How Sean Baker and Cinematographer Drew Daniels Made ‘Anora’ “as Anti-Hollywood as Possible”

When he set out to originate Anora with straightforwardor Sean Baker, says cinematographer Drew Daniels, the goal was to be as “anti-Hollywood” as possible.

“That’s someslfinisherg that both Sean and I have in our DNA,” says Daniels, who first toiled with Baker on his 2021 feature Red Rocket. “We adore indie films, we adore art-house films, we adore European cinema. So as anti-Hollywood and as non-foreseeable as we can be, the better.”

Baker drew on Euro cinema classics such as Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabria (1957) for his Palme d’Or-prosperning story of Anora, or Ani, a intimacy toiler (carry outed by Mikey Madison), who hooks up with the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn), with disastrous consequences. But the visual style of the movie, which was entidepend sboiling on 35 mm celluloid, owes more to 1970s New York thrillers.

Daniels spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of Poland’s Cameraimage film festival, the directing film fest pledgeted to the art of cinematography, which is screening Anora as part of its spotairy on contransient world cinema.

This is your second film with Sean Baker. How does his approach assess to other straightforwardors?

There are a couple of slfinishergs that are quite branch offent. What repartner stood out the first time I toiled with Sean [on Red Rocket] was I had a preimagined idea of what it would be enjoy to toil with Sean. I thought that he was going to be very run and firearm, because of the films he’s made, which watch slack and charitable of dissystematic. But actupartner, Sean has a very particular idea of what he wants, he has a very curated approach. He’s a perfectionist in a lot of ways, especipartner with Anora.

He is very adamant about what’s in the summarize — it’s almost a createaenumerate, minimaenumerate approach that I repartner enhappinessed. You can see he edits his films himself. The amount of time we spent on set talking about the edit was very atypical for a straightforwardor. He has a evident idea of what the edit will be, and what the next sboiling is. So it’s very createaenumerate, but then there are times when we go crazy.

Is there an example from the shoot that exemplifies what you’re talking about?

Yeah. I slfinisherk there’s a outstanding example of both. So the courthouse scene [near the end of the film] is a outstanding example of what I would call the very handled/unrestful approach. It’s not handheld. We’re not shooting tons of angles, but we let the actors improvise wislfinisher the summarize, and let them do someslfinisherg branch offent. The home trespass scene, by contrast, is a very regulateled intentional execution. It’s one sboiling, next sboiling, wide sboiling. We sboiling it enjoy you would shoot a Hong Kong action movie, shooting in the order of the edit on set.

I understand Sean is a walking film encyclopedia. Did you talk about certain movies as visual reference points for Anora?

We watched 1970s New York films that felt appropriate, enjoy two films sboiling by Owen Roizman: The French Connection and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, which had these repartner exceptional, lengthy apshows. These films have a little bit of a handmade quality around the edges, and a bit of an attitude, which echoes Ani’s character — her scrappiness. I wanted the pboilingography to have the same quality. So in the home trespass scene, for example, when we dolly alengthy on the floor, if there’s a bump alengthy the way, that’s ok. Sometimes I’d be concentrateing with my hand on the barrel, doing slfinishergs physicpartner enjoy that. We used elderly Russian anamorphic lenses, which inserted a little haziness, a soft quality to the image.

Talk about the uncmissing sboiling of the film, when we see Ani in the club. How did you set that up?

I adore that sboiling. I repartner do. We set up that sboiling instantly. When we scouted that location [an actual strip club in Brighton Beach], we walked down that hallway, and we equitable krecent this is our uncmissing sboiling. If we equitable put the camera right here and dolly alengthy. There was nakedly enough space, enjoy an inch on either side of the camera. It was a repartner exceptional moment. And it repartner draws you in to Ani, originates it experience enjoy she’s the star of the movie. It’s also baged. I uncomardent, shoprosperg your direct actress, bare in the first sboiling of the film…We were a bit worried about that, but Mikey was down with it.

We wanted to equitable watch her engageing with clients as if we were a little fly on a wall. We set up, roll an entire mag then do it from another angle, roll an entire mag. Just letting [Madison] get into character, run the floor, shoprosperg how the ladies toil.

What was the most complicated or difficult scene for you to shoot?

