Breakdown: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Cinematographer Robert Elswit

Happy birthday, PTA. From the neon-lit ’70s and ’80s porn excess of “Boogie Nights” to the sunbleached-postcard look of “Inherent Vice” and its 1970s Los Angeles beach locales, cinematographer Robert Elswit has consistently made Paul Thomas Anderson’s films live and breathe in shadows and light. Working on all of Anderson’s films save “The Master,” Elswit has created a distinct visual aesthetic while giving the actors on screen room to move. Sareesh Sudhakaran of Wolfcrow has constructed a meticulous video that aims to highlight the tools Elswit uses to apply his technique.

READ MORE: Retrospective: The Films Of Paul Thomas Anderson

Elswit began his career as a visual-effects photographer for Apogee and ILM and made several made-for-TV films in the 1980s, but it’s through his cinematography — particularly for Anderson’s films — that he’s distinguished himself as one of the greatest DPs working today. In the video, Sudhakaran comments on Anderson’s predilection for keeping his camera moving, leaning on long takes, and giving his actors room to improvise. All these elements in motion make the job of a cinematographer considerably difficult, particularly when it comes to pulling focus — but Elswit has learned to move along with Anderson’s rhythm without planning too much ahead. The cinematographer is also sure to work with the production designer of the films he’s shooting to better achieve the look of each movie.

While Elswit changes his style from film to film, Sudhakaran highlights three recurring methods the cinematographer employs: a “3/4 lighting style with a top hair light on the opposite side”; so-called “Hollywood light” from the top front of the actor; and the “light sandwich” of positioning an actor between two lights. “Lighting is the only metaphor that works in film,” Elswit said in an interview with the Sundance Institute. “You have all these elements you deal with in organizing images: color, lines, volume, etc. all in two-dimensional space. In representational art…it’s about where the light is coming from, how light falls on the objects, and how it tells you what is going on. It’s the one visual metaphor and going back to the ideas of this whole tradition, it tells you about the gaining of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and transcendence.”

Check out the video from Wolfcrow to learn more about how Elswit uses consistent camera choices, lens formats, and more to develop the character of the cinematography in Anderson’s films.