Zack Snyder Visual Style and Cinematography — What Makes a Shot Snyder-esque?

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The cinematography of Zack Snyder explained — including three pillars of his visual style: speed, focus, and contrast.

Zack Snyder’s Directing Style ►►
What is Frame Rate? ►►
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Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction to Zack Snyder
00:51 - Chapter 1 - Slow Motion
02:10 - Chapter 2 - Crushing Contrast
04:29 - Chapter 3 - Shallow Depth of Fiel
07:42 - Wrap Up / Takeaways

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The cinematography of Zack Snyder movies is chock full of amazing shots. Indeed, the signature Zack Snyder style is defined by exquisitely crafted and choreographed images. In this video breakdown, we’re looking at three elements of Zack Snyder’s visual style that work in combination to create such imagery.

Zack Snyder Visual Style — Speed Ramping

Perhaps the most well-known and immediate quality of Zack Snyder’s cinematography is how he uses frame rate. He uses slow-motion like anyone else — to give each moment emphasis and drama. But where he carved out a niche for himself is the use of speed ramping, or changing the frame rate in the middle of a shot. By switching back and forth between fast, normal and slow-motion, Snyder not only creates physics-defying action, it generates a specific rhythm that doesn’t rely so much on editing.

Zack Snyder Visual Style — High Contrast

Then we can talk about the “look” of Zack Snyder’s cinematography. With 300, they developed a complicated recipe for creating the film’s high-contrast look. And it has become a staple of the Zack Snyder style ever since. This begins with low-key lighting — where the subjects are often “backlit” with little-to-no fill light. This essentially makes them silhouettes. Then in post-production, they can “crush” the image even further to make the blacks deeper and the highlights brighter.

Zack Snyder Visual Style — Shallow Depth of Field

Finally, the last piece needed to emulate the cinematography of Zack Snyder is shallow depth of field. Instead of action sequences that allow the entire frame to be in focus, Snyder keeps things more intimate. We’ll see objects like a gun or rain droplets isolated with close-ups in shallow focus. This keeps the action focused, keeps the audience engaged, and also elevates the subjects even higher. All of these techniques in Zack Snyder’s cinematography are designed to create the most epic and aesthetic shots possible.

None of these techniques require a large budget, which should be encouraging for those filmmakers looking to capture something akin to Zack Snyder’s visual style in their own projects.


#FilmTheory #VideoEssay #Filmmaking

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VIDEO EDITOR: BRANDON SCULLION
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♬ SONGS USED:

“Just Like You Imagined” - Nine Inch Nails
“SIngularity” - Cézame Trailers
“White Rabbit“ - Emilíana Torrini
“So Begins The End“ - Tom Holkenborg
“Glory” - Tyler Bates
“The Sounds of Silence“ - Simon & Garfunkel
“We Are Humanity” - Cézame Trailers
“New Rules“ - Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL
“Hallelujah“ - Leonard Cohen
“Viva Las Vegas“ - Elvis Presley
“Battle Highway Pt 1.“ - Tom Holkenborg
“All Of You Undisturbed Cities“ - Tom Holkenborg
“People Who Died“ - Jim Carroll Band
“Down With The Sickness” - Richard Cheese

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