Joker in 4 mins

Arthur meets his neighbor, single mother, Sophie dumon and invites her to his upcoming
stand up comedy show at a nightclub while entertaining at a children's hospital. Arthur's gun
falls out of his pocket. Randall lies that Arthur Botha got himself and Arthur is fired. on the
subway still in his clown makeup. Arthur is beaten by three drunken Wayne Enterprises
businessman, he shoots to in self defense and executes the third. The murders are
condemned by billionaire mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne relabeled. Those envious of
more successful people as clowns. demonstrations against Gotham's rich begin with
protesters donning clown masks in Arthur's image funding cuts shadow the social service
program, leaving Arthur without his medication. Sophie attends Arthur stand up routine,
which goes poorly, he laughs uncontrollably and has difficulty delivering his jokes. Popular
talk show host Marie Franklin mocks Arthur by showing clips from Arthur's comedy routine
on his show. Arthur intercepts a letter written by penny to Thomas Wayne, alleging that he is
Thomas's illegitimate son and berates his mother for hiding the truth. Arthur goes to Wayne
Manor, where he meets Thomas's young son Bruce, but flees after a scuffle with Alfred
pennyworth the family Butler following a visit from two Gotham City Police Department
detectives investigating Arthur's involvement in the train murders, Penny suffers a stroke and
is hospitalized. At a public event. Arthur confronts Thomas who tells him that Penny is
delusional and not his biological mother in denial. Arthur visits Arkham state hospital and
steals pennies case file. The file says Penny adopted Arthur as a baby and allowed her
abusive boyfriend to harm them both. However, Penny allege that Thomas used his
influence to fabricate the adoption and commit her to the asylum to hide their affair. upset.
Arthur returns home and enter Sophie's apartment unannounced frightened Sophie tells him
to leave their previous encounters Where are those delusions. The following day, Arthur kills
Penny at the hospital. Arthur is invited to appear on Murray show due to the unexpected
popularity of his comedy routines clips. as he prepares Arthur is visited by Randall and fellow
ex colleague Gary Arthur murders Randle for revenge but leaves Gary unharmed for treating
him well in the past. on route to the studio, Arthur is pursued by the two detectives on a train
filled with some of the clown protesters. One detective accidentally shoots a protester and
incites a riot allowing Arthur to escape. before the show goes live. Arthur requests that
Murray introduce him as Joker, a reference to Marie's previous mocking of Arthur Arthur
walks out to applause but the mood quickly changes when he tells morbid jokes confesses
to the train murders and rants about how society abandons the downtrodden and mentally ill.
Arthur kills Murray and is arrested as riots break out across Gotham. One writer corners the
Wayne family in an alley and murders Thomas and his wife Martha sparing Bruce rioters in
an ambulance crash into the police car, freeing Arthur who dances to the cheers of the
crowd at Arkham Asylum. Arthur laughs to himself about a joke and tells a psychiatrist she
would not understand it. He runs from the orderlies leaving a trail of bloody footprints

JOKER (2019) EXPLAINED + REVIEW

This is one of the best films of the year, and Joaquin Phoenix was one of the greatest actors
of his generation doesn't disappoint. Phoenix lost over 50 pounds for the role and with a
sunken eyes and a skeletal frame, he manages to contort his body to match the twisted
psyche of Joker. In the film, we find that fleck isn't very good at his day job as a clown for
hire. nor is he any better at being a comedian. Not only is he struggling with mental health
problems, but he's also taking care of his sick mother floating with a single mom, neighbor,
Sophie, all the while dealing with a neurological disorder that forced him to erupt into
impromptu laughter giving a fresh take behind the Joker's iconic love, walk in juggles all of
this masterfully giving us a captivating yet uncomfortable look into the mind of a distant man.
Now early on in the film, Arthur discovers a letter from his mother dress to Thomas Wang,
telling him that he was the boy's father, which had me on edge as making the joke of the half
brother of Batman is a huge liberty to take and was my only real problem with the film. But
when he confronts him, he's told that he was actually adopted by his mother who used to
work for the Wayne's before suffering a mental breakdown caused by schizophrenia. This
along with everything that has happened to fleck sends him over the edge with a man
suffocating his mother and stabbing a former worker that led to him getting fired. He also
discovers that his relationship with his neighbor that had supported him through his struggles
was old in his head. This is further exacerbated by his invitation onto the Murray Franklin
show in the final act after footage of his failed stand up routine surfaces with the host
repeatedly making fun of him, transforming into the Joker and coming to terms with the fact
that he was and always would be different. fleck shoots Murray on live television, inciting
citywide rites of support, which inadvertently leads to the death of the Wayne's. In this way,
the Joker becomes a catalyst for the creation of Batman. While traditionally Batman is
responsible for the Joker's existence. There are so many things

