Dolby Creator Talks

The Cinematography of The Batman

March 10, 2022

Director Matt Reeves joins us again this week to discuss The Batman. This is part 2 of our special 2-part episode on this movie, where we discuss the film's incredible cinematography. If you haven't already, be sure to check out part 1, where we break down the sound and music of The Batman, in our podcast archive from earlier this week, or on YouTube:

When we shot things, even like the Batmobile chase, even though there's a tremendous amount of visual effects in the movie, I didn't want you to be aware that we were doing them at all. And so we always used the parameters of how you would do it if you were doing it practically. And so [with] the Batmobile chase, we're putting cameras and we're locking them onto hard mounts, so you're watching a lot of hard mounts and that kind of stuff. And then, 'what's in focus?' And it's in the middle of rain. And 'what does that rain look like?' And there were times when Greig would take a filter and put a little bit of silicone on it... so that when you put it in front of the lens and when it got wet, you had the sense that it wasn't just that we were in rain that was perfectly photographed. The lens itself got wet. So you feel like you're in the middle of it. And so everything was about putting you squarely in that experience.

Matt Reeves, Director, Co-Writer, and Producer, "The Batman"

https://youtu.be/uZ_3Kdm_ZhE Joining Matt is Director of Photography Greig Fraser (who joins us separately, later in this episode, as he is currently on location in London), and Supervising and Lead Digital Colorist, David Cole.But this episode is not just a deep dive into the technical aspects of their fascinating post-production process, but also includes details on how Matt and Greig managed to make such an epic movie feel like you, in the audience, were right there in the middle of all the action. Be sure to check out The Batman at a Dolby Cinema near you. Please subscribe to Sound + Image Lab: The Dolby Institute Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can also check out the video for this episode. Learn more about the Dolby Institute and check out Dolby.com. Connect with Dolby on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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