When “Nope,” directed by Jordan Peele, was being planned, he knew one thing for sure: he wanted the movie to be a big show. His first step was to ask cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema to work with him on what he calls “my most ambitious film to date.” I was sure that Hoyte was the one.”
Daniel Kaluuya plays a horse wrangler in the UFO drama/thriller. He and his sister Keke Palmer start seeing UFOs. Along with Brandon Perra, who plays Angel, they try to film the object.
More from Variety
Eight years before “Nope,” Jordan Peele talked about a dream he had about a chimpanzee attacking him: “I woke up in tears.”
“Satan’s Slaves: Communion” will be the first Imax movie to be shown in Indonesia.
What’s with all the alt-rock T-shirts from the early 1990s in “Nope”?
Hoytema was asked to think about how he would catch a UFO and what kind of cameras he would use. “I thought Imax was the best way to do it,” says Hoytema, who often works with Christopher Nolan.
Hoytema says that Peele was always dedicated to the big screen and how audiences could best experience the world he made on the big screen. “Imax is the most powerful format for me.”
Peele, the team, and Hoytema went to Imax HQ in Playa Vista to set up camera tests.
The Imax experience isn’t just about bigger screens and more cameras; it’s also about giving the audience a clear picture. Peele used Kodak film and the 1.43:1 aspect ratio, which was made just for Imax and let him show 40 percent more of the landscape, UFO images, and horseback riding scenes.
Bruce Markoe, the head of the post-production at Imax, says that once Peele started testing the cameras, “that got the gears turning” about how to use the cameras in the best way to shoot the movie.
In the first few minutes of the movie, we see a bloody chimp in a TV studio, Keith David on a horse, and then things start falling from the sky. Hoytema and Peele knew that the sudden ending would pull people into this world.
Imax cameras weren’t just used to film the movie; Peele also showed one onscreen. Holst, who is played by Michael Wincott, is a cinematographer who helps the siblings try to record the UFO sightings on film. In these scenes, the old Imax MK II cameras can be seen.
Hoytema says that Wincott would follow him around to learn how to use cameras. They would also talk about lighting and the technical details of cinematography so that Wincott could use the hand-operated camera on the screen correctly.
Peele and Hoytema often checked their footage. He says, “During post-production, they did a lot of reviews at our Imax City Walk theatre at Universal Studios and at our Imax HQ. It really helped them improve how the movie would look and work, and they made sure it was best for the format.”
With “Nope,” Imax was used for the first time in a horror movie, and Markoe says Peele knew how to use it in a creative way. “He did a shot in the movie where the camera pushes through behind the character as he looks out a window. It starts out small, but as the camera gets closer, it goes through the window and opens up. He gave a lot of thought to how to film those scenes and how to make the most of the wider screen.