scenes in this film that are heart wrenching to watch for the character coping with the assault
of a gang of youths him losing his mental health sessions as a result of citywide budget cuts
and consequently losing all access to medication that he desperately needed all the while
having to help take care of his mother whom he loved dearly. Phoenix's ability to convey
such vulnerability and compassion is the reason we feel so invested in this character, often
siding with him even when he commits such heinous crimes. The film is beautifully shot by
Lawrence shirk who skillfully captures the sad broken and defeated Arthur fleck climbing up
towards his painful existence and darkly lit slow panning shortcuts in the film's opening and
juxtaposes it with his literal and metaphorical descent into madness with the frenetic and
liberated movements down the steps which are fully met with the southern is back. The
musical score by Hilda when a daughter is also another triumphant achievement with the
composer knowing exactly when she needed to increase the dramatic music to indicate
trouble brewing ahead, but not too early so as to arrive for the crucial moments, we hear a
brief glimpse of the Joker's theme music after his first crime, it starts building up as he enters
a public bathroom and begins to dance in solitude. This theme music and his dancing is also
repeated throughout the film as fleck loses more and more pieces of himself and starts
becoming the Joker with the score reaching a crescendo in the final acts of the film as chaos
scripts districts around him, which like fleck were also on the verge of breaking the direction
from Todd Phillips was also incredible and I was surprised to see him mainly comedic
director tackling such dark themes as well as he did contrasting the grand scale of Gotham
City in large sweeping shots to the film star with an intimate mid shots and close ups forcing
us to feel the immense pressure weighing down on him. There was so much buzz and
controversy about this film, which won the top prize and received an eight minute standing
ovation at the Venice Film Festival. I was actually fortunate enough to attend the film festival
last month whilst I was on holiday in Italy, but I was one week late and it missed the
opportunity to watch Joker there. Prior to its worldwide release. Many critics detested the film
for its violent overtones depiction of mental illness and how it lionize The Joker and
glamorize violence. But having seen the film, I don't think it treated his actions as just but
merely portrayed them in a way that we could relate to his character. I was also surprised to
see that there wasn't actually that much violence in the movie. I mean, the Joker kills no
more than I think six people who through his point of view arguably deserve what was
coming to them based on how they directly or indirectly treated him and led to his
transformation. There's a great line in the film with a joke asks Marie Franklin, his childhood
hero who had continually mocked him on live television, what do you get when you cross a
mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash? I'll tell you what
you get. You get what you deserve, right before shooting him in the face on live TV,
capturing the essence and meaning of the film perfectly. I mean, if you look at films like
Deadpool and Logan, there is so much more graphic violence, with both characters killing
between 50 to 100 people in each movie, I felt as though Joker wasn't glorifying violence,
merely depicting it as a means of seeing the characters progression. I mean, I can
understand why people may have felt unnerved by how he felt no guilt for his actions. But
that's the whole point of the character. He doesn't see the world as we do. How can he he's
been raised in a way not many of us can understand and copes with so many internal and
external problems that his mind has created its own version of reality to explain what is right,
what's wrong. And what's funny. I also really disagree with the comments about the film's
treatment of people with mental illness. I mean, the movie does a great job of showing how
people with mental health issues and those living in abject poverty needed our help. And it
gets us to question how we as a society treat those that were less fortunate than ourselves,
and also how we idolize the rich and powerful members of our communities. This is one of
the main underlying themes of the film. And the reason why is action strikes a chord with so
many others in his community that felt the way that he did to the point that he inadvertently
starts a social class rebellion in a similar vein to the French Revolution. There are so many
times that we feel so bad for fleck, especially his first attempt to stand up comedy as he
struggles to overcome his uncontrollable laughter, which prevents him from telling his jokes.
This is so painful to watch. As we know, it's been his lifelong dream to make people smile
and laugh, but in this moment, his body's overriding his goals, and while we do hear laughter
a few seconds after he tells a bad joke, I have a feeling that like much of what happens in
the film, it's actually in his head. during interviews for Joker, Phoenix even hinted that the
bullying and assault he experiences at the hands of a gang of youths at the start of the film
might have actually been in his head, which begs the question how much of what we saw in
the film was real, and this reflects the character really well. every beat of Joker is executed
perfectly to give us an understanding of his mental state. We see him taking notes at the
Pogo stand up comedy club as another performer does his routine but he never laughed at
the punchline of the joke like the other patrons instead laughing at times when nothing funny
is being said alluding to the dissociated mental state fleck was in and when he's watching
the Marie Franklin show at home with his mother, we get a rough cut to him being in the
audience and being asked by his idol to come up and talk about himself. There's even a
beautiful moment where Mary gives him a hug and tells him that he

