in focus. If you recall, one of the themes in Nolan’s film is that love is something that can transcend space and time. And we need these intimate close-ups, to amplify that love between father and daughter.

Another lesson we can learn from Hoyte van Hoytema movies is that shallow focus is an excellent way to tell a story visually. Oskar, the protagonist, is a loner. His world is insular. Which is why the decision to shoot with a shallow depth of field fits this story so well.

Look at the shot above — Oskar, isolated in his room with the outside world out of reach…and out of focus.

As we explained in our video, Hoytema took an old-fashioned film technique (day-for-night) and found a fascinating way to update it. Combining infrared with color film, he was able to create a “night” with more depth and clarity than even regular nighttime cinematography couldn’t. 

Most of the time, darkness you can’t see into is frightening. What we learned from Nope is that it can be just as frightening when you can. To gain further insights into Nope, take a look at our blog post Nope Explained.

There’s a lot to like from a cinematography point of view in Spectre. The long take above, for example, is the perfect vehicle for both the massive scale of a blockbuster and the suspense of the operation. Granted, it’s not a true long take — it’s stitched together with multiple shots — but the final product achieves everything it needs to.

There’s also the exquisite introduction of Blofeld. Shot in silhouette and only revealed with simple blocking, it is a highly unrealistic set-up. Which would be a problem if the imagery wasn’t so striking.

Do you understand what Tenet is about? Does it even matter when the visuals are so arresting that your brain is stuck trying to figure out how they shot it? At some points, it is Nolan’s most beautiful-looking film — from the exotic locations to the ballet of car crashes in reverse.

As we saw in the video, shooting a fight scene from two different points of view is a masterclass of editing and cinematography. In anyone else’s hands, it would have been a disaster.

All of this culminates in the final mission. Again, most people probably had very little understanding of what was actually happening. But the blending of forwards and backwards footage on top of big budget action spectacle is worth the price of admission.

Hoytema uses zoom lenses to suggest that someone is always watching. He uses telephoto lenses to compress the space. Watching this movie is like a noose slowly tightening around your neck.