The Gritty, Cinema Verite Look of Black Swan

Momentum: Black Swan shot on Super 16mm, ARRI, Canon 7D & 1D mark IV

Planning shots with DSLR cameras:
I shot all of that rehearsal footage with the Canon 5D Mark II, which gave me references for the shots we wanted to make. I also figured out a lot of the mirror shots during prep, because we were rehearsing in a room with a three-sided mirror. 
~ Matthew Libatique, Cinematographer

Black Swan was a 40 day shoot.  The film is 108 minutes long.  The budget was $12 million and the film grossed $106 million in the U.S.  Total worldwide box office was $222 million.

On working with Director Darren Aronofsky:
A beautiful thing about working with Darren is that he has a visual style in mind, and he’s very clear about what he’s trying to do — there’s no coverage ambiguity. In fact, I wouldn’t even call what he does coverage. His style is more like the European style: you only have a few bites of the apple, so you make them all count.

How 16mm fit into the visual style of Black Swan
Darren likes 16mm because it’s small, he can do handheld, and he doesn’t have to wait around for camera setups. We were using real locations, so it helped in that regard, too. The apartment Nina shares with her mother was right next to Prospect Park, and we moved the camera in as though we were documenting real people’s lives. We made it a point to travel from kitchen to hallway to foyer to bedroom to bathroom, but the space really dictated the kinds of moves we could make. I think 16mm creates interesting texture, especially if you expose it correctly.


Matthew Libatique was nominated for best cinematography for Black Swan, but has also filmed:

Noah

Requiem for a Dream

Everything is Illuminated

The Fountain

Iron Man

Iron Man 2

Phone Booth

Inside Man