Willem Dafoe stars in Robert Eggers' upcoming "Nosferatu" and had this to say about the look of the film.
I saw some footage when we were shooting, and I can honestly say, visually, it was like unlike anything I have seen…The look of it and how it was shot was extraordinary.”
Dafoe’s comments have made me realize that I forgot to write about the unusual process that Eggers and his team of collaborators went through in attempting to achieve the unique visual style of the film.
“Nosferatu” was, technically speaking, shot in color by DP Jarin Blaschke, with a look reminiscent of 19th century Romanticism. In fact, an entirely new filter was engineered just for this film, which is also said to have an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
Eggers used a combination of lenses and filters to get the effect he was going for — he actually asked a glass manufacturing company to assist him in making the unusual filter. The goal was for the film to look like it was shot in black and white while allowing a few colors, especially blue, to come through into the frame.