wished he had a son like him. And this is so heartbreaking to watch as we know, it's all in his
head. And we can see early on that all he wants is to be loved and accepted. This is an
outstanding standalone film that has nothing to do with the DC universe that Warner
Brothers has been attempting to make. And it succeeds because it's not focusing on
sequels. Nor is it tied with continuity issues. This meant that the director and the creative
team only had to focus on one thing, she was making a good movie, and they did just that
Joaquin Phoenix's performance of the Joker is phenomenal. And I think that it rivals Heath
Ledger's. I mean, the Joker in The Dark Knight is only in 25% of the movie, and he's always
got Batman as his counterweight to push the narrative along, as is the case in every
depiction of the villain both the films and the comic books they're based on bit here, the
entire screen time is dedicated to Joker putting the entire burden on the antagonist, which
subsequently also causes us to sympathize with him in a way I never thought was possible.
If you have some spare time, I highly recommend that you watch walkins interview for the
film on Fox five DC and Jake Hamilton, where he talks about his role and his preparation for
it. He is such a gentle and intelligent human being who articulately explains why he
gravitated to the role of the Joker, and it's fantastic to see that he was able to leave the work
on set and not bring any negativity back with him. Well, that's all for today, folks. I'm curious
to hear what you guys thought of the movie, so please share your thoughts in the comments
below. Don't forget to hit subscribe and click the notification icon to stay up to date on all my
content. And if there's anything else you'd like to request, please don't hesitate to ask. As
always, it's been a pleasure niak here with film and comics explained. 

