20 Things You Didn't Know About Arrival

Before filming took place, Villeneuve and cinematographer Bradford Young decided that Arrival’s aesthetic would go for the ‘’Dirty Sci-fi’’ look. According to a LA Times interview that featured the cinematographer, he described this as a “boring Tuesday morning then the aliens show up’’, and also made reference to the director’s desire to avoid symmetry and the sheen found in most sci-fi epics.

Furthermore, the work of Swedish photographer Martina Hoogland Ivanow, specifically her exhibition ‘Speedway’, influenced Young when he was building up the film’s visual style. Speedway is the photographer’s second solo effort and its focus on speedway drivers and the locales they race in is evocative due to its soft and dark lighting.

This stylistic sensibility can be seen in the aliens’ ship, with its visage being almost opaque in nature, and the scene where Louise receives the ability to perceive time cyclically from the Heptapods being shot in an almost painterly, naturalistic manner. Villeneuve and Young’s sensibilities paid off handsomely, as the film received numerous accolades for its restrained yet otherworldly cinematography, including an Oscar nod for the DP.