The Clever Mirror Trick That Helped Christopher Nolan Film “The Odyssey” Entirely in IMAX
As you no doubt have heard by now, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was itself a mythic undertaking. Nolan, working once again with his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, aimed to do something that had never been done—shoot an entire film using IMAX cameras. Nolan had already been filming with IMAX cameras for years, dating back to his first trip to Gotham in 2008’s The Dark Knight, which deployed IMAX cameras for several key action sequences, including the thrilling opening bank heist. So, for Nolan to use IMAX cameras for the many stunning set pieces in The Odyssey was a no-brainer; the problem Nolan, his team, and IMAX had to solve was not one of visuals but of sound—the cameras are notoriously loud, making it hard for actors to hear themselves speak, or even think, during intimate scenes with crucial dialogue. This is because IMAX cameras are huge, moving a very large strip of film through their very large bodies, a necessarily (at least for now) noisy process.
The solution was ingeniously simple (at least it sounds simple—the technical underpinning remains daunting for us camera noobs): they boxed the camera so it wouldn’t sound like a jackhammer on set. Described as a “blimp,” IMAX built a specialized soundproof housing around the camera that would allow Nolan and Hoytema to film intimate scenes close to the actors while capturing usable live sound.
This was a major breakthrough, but there was still a problem—the cameras in the special “blimp” casing were now so large that they couldn’t be placed between actors during a normal setup. This meant that if the cameras were placed in the appropriate spot for a shot, the actors, especially in the most intimate scenes involving Matt Damon’s Odysseus and Anne Hathaway’s Penelope, couldn’t see each other directly, which could then lead to stilted or unnatural scenes where the intimacy required could feel off.
So, Nolan and his crew added mirrors near the camera so that each actor could look at a reflection that lined up with the other performer’s eyeline. This visual workaround let Damon, Hathaway, and others maintain their eye contact and timing, which meant their emotional connection would resonate while the camera was precisely where it needed to be.
Speaking with Collider’s Steven Weintraub, Damon said the mirrors worked so well he actually forgot they were there when reflecting upon his experience: “The effect, it worked seamlessly. And in fact, I was talking to Anne about this yesterday because I realized that, in my memory of doing that very intimate scene with her at the end of the movie, I don’t remember it being a mirror. I remember I was so dialed into Annie’s eyes that I just remember Annie being right there, and she was, she was right there, but I was doing it to the mirror. But it worked. It worked really well. So, that was the hack that Chris came up with to say, “Okay, this will work if we can deaden the sound, which requires a giant box. If we can fix the eye lines, we can shoot large format, and we can shoot really quiet scenes.”
Joining Damon and Hathaway in the cast are Lupita Nyong’o in dual roles as Helen of Troy, the wife of Jon Bernthal’s Menelaus and the woman whose face launched a thousand ships, and her sister, Clytemnestra, wife of Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon. Robert Pattinson stars as Antinous, the most vile of the suitors, trying to steal Odysseus’s home, his wife, and, for good measure, murder his son. Zendaya plays the goddess Athena, and Charlize Theron plays the nymph Calypso.
If you’re interested in one of the most accessible translations of Homer’s epic and a source of Nolan’s inspiration, we highly recommend Emily Wilson’s fantastic recent translation.
The Odyssey sails into theaters on July 17.
Featured image: Director Christopher Nolan (frame left) with Matt Damon (as Odysseus) and Zendaya (as Athena), on set of his film THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
