Hoyte van Hoytema's Cinematography

The upcoming epic thriller based on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.
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A Borges man wrote:
February 17th, 2022, 12:39 pm
blackColumn wrote:
February 17th, 2022, 11:53 am
Nolan is colorblind so the onus was on cinematographer and the person color grading it. And they made it trashy green. (Make sure you watch it on a monitor with 300 PPI and above with good color and HDR, this movie is muted, ugly and monotonous and quite some people noticed that.
I saw it 70mm IMAX, and I have the 4k with a massive OLED. The movie is beautiful...quite some people noticed that.
hehe

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Oku
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Does the footage from the teaser give any clues as to which scenes will be black and white?

The "once the bomb goes off (i.e. "the world forever changes") then it switches to color" theory sounds good, but then that means that like half(?) the movie is going to be in black and white and I'm not sure that that's good for the film's commercial prospects.

Plus the final shot with all the reporters looks to be from the last act when he testified and such, right? So if the theory is correct then that shot should be in color lol

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Oku wrote:
July 22nd, 2022, 3:09 am
Does the footage from the teaser give any clues as to which scenes will be black and white?

The "once the bomb goes off (i.e. "the world forever changes") then it switches to color" theory sounds good, but then that means that like half(?) the movie is going to be in black and white and I'm not sure that that's good for the film's commercial prospects.

Plus the final shot with all the reporters looks to be from the last act when he testified and such, right? So if the theory is correct then that shot should be in color lol
Maybe it will switch to B&W once the bomb goes off ;) But that sounds a bit too gimmicky... I think there will be more to it, such as with Memento.

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Oku
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That makes sense too: the world being bright, happy, and full of color, until the bomb detonates and they realize the horror that they've unleashed, at which point the world doesn't look so bright and colorful anymore with the specter of nuclear annihilation hanging over their heads.

Hmm so maybe it could be like this:
- first act, i.e. the first 45 minutes: early part of his life. This part would be full of vivid color and where Ms. Pugh earns her fifth billing in this stacked cast.
- second act: developing the bomb. Still in color, but at the end of this second act, around the 1h30 mark, the bomb goes off, and the film switches to black and white, for reasons mentioned above. Or maybe, as they get closer and closer to the bomb, the film gradually drains of color until it's completely black and white at the moment of detonation?
- third act: court hearing, etc. etc. All in black and white, but at the end, he regains hope for humanity and color returns (also gradually?) for the final 10-15 minutes.

So like 30 minutes in the third act for black and white footage?

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I think the only color in the movie will be an effects of Oppenheimer creation.

KEM
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The shot of him adjusting his hat definitely seems pre-detonation to me and that shot is black and white, take what you will with that

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DHOPW42 wrote:
July 22nd, 2022, 3:17 am
Maybe it will switch to B&W once the bomb goes off ;) But that sounds a bit too gimmicky... I think there will be more to it, such as with Memento.
I actually quite like the idea of the film going B&W midway through (or after the bomb goes off), but yeah I think the use of B&W scenes will be more intricate than that.

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Oku wrote:
July 22nd, 2022, 3:27 am
That makes sense too: the world being bright, happy, and full of color, until the bomb detonates and they realize the horror that they've unleashed, at which point the world doesn't look so bright and colorful anymore with the specter of nuclear annihilation hanging over their heads.

Hmm so maybe it could be like this:
- first act, i.e. the first 45 minutes: early part of his life. This part would be full of vivid color and where Ms. Pugh earns her fifth billing in this stacked cast.
- second act: developing the bomb. Still in color, but at the end of this second act, around the 1h30 mark, the bomb goes off, and the film switches to black and white, for reasons mentioned above. Or maybe, as they get closer and closer to the bomb, the film gradually drains of color until it's completely black and white at the moment of detonation?
- third act: court hearing, etc. etc. All in black and white, but at the end, he regains hope for humanity and color returns (also gradually?) for the final 10-15 minutes.

So like 30 minutes in the third act for black and white footage?
honestly doesn't sound very sophisticated or deep for me. you can do it with anything. when a couple brakes up in a romantic film, when a father loses his son in family drama. I mean, are we sepoused to be at awe and clap for something like this? the idea that only the bomb will be in color, on the other hand, sounds far more interesting and logical. like shindlers list.

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When filming started and there was that official announcement about some sequences being in black and white, I thought they could be Trinity and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because all the footage the world saw of the use of the atomic bomb was in black and white. But the teaser (maybe misleadingly) makes it look like the whole film will be in black and white except for those sequences.
Last edited by EOLB on July 23rd, 2022, 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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As marketing continues we will get a proper idea of how colour is used.

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