The Cinematography of Joker __ Case Study __ Lawrence

Sher
that grin thing that he does in like the first opening scene of the movie, I think that was day
three of shooting the first shot that's in the movie, which is like a pushing down the line, that
shot actually goes even further, right. So it actually pushes all the way down and then wraps
around and ends up in that close up. They cut it up, but like the actual shot is a one shot
thing that goes all the way around. And then he's doing this thing, and he does it and like this
tear of his makeup falls down I went, that's pretty awesome. Like, just that accidental thing
that happened, those kind of things happened all the time. Because again, when you're not
rehearsing, or you're shooting everything, for the first time, we're witnessing it for the first
time too. So it's just as exciting for me feel like it's more of a character study, like a 70s
movie, like our taxi driver, or the master or Phantom thread or something where you're just
really going inside characters. That was the main expression right away was, it's gonna be
that kind of movie, we'll we'll go make that and see if people dig it, you know, and that
seemed to be taking it. He sent me the script because he was very excited about and he's
like, I think I think I came up with a pretty cool idea of like, how to make a comic book movie
that's not a comic book movie that is just really outside of the box of what people are doing.
But it could like, be something really cool. And he sent it to me and I read it. And he's like,
you want to shoot this? I'm like, Yeah, man. Of course I do. This is awesome. You know, it's
interesting, Todd's way of improvisation is different than maybe some like comedic directors.
Like there's improvisation where you just let the camera roll. And you just try things. And so
like, you might throw out, try six versions of the same line, or the director might be yelling
over there, like, try that line, try that line. And it works great. Like there's very successful
comedies like that. Todd's not like that at all. So any improvisation with Todd comes from
working the scene out. So it's not like the scenes are improved. It's more a function of let's
work the scene out in a master often, right, so we'll work it out. And we'll maybe run the
master have more takes and we run anything else, just to work the scene out and in there.
We'll experiment with different things, the actors will try things Zack will throw something in.
But it's less improvisational. And I think people would think you end up discovering
moments, maybe in the beginning of the scene, just because you're trying to find something.
So suddenly, it might be his legs shaking, you know, or something like that, that ends up in
the movie, because we're going to search for something before the moment that the shot is
actually for. And so you find all kinds of wonderful things when you run the scene top to
bottom. You know, it's it's sometimes harder on the actors, particularly somebody like Kane,
who's doing some really powerful stuff. But he ended up digging it too. Like, I'd roll the
camera all the time. Without him like knowing but he would know. And he loved it. So
whether it was him lighting a cigarette or preparing his journal or anything like that. And
when he stepped on the set, we there was a possibility. We're already rolling. And I
remember one time I missed something he did. Because I just didn't see anything. I thought
we're always rolling. I'm like, I was rolling. I just didn't see. Anytime we were there. It's like
we're working. So let's go Yeah.

One of the reasons we shot large format and those kind of things was simply because we
wanted just to draw the audience in psychologically to this character and feel empathy and
really feel this, this transition that his he was going through and his descent into chaos and
madness. And so for me, as a cinematographer, it's just how can we give him as much
freedom as possible. And so that came in the form of not necessarily ever rehearsing really
so much. So we wanted everything to feel really fresh, particularly for Joaquin. So when we
saw it, we were seeing it for the first time he was performing it for the first time. We wanted
everything that he did to be captured, right, so we didn't want to waste anything by just sort
of running through the motions on a rehearsal and, and then give him as much freedom to
not worry about marks or think about technical aspects of the filmmaking. And that came in
the form of a lot of different techniques. You know, we didn't sound like the movie was all
handheld. We did a lot of handheld, but we also did dollies, and sets, data compositional
frames, so we tried to use all of the filmmaking techniques, but all the while, give Joaquin the
flexibility that if he came up with an idea, or Todd came up with an idea, even if we had a
plan, we throw it all away and just say, let's do that. If we're very into shot lists, we make
shortlist. So we have like a specific thing of like, okay, we know we're going to travel with
him as he runs with kids. We're going to have a lateral shot just because we're trying to
figure out what equipment we're gonna need. Right? So, okay, we're gonna be on grip
trigger. With a stabilized head and, and we're gonna get to sizes of him traveling and then
long lens of him, Trump running at us and following him, you know, with grip tricks sort of
behind him and that kind of stuff. So it's more like, okay, those are the pieces, we need to
get him to the alley. And then in the alley, we're going to sort of follow and lead him and then
eventually, we're going to pull out at the end. So we write all that out shot list, but not so
much storyboard, you know, that's not really part of our thing. And certainly, things like the
subway killing wasn't storyboarded or anything at all, because we knew that effectively in the
same way we do a lot of things is, the bigger issue is like setting up this, this subway car on
stage and providing all those lighting cues, and having the ability to like, make it feel like the
car was moving. So we would just run it as a master every single time, you know. And like, if
we got a good take with him in the foreground of them coming at us, then maybe we would
do one on a longer lens. And then we'd flip around and we just do some very simple covers.
It's not a lot of takes in there. And so it's really and it's not something we would ever
storyboard. cod came to us one day and said, you know, feels like this movie is a lot about a
man who's also probably not slept. It's like insomnia. Arthur's character is probably not slept
this entire movie. So what would happen? Like, what would he be doing in the middle of the
night? So he's like, just set up two cameras in the kitchen. Joaquin is gonna do something
who knows what he's gonna do. You know, and like the second take, he just climbed in the
fridge. And I like took my eye off the eyepiece and just like leaned over, like, Did he just go in
the fridge? I think he just went inside the fridge. I don't know if that'll make the movie. But
that is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It was a deleted scene and so much as obviously it
wasn't in the movie. But it wasn't so much her fate. It's just I think, like people wonder
because of the way that is cut. And the way that he's in her apartment and then there's a
very strong Music cue and him walking and then laughing and usually laughing is something
that when he's stressed or and so yes, there's no question when when the cut is now it feels
very much like oh my god, did he kill her. But Todd has mentioned this and I know cuz we
actually shot scenes of her alive like after that, like in our minds. Oh, he didn't kill her. She's
still alive. He's had no reason to kill her. Right? Like this was in her his mind this relationship
that he had with her. But she hasn't like aggrieved him. She hasn't done something that's
worthy of Him killing her. We actually liked Joker. So I think we were like, No, no, he didn't
killer. It's like, don't worry about it. Because I think we were trying to defend him to some
extent, yeah, we definitely want people to have their own opinions as to what the reality of
certain things is in the movie and what's fantasy and what's real. And the Joker has always
been in the comic book history is sort of an unreliable narrator. So even when he tells you
something, it's not necessarily the truth. And since so much of this is in his mind, there's an
argument that can be had, but there's a lot of it that may not be real.

