“What camera would you use to capture a UFO?”
That was the night’s question at the IMAX LIVE presentation of Jordan Peele’s latest Nope. Featuring a conversation between Jordan Peele and Keke Palmer, they both discussed how Peele’s use of IMAX cameras enhanced the film’s scope. When Keke Palmer asked Peele why he wanted to jump into using IMAX cameras for his third film, he stated:
“I had the challenge of figuring out what IMAX film was going to be during a very dark time [the Pandemic] and the time that I wrote this movie was during what I felt was ‘a bad miracle’. I felt very passionate about cinema, theaters, and my audience so I wanted to create an experience that would honor my love for the cinematic experience. With IMAX, I could go as big and spectacular as I could and invite someone out to a big summer blockbuster.”
Jordan Peele praised his director of photography, Hoyte van Hoytema, who’s worked on similarly large-scoped films like Interstellar, Dunkirk, and Ad Astra, for capturing the grandeur Peele needed for his film. He also praised Keke Palmer for her performance, script analysis, and how proud he was for getting to collaborate with her. Having watched Nope, Peele’s decision to shoot the film with IMAX 15/65mm film cameras was the correct one. The vast scope of how Peele shoots the skies and landscapes effectively bolsters his UFO. He makes the horror feel omnipresent, like there’s nowhere you can run or hide, the UFO will find you, one way or another.
Before the film, IMAX also screened a teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, also shot with IMAX film cameras.
You can read Jake King’s review of Nope here.
Nope is now playing in theaters.
