Having just recently rewatched Batman Begins, I thought it worth of a deeper dive into the cinematography and the elements that made it so special. If I was to describe the cinematography of this film I would use one word: cinematic.

I say cinematic because it doesn’t stray too far from the path of cinematic in the traditional sense. The film uses tried and tested techniques to create an engrossing film. I won’t be talking too much about the writing of the film in this post but it has to be said, the writing is great.

So let’s dive into the film and look closer at all the elements that made this film so cinematic.

This film was finished in 2.39:1 and it was shot in anamorphic. It was also remastered to be shown in iMax (typical Christopher Nolan movie). Anamorphic creates a cinematic feel every time if you ask me and this film is no exception. They shot wide in this film (one of the cameras is listed as Super 35), which created that typical Christopher Nolan look from the 2000s. They also went shallow with the depth of field often in the film, which worked well because the backgrounds looked soft and dreamy when combined with the anamorphic look and soft lighting used.

2. Short key lighting - this film used short key lighting commonly throughout the film. Short key helped with the more mysterious tone of the film. There was a lot of traditional 3 point lighting in the film and it was done masterfully, with very clear and obvious lighting sources being made known to the audience. This was partly helped by precise use of colour temperature decisions in the lighting. For example, in the frame above there is warm lighting indicating daylight from the window is hitting him. In contrast, when he is in the bat cave, the lighting is more neutral because it is coming from his daylight-balanced work lights lighting him.

3. Practical lighting - this film utilised this VERY often. There were always plenty of background lights on in the scenes, especially lamps in Wayne Manor. This helped make every scene look beautiful, even if not entirely realistic (Who turns on 5 lights on a shelf behind them?). For my own taste, I really enjoyed the carefully composed frames which made the lighting seem intentional. The city too had many lights on when shown in the night and day shots overlooking Gotham. This too was not realistic but who cares? It looked great and didn’t take me out of the film.

4. Using hard lighting in the right circumstances. The film uses soft lighting on the faces of the characters for the majority of the filming but uses hard lighting for the scenes in the cave. This creates a seperation from the softness of the interior spaces to the harsher exterior of the cave. It’s only a few stops difference but it helps remind the viewer of the sharper reality of the cave and its jagged surfaces. It has a noticeably greater contrast ratio in the cave also, which makes the scenes look cooler and edgier.

5. VFX heavy. This film was very clever in its use of effects. They were subtle but also used a lot in the film, sprinkled throughout, mostly sequences of large bats flying through the air and the ambitious stunt work. The stunt work, especially the jumping, looked like a mixture of stunts and green screen; practical and visual effects - the best of both worlds. This helped with the realism while being able to portray dangerous heights in the scenes. The film was ahead of its time in 2005.

Those are my thoughts on the film, I have a feeling I’ll be looking at a Christopher Nolan film again on one of the analysis blog posts. The D.O.P. was Wally Pfister by the way.

Thanks for reading and if you’ve any comments, let me know down below.

Good luck out there.

-D.C.

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