This felt like exactly what to me would be the reality, right, which is it's a government building
of sorts. So it's a white white corridor. And so on stage, we built that set, and we put the
window light through there. And then there's a window at the far end of the hallway. And
there's a 20 K, right. And as he's walking, it's just ever slowly dimming up and getting
warmer and warmer. Like sunlight. So it's like we don't there's not a lot of sunlight in the
movie. There's like one of the few times there's sunlight is when he's dancing on the stairs.
There's like warm sunlight. It's warm. What's the most romantic thing because it's like a
celebration for him. He's now the Joker fully and he's like celebrating it. And that's similar at
the end shot almost romantically like walking off into the sunset, but in the most bonkers way
with like, bloody footprints and him being chased by like guards as he's trying to escape.
Yeah. So it's this like combination of like, what is effectively like a, almost a stylized,
romantic final shot, but in a very sort of odd juxtaposition. You know, I'm not a comic book
guy. And I purposely didn't watch any of the other movies. Of course, I was familiar like with
the Nolan versions of the original Tim Burton Batman, and, but they were more just I know,
the movies, because I watched them when they came out. And I'm a fan of them, but
definitely wasn't like looking at them and going, Oh, how do we do this different? It was more
like let's do our thing. I think the production designer in the van had like The Killing Joke. It
was like a graphic novel. And I just flipped through it. I don't even know 20 pages worth. And
I just remember like the images were super evocative, like really emotional images. Like they
just really struck me I don't remember any singular image. I just remember the artwork was
really graphic and it was really a compositional and is beautiful. And I think it's stuck with me
throughout the making of the movie that we're not necessarily making a comic book movie,
but that idea what comic books are, which is like single frames that tell a story I was very
interested in and so I think it was conscious in mind throughout the movie of every day, like,
let's make some very specific imagery in this movie, as it's almost a steel frame so that if you
took just steel frames of the movie and you flip through, it can maybe feel like a graphic
novel, even if you try to then find beauty and composition and things that are like, you know,
not just presenting it like a documentary, we're not trying to make that. But like when it starts
from a place of feeling real, that's my philosophy every single time. It's just how do we make
it feel real, and then make it feel a little better than that? You know, and then and that can be
done in a lot of ways. Whether it's through color, the light or composition or camera
movement is like to then elevate it. So you're starting to have like a very specific point of
view, and you're not just like, laying so far back that you're just not presenting. You know,
you're not because you're not doing the job of a filmmaker, which is to point the audience
towards a certain direction, you know,

JOKER _ The Look Of... (Episode 1)

New York in the 80s was a world that had completely lost control. drugs were rife. There was
an overwhelming level of homelessness, garbage and graffiti, crime and corruption prevails
in a city like this makes it perfectly believable for someone like Arthur fleck to be chewed up
and spit out as Joker. We're entering a Gotham not unlike Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight,
and a young Joker who could easily bloom into the delicious Lisa artistic, unstoppable force
that was Heath Ledger's performance.

