The Marvel Studios’ Eternals final trailer has been released. Now it’s time to discuss a bit regarding the cinematography behind it. Eternals was directed by the awards winning director, Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), who is familiar with her DIY-indie style filmmaking, which is the complete opposite of how MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) executes. Nevertheless, inner resources confirmed that the cinematography was definitely something else, on the positive side.
Eternals: The post-Thanos age
Following the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years, out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants. The film picks up after Thanos was demolished when half of the population returned. Eternals, which is the 26th MCU film, was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film was directed by Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), who wrote the screenplay with Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, and Kaz Firpo. It stars an ensemble cast including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie.
Minimization of green screen
The principal photography was done before the pandemic hit. Ben Davis served as director of photography, after doing so on several previous MCU films. However, the camera operator was Joshua James Richards, which is Zhao’s cinematic partner. Zhao wanted Joshua to serve as the project’s camera operator, in order to maintain and preserve her vision that is related more to native camera work rather than green screen manipulations. Furthermore, Zhao said Marvel Studios allowed her creative freedom to shoot the film on location, and to combine the simple yet beautiful nature and style of Nomadland.
From Nomadland to MCU
Zhao’s Nomadland is an outstanding film whose visuals are marvelous. It was shot indie-style by Joshua James Richards with a very limited budget of $5 million. Cameras used were the ALEXA Mini and AMIRA. The Mini has been utilized on gimbal shots where most of the shots were captured with the AMIRA. Although MCU’s Eternal is a whole different ball game, Zhao approached it like an indie film with a lot of on-set improvisations.
Moreover, Zhao said that Emmanuel Lubezki’s The Revenant was used as an inspiration for the action sequences. Does it mean we’ll see long takes combined with wide shots? Well, we’ll have to see the film to find out (Nov 5 is the theatrical release). In addition to on-location filming, Zhao’s work is typically shot in a naturalistic style and she has a tendency to use natural lighting (just like Lubezki). Furthermore, according to IMDB, the cameras used were ARRI ALEXA LF and Mini LF, both of them IMAX certified, which means this film is aimed to be watched on the huge canvas. These cameras were paired with the Signature Prime lenses.
Watch the final trailer below:
