A name that is really popping up in Hollywoods film landscape in the last few years is Hoyte van Hoytema. Hoyte is a dutch-swedish cinematographer who started his career in Hollywood with “The Fighter” (2010) after already having success in Europe, especially in Sweden.
With his following work for acclaimed directors like on Spike Jonze’s “Her” (2013) or Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” (2014), Hoyte managed to make himself a name in the filmmaking world. That lead him to further work on blockbusters like “James Bond: Spectre” (2015), “Interstellar” (2017), “Ad Astra” (2019) and “Tenet” (2020). A portfolio that can easily speak for itself but what exactly makes Hoyte’s style and approach so appealing to the audience and also to the directors and producers that hire him for those large cinematic movies?
To me it really proofs the saying, you know – the best prep is a good knowledge of each other.
Hoyte on working with Christopher Nolan 1
In Depth Cine describes his style as “enhanced naturalism”2 which seems very fitting in my opinion. After watching most of his recent films, doesn’t matter if it’s his indies oder blockbusters, it stands out the Hoyte likes shooting handheld, up close and also on film – giving most of his shots more texture and life. Therefore not all of his shots are as polished, clean and precise as other blockbusters solve their cinematography, instead his work is a bit more characteristic and vivid.
When it comes to intimacy, he works with traditional camera movements that are familiar to the audience and draw them closer. The goal here is immersion; drawing the eye and viewer into the story.
Jason Hellerman speaking about Hoyte on “No Films School”3
Even though Hoyte worked on a wide variety of cameras and lenses on various films he declares his love for the large format IMAX camera as well as the Zeiss Super Speed 35mm F1.3 on the Team Deakins Podcast. The image quality of the IMAX camera is truly amazing and unique, he says and the Zeiss lenses let him get very shallow and up close. Yet they still have to do a lot of engineering, especially with the IMAX. He even states that most of his job is old school hands on filmmaking.
Especially with the IMAX camera they had to find new ways of rigging and mounting this camera, especially for his handheld shots or for the plane scenes on Dunkirk, where they actually mounted a IMAX camera to a supermarine spitfire aircraft. Even though preparing those shots is a lot of work and require much preparation it’s worth it to him. He admits that working like that is very restrictive but continues to say that they often came up with new ideas they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Hoyte states that everybody can mount a GoPro to an airplane nowadays but doing that with the huge IMAX camera is something that has not been done before and is a little bit more that what everybody is used to see1.
I personally think that this approach is quite unique and interesting and makes Hoyte to at least somewhat of a pioneer in his field. Pushing experiences that are truly meant for the big screen show his love and ambition for filmmaking which surely contributes to his success.
Something else Hoyte is very keen of is doing things in camera as opposed to doing it in post. For most of his films, especially those in space, they used special camera setups and contraptions to get most of it in camera. When asked what his favorite tool for filming zero gravity is, he said the applebox. He continues saying that as long as you have a wide of the scene first, the applebox perfectly sells the trick. 1
Spike Jonze’s “Her” is beloved for its warm colors, nice set design and beautiful intimate cinematography. On quite a few shots Hoyte plays around with sunflares, really adding to the mood of the film. Usually only using a tiny mirror on a stick to bounce sunlight into the lens. Simplicity at its finest and when possible the go to option for Hoyte.
There’s definitely a lot to learn from Hoyte’s work and his approach. He might not be reinventing the wheel but rather adding to it, not shying away from unconventional solutions to get the wanted look and always ready to try out something new. That said I want to end this blogpost with a quote from him while shooting “Her” back in 2012:
You can make a film 150 ways. You can make it with your heart, you can make it with your brain, you can make it with your penis and you can make it with your belly.
Hoyte van Hoytema (7. April 2012)4
Sources:
1: Yossy Mendelovich (13. September 2020)
https://ymcinema.com/2020/09/13/team-deakins-interviews-cinematographer-hoyte-van-hoytema/
2: In Depth Cine “Cinematography Style: Hoyte Van Hoytema” (28. Mai 2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxHtZG8okPo&ab_channel=InDepthCine
3: Jason Hellerman (22. Juni 2020)
https://nofilmschool.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_wide/public/lr-hoyte.jpg?itok=hGSwLltS
4: Annapurna Pictures “HER | The Untitled Rick Howard Project”
shttps://youtu.be/PgHtX5_CRPY
