How to Get the Oppenheimer Look on Video (Nolan Color Grade)

What makes it look like Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer was shot by Hoyte van Hoytema on 65mm Kodak film, and it has two looks that cut back and forth. The color scenes are warm, rich and a bit dense, with skin that looks like skin and blacks that go properly black. The black and white scenes are hard and silvery with a lot of contrast. Neither one is a trendy grade, what sells it is the film texture and the restraint.

If you only change one thing, make it the blacks. Phone footage tends to lift the shadows into gray. Nolan's films sit the shadows down low and let things fall into darkness.

The color recipe

Open the film filters, pick Kodak Gold as the base, then change:

• Contrast: 118
• Saturation: 96
• Brightness: 97
• Temperature: +10
• Tint: -3
• Highlights: -10 (keep windows and skies from clipping)
• Shadows: -12 (this is the important one)
• Fade: 0
• Grain: 18
• Halation: 6
• Split Tone Intensity: 16
• Split Tone Shadow Color: #1c2428
• Split Tone Highlight Color: #e8c890
• Vignette: 14

Saturation stays just under 100. The warmth comes from temperature and the highlight tone, so skin gets golden without the whole frame turning orange.

The black and white scenes

For the Strauss scenes, switch to Acros and push it harder:

• Contrast: 138
• Highlights: -6
• Shadows: -16
• Grain: 30
• Vignette: 18

It should feel a little harsh. If faces look flat, add contrast before anything else.

Make it wide

A lot of the feel is the frame shape. Turn on the 2.39:1 letterbox in the filters panel, or 1.85:1 for a gentler crop. Pair it with a slow push in from animations, around 100 to 106 percent over five seconds, and hold on faces longer than feels comfortable.

Footage tips

Shoot with the light coming from one side, a window works, and let the other side of the face go dark. Avoid the iPhone Cinematic mode, it adds its own look that fights this one. Night footage with practical lamps in frame works great in color.

Mistakes that break it

Too much orange is the common one. This is warm, not teal and orange. Lifted blacks make it look like a vlog. And heavy saturation turns 1940s Los Alamos into a travel ad.

The 30 second version

1. 1Apply Kodak Gold
2. 2Contrast 118, Shadows -12, Saturation 96
3. 3Letterbox 2.39:1

Open the filters and try it on a clip.

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