How Nickel Boys Was Filmed from a First-Person Perspective.
The creative and technical challenges of filming a first-person movie.
RaMell Ross defines himself more as a visual artist than as a filmmaker. His second feature film, Nickel Boys, aims to achieve a characteristic goal of a visual artist: to be a film shot entirely from a close-up perspective. Each decade seems to bring a resurgence of first-person shots in cinema. Films like Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995) utilized this technique to portray memory experiences through science fiction technology, while Hardcore Henry (2015) demonstrated how exhausting it can be to maintain such a format throughout the duration of a film. However, throughout these works, the first-person perspective has primarily served to intensify violence.
In contrast, Nickel Boys offers a first-person perspective that creates an intimate tranquility. This film, based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, alternates between the experiences of Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), two Black teenagers who cross paths in a brutal reform school in the South during the Jim Crow era. Despite the punitive environment, Elwood maintains an optimistic outlook influenced by the civil rights movement, while Turner focuses on his pragmatic survival. The audience becomes a witness to what they see and believe.
The use of the first-person perspective is clever: as we see the world through Elwood's eyes, we primarily observe Turner and vice versa. This effect is striking and sublime at its best moments. Nickel Boys commits almost entirely to this technique throughout its two-hour and 20-minute duration, except for a few brief insertions of archival material. The film's brilliance lies in the fact that this technique is not merely a visual trick but is deeply connected to the film’s themes, allowing it to execute a conclusion that, prior to seeing the adaptation, seemed exclusive to literary narrative.
The film premieres in theaters on Friday, but its distinguished festival run already positions it as a potential contender for Academy Awards. Critics have praised it as one of the best films of the year, and director Ross has been awarded by the New York Film Critics Circle, an award that often anticipates major industry recognition.
The proposal to shoot a film from a close-up perspective is risky, challenging both the technical aspects and the actors. Ross, who comes from the art world, has seen how this sphere favors abstraction over explanation, and in his foray into cinema, he has noted that more questions about the intention behind each scene tend to arise.
Known for his 2018 documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening, which captures the lives of two high school students in Alabama, Ross faces the challenges of conventional filmmaking. His fragmented approach to Hale County was unique, resembling more of a video art piece than a traditional documentary. Although the film did not win the Oscar, it did achieve an unexpected nomination.
After that experience, Ross returned to his roots in visual arts and teaching. However, in 2019, a producer approached him to discuss the adaptation of an unpublished novel: Nickel Boys. Ross, a fan of Plan B, Brad Pitt's production company, was immediately interested after reading a preview of the book, which dramatizes the terrifying realities of the Dozier School for Boys. The idea of providing a true perspective to the boys was an exciting challenge for Ross.
When he presented his proposal to Plan B, it was met with enthusiasm. Working with director of photography Jomo Fray allowed both to reimagine the principles of cinema. Experimenting with camera focus led to a month-long rehearsal process to perfect movements and sensations. They discovered that the most compelling shots were the chaotic ones that could reflect a more authentic human vision.
Filming required special equipment and attention to detail in every shot. Fray chose the Sony Venice camera to allow for IMAX-quality shooting. The filming dynamics were unconventional, as the actors had to engage more with the film crew, sometimes even carrying the cameras themselves.
The scenes were filmed with an extreme focus on details, where communication between actors and camera operators became more intimate. Despite the challenges, the result was a production where the visual storytelling offered a safe space to explore the characters' experiences in a revolutionary way.
Nickel Boys, which follows a more conventional structure while delving into memory and perception, emerges as a work that captures not only the story of the Black characters but also how their vision brings the narrative to life. The film premieres in theaters on December 13.