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
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I’d appreciate comments or discussion about
what you think of Elswit’s work. Thanks
for watching and goodbye.
