20 Things You Didn't Know About The Prestige
13. Handheld Cameras Were Used For 90% Of The Shoot
When someone says "period piece", it's often slow, deliberate camera movements that come to mind, steady shots that help to convey the stillness (when compared to hectic modern day life) of the time.
But The Prestige took a completely different approach. Wanting to tackle the look of the film from a modern standpoint, Nolan and his cinematographer Wally Pfister chose to shoot around 90% of the movie with handheld cameras, which had the added benefit of giving the actors a looser frame to play around in.
Pfister explained this approach in a 2007 interview with Variety, while also adding that the handheld element was a major challenge throughout production:
"We wanted to have a realistic and modern approach to the style of filmmaking, and part of that approach was to have an unpretentious, handheld style to the camera work. Chris Nolan likes a naturalistic style, but he also wanted to be able to block actors as he saw fit, and for the camera to be able to move around and keep up with that in a handheld style - not a documentary style, but a loose-camera approach."
Since a lot of the movie is set outdoors and in grungy 19th century buildings, it also makes sense for the camerawork to be equally as unrefined.