In today’s post, we will analyze the cinematography of the new Joker movie, directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix with cinematography by Lawrence Sher (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Hangover).

A Story Centered Around the Character

Joker is a movie where the story is key, a film that revolves around the character. The objective of the film was to make a very human movie, and despite the ethical or moral implications, we manage to empathize with Arthur’s (“Joker”) character. Thus, the interesting aspect of this movie is how the protagonist is portrayed, how his metamorphosis is shown.

We try to connect with him through the image. Sometimes we see his loneliness by showing him very small compared to his surroundings, other times we feel his madness in close-ups seeing him in IMAX. In general, it was shot with ARRI Alexa 65, LF and Mini with ARRI Rental Prime DNA and Hasselblad Prime DNA lenses.

Lighting Evolution Around the Character

The lighting has a strong evolutionary character throughout the movie. It shows the metamorphosis of the character from beginning to end. We see how at the start the film is much brighter and shows certain green tones – warnings of imminent madness.

However, as it progresses everything becomes more accentuated, it gets darker, greener, and the camera position lower. It emphasizes the madness and disorder that is progressively occurring.

Capture

Initially, it was planned to shoot on film, but due to some requirements of the movie (the way it was going to be shot, low light levels, the freedom Joaquin Phoenix needed to act, focus, not having to wait for dailies…) it was decided to shoot on ALEXA 65. Nevertheless, it wasn’t an easy movie to execute photographically (shot in 6K at T1.3 to T2). For focus, a Preston FIZ, a Small HD 1303 monitor, and CineTape were used.

If we look at the camera movements, we’ll see a very observational camera, following the character’s movements, focusing on the character more than on the distraction of the environment.

One of the most striking things is the color depth. Throughout the movie, we see vivid colors with high color contrast. This, combined with the shallow depth of field, creates a very interesting photographic style in favor of the character’s psychology.

We can find other movies shot with Alexa 65 such as “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”, “Men in Black 4”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Ghost in the Shell”, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, among others.

Information sources: IMDB, Gregory Irwin 1st AC “A” Camera in “Joker” – Cinematography.com feed: “JOKER (Todd Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix, DC film)”.