The Town is an example of the beauty of simplified cinematography, combined with classic action. No studios, no green screens. All real and simple. A great cast that is perfectly merged with grained imagery. The Town is not a new movie (premiered in 2010). However, this is the exact reason that ‘The Town’ should remind modern filmmakers how to craft and shot an award-winning thriller. Just make it simple. 

The Town: A 2010 film

The Town is a 2010 American crime thriller film co-written, directed by, and starring Ben Affleck. It also stars Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner (the great), Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, Pete Postlethwaite, and Chris Cooper, and follows a group of tough Boston bank robbers. The film premiered in September 2010 at the Venice Film Festival before being released in the United States. The movie received praise from critics for its direction, screenplay, editing, and the performances of the cast (particularly Renner) and grossed $154 million worldwide. The film was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2010, while Renner was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Watch the trailer below:

Shot on film: No green screen

The Town was shot by cinematographer Robert Christopher Elswit, ASC entirely on film as expected from a 2010 movie. Elswit has been a fierce defender of shooting on film, and whenever possible avoids using digital cameras. He once said that: “Even the best versions of digital cameras I’ve seen have no texture, no grain…It’s a very strange looking image”. Elswit weapon of choice is 35mm film anamorphic. His style is very simplified and classic. He prefers shooting on location rather than using studios and green screens. Elswit also likes to utilize natural lights. There are no crazy kinetic shots on The Town. The film is based on Steadicam shots and delicate handheld shots. There’re a lot of closeups to amplifies the great acting of the magnificent cast, especially Renner.

Real action cinematography

Director Ben Affleck wanted to maximize realism. Hence, almost all the action sequences (three bank robberies) were shot on location. The action scenes remind Michael Mann’s Heat which indeed has played a major influence on Affleck’s during the making of the movie. That means pure and authentic action. Add to this the accurate cinematography, and you get an old classic thriller. Furthermore, Renner has done his acting homework by visiting prisons and interacting with ex-cons to get into the mindset of this criminal character. “I went to some prisons and had a few beers with ex-cons. It’s their trade. It’s hard to wrap your mind around that. Once I got to know them a little bit, I asked, ‘Don’t you ever get nervous? What goes through your mind when you throw on the mask?’ They say, ‘It’s simple. We look at this bank and think, ‘That’s our money in there. We’ve just got to go get it” he said in an interview to L.A Times. The precise acting got him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Panaflex and ARRIFLEX:  A lethal combination

The Town was mainly shot on the Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 (or Platinum) and ARRIFLEX 235. The XL2 was used on a dolly or shoulder rig, where’s the 235 was utilized for handheld shooting. For instance, during the bank robberies, two camera operators were on the shoot. One operator with the XL2 on his shoulder, and the second one holding the ARRIFLEX in his hands, allowing more dynamic fast shooting. The main glass was the Panavision Primo lenses that are characterized by their high contrast and resolution. The combination between those two cameras is well known and has been proofed as a winning combo. The Panaflex cameras are heavy and not ideal for handheld style shooting, and that’s the gap that the ARRIFLEX fills. Also, there’re many shots done with a Steadicam (low angle: ARRIFLEX, high angle: Panaflex). Nothing crazy here. Elswit wanted to keep it simple.

The Town tech spec:

• ARRIFLEX 235, Panavision Primo Lenses
• ARRIFLEX 435 ES, Panavision Primo, and PCZ Lenses
• Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2, Panavision Primo Lenses
• Panavision Panaflex Platinum, Panavision Primo Lenses

Closing thoughts

If you haven’t watched The Town, go and watch it ASAP. It’s really a good movie, that refreshes our memory about true filmmaking. Everything is glued here correctly: Cast, cinematography, directing and music, which is insanely similar to Spielberg’s Band of Brothers soundtrack. BTW, there’s a rumor that the film convinced Zack Snyder that Ben Affleck would make a good Batman, as Affleck portrayed a character who was physically imposing and led a double life. To sum it up, I wish that in our extraordinary digital age, with all those crazy tools that we have, we’d appreciate old fashioned filmmaking. Nothing is like a classic action movie shot on film, with courage and dedication.