Hoytema spoke to Variety about his experience on “Nope.” During the interview, he revealed that Wincott shadowing him was director Jordan Peele’s idea. Apparently, Wincott took to the assignment with aplomb. Wincott doesn’t have a particular reputation for being a method actor, but according to Hoytema, he behaved like one during their time together. “We hung around Panavision, the rental house,” Hoytema recalled. “He was all over the cameras and inside the cameras with his hand. He had cameras on his shoulders. He was so interested in learning and talking about the job and lighting. He wasn’t scared to get into the technical nitty-gritty.”

Wincott’s eagerness turned out to be a good thing, as in almost every scene featuring Holst, he’s operating some kind of film equipment. We’re introduced to him shooting a commercial while his next scenes have him sitting in front of an old-school film editing machine. In the climax, he wields a custom non-electric powered film camera; conventional cameras are useless because the UFO disrupts electronics. The film uses this for suspense when the camera runs out of the film right before the alien star of the picture is set to arrive. Any film school student who had to shoot using film will tell you what a pain reloading with darkroom changing bags can be.