FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES Presents In association with ...

“We were thrilled to be able to make this work,” says Roy Kaiser, Artistic Director of the Pennsylvania
Ballet. “It’s a fantastic project and was a great experience for my dancers. They’ve had a chance to help show
ballet in a realistic light and were so excited to work with this phenomenal cast.”
HALL OF MIRRORS:
THE VISUAL DESIGN
Production of BLACK SWAN began outside Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Ballet, and
continued for several weeks, entirely on location in New York, mainly in Manhattan but also shooting at the
Performing Arts Center at the State University of New York Purchase, the versatile stage where Bob Fosse shot
portions of the cinematic dance classic, ALL THAT JAZZ.
Aronofsky worked with his talented design team to entwine two visual ideas: a visceral view of ballet
featuring raw, handheld camera work and a more surreal and frightening but equally gritty, series of images
filled with refractive mirrors and eerie sightings of doppelgangers that blur the edges of reality. The alwaysmoving
camera seems to both dance and descend with the main character.
The team included many Aronofsky regulars, headed by cinematographer Matthew Libatique, ASC
(THE FOUNTAIN), production designer Thérèse DePrez (HOWL), costume designer Amy Westcott (THE
WRESTLER), editor Andrew Weisblum, A.C.E. (THE WRESTLER) and visual effects supervisor Dan
Schrecker (REQUIEM FOR A DREAM).
Bypassing a century of both dance-on-film and psychological thriller techniques, Aronofsky and
Libatique instead brought their own trademark style to a world rarely seen in this kind of raw intimacy. Most of
the film’s scenes rely on a single hand-held camera that moves continuously, sinuously, with no resetting for
masters or close-ups.
“I was excited to shoot a psychological thriller mostly hand-held because I couldn’t think of a time
when it had been done before,” says Aronofsky. “There are sometimes a few scenes in thrillers where you see
from the monster’s POV with a hand-held camera, but to do the whole thing hand-held in a documentary style
felt unique.”
He continues, “I also felt that bringing a handheld camera into the ballet world would help to get inside
it, as we had done with the wrestling ring in THE WRESTLER. The camera is dancing and spinning with the
dancers. It captures the energy, the sweat, the pain and the artistry close up.”
And then there are the mirrors, which play a major role in the film’s visual architecture. “In the world
of ballet there are mirrors everywhere,” explains Aronofsky. “Dancers are always looking at themselves, so
their relationship with their reflection is a huge part of who they are. Filmmakers are also fascinated by mirrors,
and it’s been played with before, but I wanted to take it to a new level. Visually, we really pushed that idea of
11