Wally Pfister was the cinematographer for many of my favourite films that also come from one of my favourite directors Christopher Nolan. Pfister has been cinematographer for The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and The Prestige that are all notable Nolan directed films and wonderfully crafted not only from its composition but the cinematography has a significant effect on the tone and the pacing of each scene.
Notably in all these Nolan films, Pfister generally understands the pacing and tone for a scene. In the opening sequence for The Dark Knight there are medium and close up shots to establish the uncertainty and the meticulous nature of the Joker with this one scene. The pacing of the cuts gives time for the audience to understand why the bandits are shooting each other and give a sense of ruthlessness, chaos but also method to the Joker. Similarly in Inception, there are longer takes where the audience are meant to feel the time dilation between the different plotlines portrayed.
Opening scene from The Dark Knight (2008)
A general aesthetic with Pfister with films such as The Dark Knight, Inception or The Prestige is the use of medium shots and close up shots along with the use of blue or yellow light where it would befit the era of the film is representing. With The Prestige, whilst some blue light is used to portray perhaps the artificial light in the world but generally it has a yellow hue. This could be akin to the time period the film was based in (from memory it would be in early 1900s), the yellow colour of light would be representative of the early lightbulbs and candlelights of that era. Conversely with The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) there is a certain realistic or modern feeling about having blue light dominate scenes. With only in Batman Begins (2005) having an abundance of yellow light, however different to The Prestige the yellow light can be seen as to represent the setting. That is of a gang and mob corrupt Gotham city. The way the set design is and the use of shadows in Batman Begins looks and feels like the setting is ‘dirty’, in a cinematic sense the use of yellow light with shadows gives the impression that the people of Gotham no longer care about the city or are powerless to do anything so no one cleans anything; the streets are dirty and the lights reflect that. In the rest of the Dark Knight trilogy and Inception we can see more use of blue light and using this logic the setting look much more cleaner to represent that. Though the use of these lights can be achieved by colour grading, it would be more often better to pursue the aesthetic without much work in post production.
Yellow lighting in Batman Begins (2005)
As to general aesthetic to films collaborating with Nolan, Pfister does not do anything out of the ordinary or any colours to highlight any particular part of any scene. Rather lighting a scene as it would look naturally without any highlights or colours to stand out. Generally the use of characters coming in and out of light generally fits with the themes of the Dark Knight trilogy. The aim would be to have sets and light them in a way that would be relatable to the real world.
