Jordan Peele Reveals How Nope's Night Scenes Were Shot, Claims Method Will Push Film Industry Forward

Jordan Peele turned to cutting-edge technology to make Nope more visually spectacular.

Speaking at a special screening of Nope at Cinesphere IMAX Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival, Peele (via Variety) said he and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema explained how they shot the night scenes in the movie. 

"I haven’t wanted to ruin the illusion, but I’ll ruin it for you today," Peele said at the Q&A on Monday (Sept 12). "The night shots, for the most part, were shot in the day, which is due to a technological and strategic thing that [Hoyte] brought to the table."

Hoytema visited locations in Agua Dulce, California, before the cameras started rolling, and he concluded that it wasn't possible to capture the natural beauty of the sky and the stars.

Hoytema, who has previously worked with Christopher Nolan (Tenet, Interstellar, Dunkirk and the upcoming Oppenheimer), said: "There’s no way to photograph this, this feeling of vastness, and grandeur of the sky, which was such a big part of our story. We kind of immediately started thinking ‘How can we portray exactly that feeling that we have when we were out there in the field?'

"I started very much exploring the technology, how can we do this? How can we photograph in the way eyes see it or the way that we experience it?"

Peele and Hoytema then came up with a solution by combining two cameras  — one that shot infrared light with a narrow bandwidth, and one that captured 70mm film. They then would overlay the images, with the infrared capturing how people’s eyes respond to darkness and light at nighttime. The pair then used the film camera to capture all the colour and grain information they wanted for the shot, resulting in the memorable nighttime cinematography seen in the film.

“It’s really cool s***,” Peele said. “This thing really pushes film forward, and was difficult and it’s something that I’m excited to work with in the future and continue to push.”

Watch our interview with the cast of Nope — Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Brandon Perea — here:

Nope (NC16) is in cinemas. — BANG SHOWBIZ

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos