LOS ANGELES — Nothing gets a group of directors energized quite like talking about a fruitful collaboration, whether with a stunt coordinator or an actor or cinematographer — even if it means making them fearful.
For Jordan Peele, writer-director of the introspective alien-hunting adventure story “Nope,” working with cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema was key. He created a new camera system for day-for-night shooting so that some of the film’s most atmospheric nighttime scenes were actually shot during the day.
“I spoke with Hoyte a lot, and this was probably the first film where I really did talk to the cinematographer like a performer,” Peele says. “And there’s a meta aspect; I have a cinematographer in the film, but also there was so much about this movie that we’re making, we’re doing the same thing these characters are. We’re trying to capture the uncapturable, trying to capture the spectacle.