So much has been made of the cultural references to movies of that time period as well.
movies like taxi driver, Serpico and King of Comedy have received a nod in the look of
Joker. dp Lauren share says, I went back and watched a couple of movies Todd and I were
referencing thinking that they were going to really give us this template for Joker's look such
as contrast, color, saturation, or even some lighting references. Every time I went and
watched them however, it was the memory of the movie I was looking for, not necessarily
the look of the movie itself.

With everything being set in 1981, Todd Phillips wanted to originally shoot on film, with dp
Sure, remarking, we wanted to shoot 65 millimeter from the start. And we are strongly
dissuaded from doing that because of budget.

We thought this would be a great movie to shoot large format because of the shallow depth
of fields and the resulting intimacy. But the truth is the cameras are really hard to find, and it
was more expensive. The move to digital allowed for more takes and for Joaquin Phoenix's
improvisational style of acting, he goes on to say interestingly enough, we did very specific
testing in the beginning to build a very specific law that would replicate the 5293 film stock. I
promised Todd we would stay as true to a chemical look as we possibly could. What they
landed on was a combination of the area Alexa 65 camera, the Alexa lF and the mini lF.
Additionally, they shot with the area prime DNA lenses, which are rehoused vintage optics,
and produce images with a specific character, they're more gentle compared to areas
signature primes had very sharp in the center. They also have a different flaring
characteristic and tend to mirror the look of old anamorphic lenses in terms of subtle
vignetting. If you're going to shoot a movie that looks completely at home in the 1980s, then
this isn't a bad first step. Basically, we were just like this is not going to be a pure DNA set.
This is not going to be a pure set of anything. This is gonna be a Frankenstein set of lenses
old canons nikecourt there was some like as in their lenses that could cover the field of view
of the sensor, and felt like lenses of that error.

Despite the emphasis on realism shirt took some inspiration from the look of comic books,
recalling how the production designer brought a copy of the comic, The Killing Joke on a
location scout. I just remember feeling that it was beautiful with really emotional, evocative
imagery. So at the very least, I set out to create those kind of images. You're creating these
really dynamic frames, the composition, the shading, the contrast, all these things where you
have a format that is different than a movie. Certainly at the beginning of the movie, I really
try to think about the arc of the photography just like the arc of the character, trying to get
early themes, whether it's through lens choices, composition and lighting, and then build the
character as we transform into Joker.

There certainly was a feeling of Arthur being boxed in from the beginning, making him come
across as a small figure and a big world practically invisible. The amount of headroom that
Arthur is given in the frame, certainly aides to shrink the man behind the myth. Every shot
only goes to confirm how much the world has not been kind to Arthur. Gotham is the bully
and Arthur the bullied. This builds an immense amount of empathy for the character and
what he'll become.

We had conversations in which this was going to be a movie about a character and how do
we find ways to make it very intimate and very personal and and connected emotionally to
the character at all times? That was certainly my number one thing was how can we
constantly find ways to put the camera in a position to connect the audience to him and to
feel as if we are one with him and connected to his journey in his emotional way as
possible? And how does that manifest itself in the decisions with the camera and the
lighting?

Let's look at the opening of the movie when Arthur is dressed as a sign spinner trying to
entice customers into an everything must go sail shirt chose to keep us distant from him on a
long lens. He said, witnessing him as other people see him

we've not been invited into his world yet to see him any closer. The shots from a distance
are static, which allows us to be objective as a viewing him from afar. Then as we enter his
world and get to know Arthur, the lenses become wider, and we get more intimate and more
handheld, aligning ourselves emotionally with him. When he moves, we move. Often when
he's alone, the shots are handheld, and handheld shots helped to convey his emotions
unsteady and volatile. They would run scenes top to bottom and generally shoot wide to
close up. However, some scenes they would dispense with traditional coverage and do the
opposite, starting with the close up and working their way wider. This was due to the
incredibly physical nature of walking laughter and wanting to capture the strongest takes
early in the close up.

camera movement is something that sure also uses to show the characters development,
beginning with slow meditative camerawork early in the movie, as we follow Arthur up to 180
stairs he's forced to climb every day. By stark contrast the later scene when Arthur is now
Joker and is accepting of his true self sure uses a techno crane giving fluidity to the move
and to create energy backlighting him we are low with the camera, and for perhaps the first
time in his life, he feels powerful. Alongside the impeccable use of camera movement share
also uses light and shadow to hammer home Arthur's descent into darkness.

