Behind the Film’s Opening Shot

In the opening scene of Robert Eggers‘ Nosferatu, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) sobs in bed before hurrying to the window to look upon the shadow of the demon entrancing her, Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard).

To track Ellen’s movement from bed to window in one shot involved complicated camera movements that required a bedroom layout “that makes no bloody sense whatsoever,” recounts director of photography Jarin Blaschke. It entailed an L-shaped configuration with a wall that opens on a hinge to accommodate the movements of the camera.

Blaschke, who has worked with Eggers on all of his previous feature films, was no stranger to telling a story that takes place largely in darkness. “I learned that we have to have contrast,” he says. “You have to have something near a window [when indoors]. You have to have hard [as opposed to soft] light.”

Incorporating the supernatural in a believable way required a mixture of practical and digital effects. To capture the silhouette of Count Orlok, Blaschke shot reference photography, though the final shadow was created through visual effects. To portray Ellen levitating as the spirit of Orlok consumes her, Depp “walks up onto a ramp before her feet are in frame, and then a second later the camera settles, revealing her feet,” Blaschke explains. The miniature ramp was then digitally removed in postproduction.

This story first appeared in a December stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.