“I always say cinematographers are visual psychologists,” is how Johanna Coelho, The Pitt cinematographer, started off our interview. I was not prepared for my mind to be blown so early in the conversation. I’ve certainly called cinematographers visual storytellers before. But the idea of a “visual psychologist” broke my brain. I needed more of an explanation.
3 things ‘The Pitt’ episode ‘8:00 AM’ gets right about AI in medicine, and 1 big thing it gets wrong
“We have to understand the psychology of the character and really dig into it to understand how to visually create the right atmosphere and pass it through to the audience. I think that’s such a great combination of art and psychology.”
When put that way, it makes perfect sense for the speaker of those words to be the person responsible for the visual aesthetic of one of the most immersive and psychologically devastating shows on television. She went on to discuss why she felt the show needed to feel immersive: “You need to be in the middle of it and actually living the shift yourself as an audience.”
Her first step to achieving that level of immersion was getting the look. “The visual approach of being immersive with them, it just became this full dance choreography. They always wanted the actors to move freely since the beginning. So we needed a system that we never stuck on the ground. We didn’t want to be on dollies or [a] tripod or anything. We actually don’t have tripods. It was decided that the camera will constantly move with the actors.”
When looking for inspiration for that level of immersion and camera movement, she looked to one of the masters, Roger Deakins’ 1917. “1917 was a big inspiration for the show, because you are in the trenches with the soldiers. And you follow them like you’re experiencing it with them. And I was like, the soldiers in the trenches need to be the doctors in the ER. And that’s what it needs to feel like.”
The Pitt Season 2 is now streaming on on HBO Max, with new episodes each Thursday.