As Arthur becomes Joker, his composition in the frame changes his weight. His perspective
and his sense of power all serve to emphasize his newfound place in society. Joker is
Arthur's shadow, he gets darker and bolder as we move along. More shadows appear
throughout the film. As he makes this transition. This shadow gets bigger and bigger until
eventually it consumes him. Hence the strong emphasis on mirrors. Joker is the reflection of
Arthur. Every time he looks at himself in a mirror. It's like he sees a different version of
himself that at first he's totally unconnected to and in some ways disgusted by it's only when
he is fought back killed and dances of transformative dance that he finally recognizes himself
as Joker. He assumes the somewhat Christ like pose a savior unto himself in the chemical
glow of the flickering light.

linking to that a large part of the color scheme in the movie is based on sodium vapor lights,
similar to the greenish orange hue of streetlights. Lawrence shear talks about the color in
two ways. The dusk blue represents his isolated and lonely side, and the warmer light the
more hopeful side of someone seeing a different future. Even if that future is with his mom.
When he's watching TV with her or bathing her in the bathtub, there's a more comforting
warmth. Toward the end of the movie. He chooses that dark part of himself and we bring the
warmth back. He's once again hopeful, even if it's for a nihilistic and chaotic future. In his
mind, it's the future he wants to embrace. For a movie that is filled with color, the fact that
the final scene is as devoid of color as possible, almost purely black and white could not be
a better reflection of the extremes that exist today. extremes that director Todd Phillips and
cinematographer Lawrence shirt brought to the character of Joker and to the city of Gotham
to reflect our society as a whole.

Thanks for tuning into the robot Academy look of Joker. If you liked this video, give us a
thumbs up and let us know in the comments what film we should do the next look of Don't
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Exclusive BTS of _Joker_ with Lawrence Sher ASC

I think one of the biggest challenges on this movie, but it's also a challenge on every movie
I've done with Todd, is to always be super ready to just be flexible. I met Todd Phillips, the
director of Joker over 10 years ago, and he was preparing to do the hangover. I think Joker
provides us and certainly him and for the audience to see a different side of Todd and see
what kind of filmmaker he is. Our philosophy on operating and our philosophy on lens
position and other things like that is often seen the scene, we'll break it down in advance of
shooting. We'll look at the psychology of the scene, the emotional content of the scene. And
we'll think about is this scene a long lens scene? Is it a scene that wants to be static? Is this
scene that one subtle camera move? Or is this scene that's handheld? So

