Wally Pfister | The Dark Knight (2008). The Amerikan Cinematographer Crypt
The DP/Director marriage is a time-honored tradition. Any great director has his long-term DP they carry around with them like a viewfinder, putting them on every project they have, until one is unavail then they quickly dump them when they find out the new DP is faster, better and nicer.
The Cohen Bros. had Roger Deakins. Wong Kai Wei had Chris Drunky Doyle. Spike Jonze had Lance Accord. PTA had Elswitt. And Mr. Christopher Q. Nolan had Wally Pfister, ASC, PH. D.
HAD.
But why? What about all the “I love you’s” and “you are so brilliant with your composition and movement?”
And according to wikipedia, the official story per Wally is that director/dp marriage ended “cause he wanted to spend more time with his family.” Sounds like a CEO says when they get shit-canned. But who am I to judge?
Shooting a feature is not easy. You are away for months! And sometimes you want off the train if you have been on it for too long?
Chris now works exclusively with Hoyte Van Hoytema. And no judgement. None at all. Hoye is one of the most beautiful, most lovely, most wonderful DPs in the world. With a gentle laugh and pleasing eyes that you can just get lost in. With a composition that is always evocative, just as his painterly lighting.
But let’s not talk about the new wife in an article about the old one.
Instead, let’s open up the American Cinematographer to “the Dark Knight” and learn together from what was once a beautiful relationship.
“Dark Guy in Suit” is part two of a reboot where Nolan took a failing franchise and turned it into one of Hollywood’s best blockbusters of modern years. Heath Ledger’s Joker performance is legendary. And that alone seals this as a hollywood blockbuster shoulders above 99% of other blockbusters. But it’s more than that.
What could have been a ridiculous film about a grown man who fights really bad dudes but can’t kill them, who growls like he has some form of lung cancer and wearing a muscle shirt that Spongebob might wear to a pull up contest instead is brilliant. The action sequences, the psychological terror - all brilliant. It deals with some big shit - chaos and grief of our post- 9/11 landscape, as well as the pain of being a rich dude saving poor folks, day after day, and other stuff.
Wally and the production designer made Gotham feel like a real city, not like cartoony Metropolis or Avengerville.
Okay, enough about this - let’s get to the meat!
FIRST A DISCLAIMER:
This article doesn’t really reveal Wally’s secret weapons. There’s a lot of code words for lighting units, and I put the pieces together like a detective. Shame on the AC article author for not pushing Wally to name his secrets.
2 FUN QUICK THINGS
His gaffer handholds a “litepanel with a softbox” for an eye light - most likely an astra 1x1 with softbox.
He replaces overhead fixtures with “high powered flourescents” - that’s probably a kino tube or maybe it is just cranked up t12 like bulbs.
OKAY NOW LET’S DO A LIGHTING BREAKDOWN!!!!
Wally lit from the frame left windows with 8k xenon lights from the left side of this frame to create those beautiful shafts of lights and he used 100k softsuns as back lights. And put kinos in the overhead flourescents and higher wattage builds in the overhead. That’s it. No interior lights. Cause it’s Imax so it’s a wide frame. It’s kind of like shooting stuff for VR - you really have to build all your lighting practically. All the close up work - it may or may not have some augmented lighting. To me, it looks like he didn’t.
OKAY NOW HERE’S MORE TIPS AND TRICKS I LEARNED FROM THE ARTICLE:
The choice to shoot IMAX was bold! Cause before that, they would just blow up the 35mm print to IMAX screens. But Nolan said NO we shoot IMAX, “I WANT TO shoot with giant cameras that are the size of a cow’s head.” And they agreed.
They were given an IMAX rulebook on how to frame shots and stuff, and, of course, they ignored it. Like they were told to have “TONS of headroom” because you don’t want people to have to crane their necks to look at the top third of the screen, and they said “NO.”
Shooting in IMAX appealed to Nolan because he liked the resolution. And at the time, I think, 2008 - digital wasn’t an option to get more resolution. The Red One had just came out but had like 3 stops of dynamic range and would overheat after 3 minutes and I don’t think there were many other high resolution cameras.
They scanned the film at 8k back then - damn! So it’s like one of the first 8k films? Why? Who knows. Who cares.
They used hasselblad lenses with the Imax cameras cause it’s large format and if you use your favorite sony e mount lenses it’s gonna vignette! NO good! They used a 50mm, 80mm, 110mm, and 150mm. 80mm was their favorite. 80mm is like 50mm full frame, which is like a 35mm in s35mm. EDIT: WRONG! Noah told me it’s more like a 25mm focal length! That’s awesome. That’s what Darius Khondji likes! So once again, that 35mm focal length is a crowd-favorite of pretty much every top 100 dp. EDIT: NO ITS NOT! And it’s a perfect focal length - you can get your wide, mediums and tights all with this one magical lens.
They used panavision c and e series anamorphic glass on their 35mm cameras. Panavision anamorphic glass is magical.
They mostly used kodak vision2 250d 5205 film stock - Wally said he doesn’t like to switch film stocks a lot. He likes using one and he would push it one stop sometimes instead of switching to 500t. “But Wally, you can push 500t one to two stops more and you can’t do that with 250d?“ The interviewer should have asked him that. But that’s that - the article went to print.
