In a career that has now spanned over 4 decades, having shot over 50 feature length films,
many of them classics, few DOPs carry the cinematic weight that Robert Elswit does.
His films are rooted in a classic style of cinematography, shaped by his love for cinematic
tradition.
Today I’ll be analysing the work of Robert Elswit, examining his visual philosophy and
breaking down the gear that he uses to create his vision.
Elswit, a US cinematographer, was born in the heart of filmmaking, California, in 1950.
He followed a traditional career path in the film industry: starting by shooting short
films, moving up to shooting for television, then working as a visual effects camera operator
on late 70s and early 80s classics such the Empire Strikes Back and ET. From 1981 he transitioned
into shooting features as a Director of Photography.
He’s worked with many directors over his career such as Rob Reiner, George Clooney,
Ben Affleck, Brad Bird and Dan Gilroy, although it’s his frequent collaborations with director
Paul Thomas Anderson that he is probably best known for.
Despite shooting an array of differing films for many directors over the years, the films
that Elswit shoots maintain a coherent visual style. This style can probably be best characterised
as being classic.
He likes to stick to principles of cinematic tradition and his photography, even today,
seems rooted in the style of the American New Wave cinematography of the 70s and 80s.
This can be seen through his focus on creating a degree of realism in his visuals, his preference
for shooting on location as opposed to in a studio, and his frequent use of the 35mm
anamorphic format.
He described his love for the 2.40:1 anamorphic format on There Will Be Blood, for which he
won an Oscar, “When you shoot in anamorphic, there’s a different feeling, a different
way of staging and different depth of field” This look, with its wide framing and beautiful
flares, has become archetypal of vintage Hollywood.
Although Elswit has a definitive visual style, he is still open to improvisation and new
ideas on set, something he talks about learning from his work with Anderson,
“Cinematographers want to control things as much as we can, but what I’ve learned
from Paul is how much better it can be to let accidents happen rather than try to force
everything to be a certain way.”
His lighting style is naturalistic. He tends to work off a base of the naturally occurring
ambient light in a location, supplementing it with film lighting when necessary.
The way that the camera moves in his films is rooted in cinematic tradition. Rather than
wild, experimental handheld, he favours stability and classic movement and framing. He’s also
not afraid of locking off a frame and letting a scene playout through a textbook selection
of wide, medium and close up shots.
All of this amalgamates into grounded, measured images, presented in a classic format.
Part of the aesthetic look of the images Elswit creates can be attributed to his persistence
on shooting on film, over digital, whenever possible. ”There’s something romantic
about film,” “There’s an alchemy to it”.
Although he has worked digitally on films such as Nightcrawler he notes that, “Even
the best versions [of digital cameras] I've seen have no texture, no grain. It's a very
strange-looking image.”
He loves the look and colour of 35mm Kodak stocks in particular and has used a variety
over the years such as Kodak Vision 2 50D and 200T, as well as the newer Vision 3 200T
and 500T film stocks.
This classic, 35mm Kodak look he likes to supplement, by shooting on anamorphic Panavision
glass. The frequent use of Kodak stock with Panavision anamorphic lenses in the 70s and
80s, largely defined what we view now as the iconic ‘New Hollywood look’.
He has an affinity for the older C-series anamorphics from Panavision, although he’s
also used E-series, the more modern G-series and even custom anamorphic lenses from Panavision,
which he used to shoot night and dusk scenes on There Will Be Blood, with their incredibly
fast anamorphic apertures from T1.1 to T1.8.
For the Super 35mm format he’s shot with spherical lenses such as the Panavision Primos,
the 11:1 Primo Zoom, and occasionally odd lenses such as a 43mm Pathé lens, which he
used to produce unusual colour shifting and areas of soft, painterly focus for specific
shots.
To accommodate these lenses, he’s shot on Panavision mount film cameras such as the
Panaflex Platinum and Millennium XL. He’s shot large format before on the Imax system.
And digitally has shot on the Arri Alexa and recently on the Panavised DXL2.
As mentioned, his approach to lighting is to use as much ambient light as possible and
then add to that, resulting in natural looking light on screen. He prefers not to alter the
light much when shooting daylight exteriors.
For daylight interiors, he likes to bounce large HMIs into the room to increase and hold
exposure. He likes to use 18K, 12K or 6K Arrimax Pars and bounce their light off of a muslin
or silk.
Bouncing softens the quality of the light, and prevents hard shadows and contrast. To
get to his desired colour temperature he will add colour correct gels to the lights.
He likes to expose evenly, not pushing the film stock too much by underexposing, and
doesn’t mind blowing out the highlights in an interior scene in favour of maintaining
exposure.
For night interiors he likes to use simple,smaller tungsten lights, such as a Chinaball, a 2k
through muslin, or a Lowel-Rifa light, which is a 500 watt tungsten bulb inside a softbox.
Elswit, particularly in his films with Paul Thomas Anderson, is known for utilising Steadicam.
He uses it to achieve fluid movement in longer takes where the characters on screen motivate
the movement of the camera.
He never moves the camera around unless it is motivated by the actors or an idea or emotion
in a scene.
He likes to operate with a geared head on a tripod or dolly, for the smooth movement
it provides. In his early work with Anderson they are known for employing long, extended
takes at times. A good example of this is the famous opening of Boogie Nights which
introduces us to the world of the film and its characters through a long, continuous
take.
All of this results in a visual style which doesn’t need to be experimental or overly
loud. In a world where overblown, artificial aesthetics and style for the sake of style
is hyped up, there is sometimes an under appreciation for films shot based on a history of cinematic
tradition and realism.
This is the world Elswit inhabits. There’s a reason cinematic traditions exist and have
been followed for decades. Robert Elswit is an example of a cinematographer working within
these traditions, embracing a style that works, producing images that will be considered classic
for generations to come.
Thank you for taking the time to view this edition of cinematography style. If you enjoyed
the video I’d appreciate it if you could hit the like button to help the channel grow.
I’d appreciate comments or discussion about what you think of Elswit’s work. Thanks
for watching and goodbye.