Hoyte van Hoytema Wiki: 5 Facts To Know About The 'Interstellar' Cinematographer

Hoyte Van Hoytema was born in 1971. He is a Dutch-Swiss cinematographer who studied at the National Film School in Lodz. He has worked mainly in Sweden and some also in Germany, Norway, The United States and the United Kingdom. Hoytema is best known for his work on films like, 'Interstellar', 'Spectre' and 'Dunkirk'. 'Spectre' is a James Bond movie while 'Dunkirk' is a World War II thriller. Born in Horgen, Switzerland to Dutch parents, Hoytema relocated to Netherlands when he was very young. He has short numerous documentaries, feature films and successful television serials. Hoytema has collaborated with directors like Mikael Marcimain, Tomas Alfredson, and Christopher Nolan and as a result, he has won critical acclaim and several national and international prizes. Hoytema has co-founded the photo-sharing website, Woophy' along with Joris Van Hoytema and Marcel Geenevasen in 2005. The website went offline in 2013 owing to financial reasons. With the sheer brilliance of the movie, Dunkirk, Hoytema has become the cinematographer of the moment in Hollywood, although the journey for this Swiss-born technician has not been very easy. His films, The lenser of Her, 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' and Interstellar was rejected twice by the Netherland’s Film Academy before being accepted by Poland’s National Film School, which has given the world, numerous world cinema luminaries, including Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polanski and Krzysztof Kieslowski. His film, 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' was an exceptional film. In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6. After dropping out of school in his third year, Hoytema managed to work on numerous productions. He shot a film called Vanitas in 1995, which is available on the internet. Although the seven-minute hardly shows any of the epic scope that was found in Interstellar, but it does make one thing clear. Hoytema's interests lie in creating a visual mood and tones behind the camera. Van Hoytema spoke about the early rejection and his gradual shift towards cinematography from direction in a revealing interview, “When I applied from high school, I was just so immature, I just had some sort of idea that I wanted to do that. I think that at some point these ideas start to formulate themselves into drives. It is very hard to define where that comes from, but I really wanted it badly. I didn’t have an 8 mm camera in my father’s closet, I just had some idea about how this was and how it could be and what it meant.” Hoytema's work on the Swedish vampire film, 'Let the Right One in' in 2008 was recognized, and since then, he has got the opportunity to work with some of Hollywood’s biggest directors, including Nolan, Darren Aronofsky and Sam Mendes. 'Let the Right One In' was about a boy named, Oskar, who was an overlooked and bullied boy. He finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl. Van Hoytema collaborated with the filmmaker on the science fiction film 'Interstellar' in 2014. In his collaboration with Nolan, Hoytema told in an interview, “My first impulse was to tell Chris that I could never be Wally, and I’m a very different cinematographer. … I had the feeling I could use my own personally.” In the movie, 'Futuristic Her' in 2013, Hoytema used digital photography for the night scenes to create a version of Los Angeles that would feel completely artificial. Hoytema continues to live in Stockholm with his family and returns to the country for 'Call Girl' in 2012. The cinematographer’s recent project is the science fiction film, 'Ad Astra'. If Hoytema’s past films are anything to go by, the film is guaranteed to be an epic visual treat.

Hoyte Van Hoytema has a net worth of $13 million.

Cinematography is an often less known field for the audience who watch a film. Dunkirk as a film had such superb effects and technical accomplishments that even a common man could not help but be amazed by the sheer brilliance and perfection of the use of camera. Here are some 5 facts to know about the Cinematography used by Hoytema in Dunkirk: 1. The movie was shot on two huge formats The movie was shot on IMAX. Imax is a process which uses 65mm film (printed on 70mm for exhibition, with the extra space used for the soundtrack) running horizontally through the gate, yielding an image over eight times larger than Academy 35mm. 2. They shot the movie with three different aspect ratios in mind Those who watched Dunkirk in an Imax cinema got to see the native aspect ratio each sequence was captured in, i.e. 2:20:1 for the standard 65mm dialogue scenes but the much taller 1.43:1 for the Imax material, the bulk of the film. Those, like me, who attended a standard 70mm screening, saw it in 2:20:1 throughout. 3. Parts of the camera rig were worn as a backpack Large format cinematography was never captured by a handheld camera but Hoytema broke all norms. The 65 mm camera was quite heavy and so all the parts including the batteries, video transmitter, Cinetape display and Preston brain were placed in a special tethered backpack which was either worn by key grip Ryan Monro or, for water tank work, floated on a small raft. 4. A periscope lens was used to shoot spitfire cockpit interiors Custom periscope lenses were built which could snake over the pilot’s shoulder, and pan and tilt independently of the camera body. 5. At one point, their camera had sunk to the bottom of the sea for an hour and half These were just some of the many challenges faced by the team while filming the epic visual film.

Hoytema's film, Dunkirk has been nominated for Best Cinematography at Oscar 2018. Oscar 2018 will be held on March 4, 2018.