ANOTHER LIGHTING BREAKDOWN! LOOK HOW SIMPLE!!!! It’s the scene where Mr. Bat Person and the Police Folks are chatting away on the roof.
ONE LIGHT WALLY, Baby. That’s what they used to call Wally back then, I think.
Here they built a truss with an 8x8 frame of kino flos shooting thru light grid and skirted it. They hung it off the small raised area over the door into the shaftway. And they hung it 20-40ft out which means you need an insane amount of counter balance weight including probably 4-5 grips holding it, while also holding a hot dog. That’s it. Well they shined lights in the buildings you can see from the roof. SIMPLE. Then they were able to shoot 360 degrees up there on steadicam which they did which is fun! The good news nowadays is you can do this with like a litemat litetile 8 which is like a bunch of litemats strung together so it’s lighter. So less counterweight and less chance of falling on Batman’s head making him get pissed and get his Welsh accent out.
This setup made these shots which you can watch on tubeyou the results!
Well okay, it’s not actually that impressive looking now that I did a screengrab. Probably get like 70 likes on instagram with a comment like “NICE!” Oh boy now I feel bad. I was supposed to be celebrating Wally, not making fun of the poor guy. It looks a little too “muddy” for my tastes. But, again, I’m not here to critisize. But I will bring this up -
COME ON, NOW, How would have Hoyte shot that stuff?
So I looked it up! And boom in Tenet there’s a rooftop scene! Because why not! If it worked in Batman!
From Tenet - same night roof scene
Okay so different movie - different style. Check out the tubeyou link if you can. But if not, this screengrab does the trick.
And please let’ss not judge a DP by one scene. But look at this - this scene has a lot more light - light everywhere. And it looks cool but does it fit the story like Wally did with “The Bat Person”?
I’m not going to say Hoyte’s work is better or worse - it’s flashier for sure and I think it’s gorgeous and bathed in a golden light overall since it’s a scene in India - not GOTHAM - but that’s his and Chris’s business, not mine. If Chris wants that, that’s what he wants. Cause he gave Hoyte another go with that A Bomb movie.
And Hoyte made night golden and beautiful and Wally made night muddy and emo-y. And that’s both fine!
How does one “paint” night in a film? That’s a DP’s style.
Cause in real life, night actually looks dark and you can’t see anything.
Night is an emotional feeling for art. And when I grabbed Wally’s image it feels muddy and Hoyte’s feels overlight or flashly - but it’s just an image and a movie got a bunch of them. So they are both right and both talented. And guess what, how many of you enjoyed the dark knight more than tenet? So maybe Wally was onto something thematically.
THE BEST PART OF THE ARTICLE - HOW THEY CREATED BATMAN’S COOL LITTLE LAIR. LIGHTING BREAK DOWN SO COOL!
This scene in the movie:
They rented a bunker from some guy. It was 200’ x ‘60 wide with no support columns. So they built a gantry (I had to look up that word - it’s like a giant bridge.) And they hung it 40 feet above the set.) They hung 300 spacelights above the ceiling with each one having a 800 watt bulb, diffusion and skirting. (Is that a joker bulb maybe?) They shot through a bunch of 20x20 white sheets too to smooth out the light. Maybe bed sheets? And they built a type of perspex (which is an acrylic sheet) to hide the overhead rig. And it took 6 weeks to build! YIKES! That’s so cool and it looks so good. And it’s SPACE LIGHTS! Old ass technology they are mostly taking out of studios. Cause you can use like skypanels now or leds but it’s all still the same.
OTHER SMALL INTERESTING NUGGETS FROM THE ARTICLE:
With greenscreen stuff they back lit it. Goddamn it I never thought of that.
Shooting at night with the car shots, they hid par cans wherever they could.
Mostly Wally seems to use soft top light or windowlight and then a little eye light.
The party scene with Joker coming in and grabbing Bat Person’s girlfriend was shot in a hotel lobby and they covered elevators with book shelves and used some helium balloons to light. So same as the bat cave - soft top light. And damn it’s nice.
There were other things to learn but I was zoning out and I spent too long writing about the film already and I have to go grab the boys.
This took longer than I thought because I had to stop and move the car then I went to get a covid booster but I waited 40 minutes and it turns out I set the date wrong so I’m not super happy. The shot is for next tuesday, not today tuesday.
This took almost three hours which isn’t good. I need to not editorialize and just post the tips from the film. I also got all caught up in the Wally + Chris + Hoyte love triangle and that wasted a lot of time and mental energy.
Now I need to go back and check the spelling.
Okay I just did. I can’t keep doing this. I’m going to give it a go one more time next week and if I can’t do it in 40 min or less, then this is over.
Because really what’s the point. I didn’t learn as much as I did from “Milk” and “Milk” is more my style and I feel like probably dear reader, maybe more your style.
Anyway please subscribe and stuff or that’s it - I will spend my free time doing other stuff.
Ed, this is a great post and a ton of ideas. Love the style comparison.
Hey Ed, I hope you don’t stop writing! I really enjoy your posts! :)