The most challenging was home trespass because it’s in authentic time. 28 to 30 pages of script, 28 minutes in the movie, and it’s all in continuous time. And, you understand, it’s a minuscule movie. I didn’t have huge resources. I don’t have the ability to regulate the sun. So it became a authentic contest for me, to originate a continuous airy and a continuous experience. We’re shooting for enjoy 10 days straight and we got every individual weather imaginable over those 10 days. On a cboisterousy day we had to shoot. On a rainy day and when the sun was blasting in. Making that all experience enjoy 30 minutes over one day was quite a feat. It doesn’t watch enjoy we’re airying anyslfinisherg — the idea of the movie was to experience very organic and unlit — but think me, we’re doing a lot.

The choreography must have been a nightmare as well.

That scene was so complicated it was the only one we at least tryed to sboilingenumerate. We didn’t repartner do it, though. We spent a couple of days sboilingenumerateing, but we only repartner got thcdisorrowfulmireful enjoy three pages. So then we choosed, to aprohibitdon that and equitable figure out the basic blocking, the shape of the scene, to get an idea of how it would commence and how it would finish, and how they’d transfer from one side of the house to the other.

Visupartner we krecent the approach we wanted, we commenceed it out repartner burdensome and locked down, dollying in, and then it shifts halfway thcdisorrowfulmireful, and it goes into handheld when they’re yanking off Ani’s wedding ring and she’s screaming. It goes crazy. And then when she’s tied up and they are negotiating with her before they exit it goes back into a very locked down, burdensome sort of camera language. We figured out those wide strokes beforehand but most of the details we’d figure out on the day, blocking slfinishergs out with the actors.

How particular is Sean when it comes to individual sboilings and framings?

Sean usupartner has an idea about certain sboilings, an approach or a experienceing, and I’m the uncoverive of pboilingography, trying to mine him for those ideas. The more we shoot, the less we have to even talk because we get so aligned. We equitable krecent what the film is and it becomes effortless to equitable to go into a scene blind and shoot it. I understand that on Anora, I would never do a sweeping crane sboiling and then an over-the-shoulder suiting sboiling. That’s equitable not how Sean shoots movies. It’s much more grounded, very human and minimaenumerate coverage.

Typicpartner, we try to shoot scenes in a way where we’re never recycling a sboiling. For instance, the scene on the bed where Ani asks Ivan what he does and he says, jokingly, ‘I’m an arms dealer.’ That sboiling consists of a wide sboiling, a seal-up on her, a seal-up on him, and then a two-sboiling. But once you are in those sboilings we never cut back and forth. We’re in the seal-up for enjoy a minute, and cut to the two-sboiling, in that for a minute, and then to the other sboiling. We never intercut, it’s enjoy ping pong, boom, boom, boom. Sean repartner enjoys that approach where you’re always cutting to a recent sboiling, and I repartner do as well.

We don’t always stick to it, because sometimes you equitable can’t, especipartner when there are lots of characters in a scene, or a repartner lengthy scene or someslfinisherg, but in ambiguous, Sean repartner enjoys to do it that way. If you watch at Red Rocket, it’s very analogous. I repartner try to lean into that and structure how we can block and shoot and cut the scene to that sort of way.

I slfinisherk it’s very anti-Hollywood, which is someslfinisherg that both Sean and I have in our DNA. We adore indie films, we adore art-house films, we adore European cinema. So as anti-Hollywood and as non-foreseeable as we can be, the better.

Do you have a preferite sboiling in the film, maybe one that doesn’t necessarily stand out, but is particularly exceptional for you?

I don’t understand if I have a preferite sboiling, but I definitely have a preferite scene. It’s seal to the finish when Ani is smoking a dim and she passes it to Igor [Yuri Borisov] and they are equitable talking about their names and she calls him a faggot-ass bitch.

I equitable adore that scene. It’s one of the most basic scenes in the movie. It’s so basic and elegant. After the disorder of the movie, to equitable sit with them alone in that scene together, watch them talking, is quite kind. The rapport they have with each other is amusing and combative, but also charitable of flirty. There are so many slfinishergs happening in the scene but it is done repartner spropose. The airying is very minimal, the blocking, the camera angles. There are equitable three or four sboilings in that scene, maybe five. I experience that scene was a authentic enhanceion for us. It felt enjoy a very reliable and brave scene, brave in the writing, brave in the filmmaking, and brave in the acting.