the challenge was here we were dealing with an actor that's so phenomenal, best I've ever
worked with. Every day we shot informed more and more about what the movie was. So
when you do that, you have to be willing to change because you're now creating what the
movie is as you make it as we approached Joker from a visual standpoint. You know, a
couple things just came to our minds instantly. One was just aspect ratio. We both have shot
all of our movies tufaro spherical we've never shot anamorphic together but individually shot
anamorphic we both came to each other and said like it feels 185 Antibes it really feels like it
should be shot film, like Yeah, it does feel like that. Partly the movie set in 1981. It was fairly
late in the game that we finally decided, Okay, now we're going to shoot 65 we knew we
were going to create a universe that felt like what our memory was of New York City in the
late 70s, early 80s. We first started by just thinking about like, what does that look like? A lot
of Joker's character development has to do with a character that is in a big world. Gotham,
people all around. But he's living this isolated, lonely life almost like he's invisible, allowing
us to see the space he's in was really important. But I also wanted a lack of depth of field to
really isolate him. I was trying to think like, would there ever be a situation where I wouldn't
want to shoot with the Alexa 65 I just think it's a gorgeous format. And unlike perhaps a
traditional Alexa job, or 35 job where you might say I want to shoot on sumulong, or I want to
shoot on s fours or master primes here. There are other criteria to come in first and foremost
is coverage of what's going to cover the sensor. For us. We had a bunch of criteria, we knew
we needed fast lenses, because there were also very specific instances in which we were
shooting in a theater in Brooklyn in which I knew anything I do to augment the lighting has to
work within the balance of these existing lights. So I knew I needed to have lots of situations
that are movie where if I needed to shoot out a one, four, or one nine, I still needed that. But
I needed it with the large format, right, because those were lenses used back in the late 70s
and early 80s. And Matt at airy. I think la was like picking lenses and then shipping them to
New York, he was essential because we were just like basically going, this is not going to be
a pure DNA set. This is not going to be a pure set of anything, this is going to be a
Frankenstein set of lenses. And that's exactly what it was. It was literally I think 10 primes or
11 primes from a 35. I think we had a 28. We didn't use it that often. But we have a 35 to 35
to 50 of 58 certainly had an add in a 135 200 Nightcore. But some were double ups because
one was faster and one was closer focus. But basically, we compiled this Frankenstein set of
lenses that as best as possible. We're like old cannons, night cores. There were some like
as in their lenses that could cover the field of view of the sensor. But we're still lenses that
were modified to be on Motion Picture cameras, and felt like lenses of that error. Todd and I
we are very situational about lenses. So if it's a chasing cops chasing him cross this busy
street, we know we're going to just drive towards longer lenses. And on that day, we may
actually have sub rented a couple long zooms and bid on the long end of the zoom because
that stylistically and to cover the action and the energy of the scene that we're looking for a
feels long lens, certainly in his apartment, and in a lot of scenes where we're dealing with
just the intimacy of him. And he's not dealing in a world at large, we gravitated much more to
two wide lenses. And in those situations, yes, we were probably working with four lenses,
that 3558 80 and the 135 that 90% of all those scenes are shot within those four lenses. We
needed a lot of help to find those lenses and error was great about it. How can we shoot two
cameras and with me, Joaquin, and Jeff Haley all operating simultaneously. With no
rehearsal, no marks, no even sense of what's going to happen. We were always rolling, we
were always ready to shoot. And so he loved it. And he was super super so game for it. Jeff
and I, let's say it was handheld, we would often just, I would be in the B position. He'd
operate, we kind of define, I give him a little sense of like, all things being equal, don't cross
that front light. If you can stay on this side of the line, it's going to be better for lighting. And
then I would pick an angle off access, not photographing him, of course. And sometimes we
literally danced together, I'd watch him, he'd watched me, he made a move this way, I'd get
out of his way, all the while photographing, and when we do this kind of dance all the time.
Using our rental on this, it was a big deal because it was a brand new experience for me with
a new rental house and a movie that was very important to me, but they were great. I mean,
obviously, not just servicing the 60 fives but finding those lenses and servicing them and
having a bunch of other things that came up into play, you know, for minis inside of old
cameras that had to get jammed in and faked like they were old, you know, TV cameras on a
talk show or any other situational things that we needed. I can't remember one problem.
But there are subtle things we did as far as loose rules. We wanted it to be
so subtle that you would barely even notice it. We have a lot of handheld
stuff in the movie because we love it but we also use techniques—cranes,
dollies, all this stuff, steadicam. But we did sort of say, with the Sophie and
Arthur relationship, which obviously is proven to be a fantasy in his mind
later in the story, there will be no handheld with Sophie and Arthur to
represent. So all we need is steadicam one and dolly once he’s gone into this
fantasy boat. When he’s talking with her inside the elevator, it’s actually a
very quiet handheld, but once he goes outside and he does that thing where
he puts the gun to his head and laughs and all that, that’s now back on the
dolly. Even when he comes to the door, we’re handheld previous to that,
and the the door knocks and we walk back to the door, now that’s
steadicam. So little, subtle things like that with that relationship.