'Nope' marks Jordan Peele's first time using IMAX cameras. Here's how it elevated the horror movie.

• "Nope" marks the first time Jordan Peele shot a movie with IMAX cameras.
• IMAX's head of post production, Bruce Markoe, spoke with Insider about how Peele pulled it off.

Jordan Peele's latest movie, "Nope," once again proves how talented the Oscar-winning writer-director is, as his UFO horror topped the box office its opening weekend and has fans debating its hidden meanings.

But the thing "Nope" has over Peele's two previous directing efforts is its look.

Peele is the latest filmmaker to make a movie shooting on IMAX's large-format cameras, joining the ranks of Christopher Nolan ("Dunkirk," "Tenet") and Denis Villeneuve ("Dune").

According to Bruce Markoe, head of post production at IMAX, Peele had been interested in using the cameras since his second movie, 2019's "Us," was formatted to play on IMAX screens during its theatrical run.

"He came in and watched it on IMAX and he was really taken by our format," Markoe told Business Insider. "Then we got the call from his producer about a year or so later saying they were looking to shoot the movie with our IMAX film cameras."

The result is an elevation in Peele's storytelling. The clarity and detail from IMAX's 65mm camera matched with the talents of the movie's Oscar-nominated cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema ("Tenet," "Ad Astra") gives "Nope" an epic feel that immerses you in this thrilling story of siblings (played by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) determined to nab themselves the "Oprah shot" of an otherworldly object.

Because Hoytema had shot with IMAX cameras in the past, he was able to help Peele navigate how to best use it and escape its challenges — for instance, shooting coverage so the movie would still play right for non-IMAX screens, and not using the camera for intimate, dialogue-heavy indoor scenes because the camera is so loud they'd have to redo all the dialogue.

'When the image hit the screen for the first time ... it was an audible gasp'

Markoe said Peele did many screening sessions of footage for visual effects and editorial purposes on an IMAX screen.

"In post, filmmakers are usually editing on 16-inch TVs, or maybe they will go into a screening room to watch it, but that's literally a 20-foot screen," Markoe said. "So coming into an IMAX theater and watching an assembly or a cut of the movie on an 80- or 90-foot screen, things play differently. We really push and advocate for filmmakers to do that."

And doing that allowed Markoe and his team to show Peele just how gorgeous his movie would look on a really big screen.

He recalled the first time Peele saw footage of "Nope" on an IMAX screen. It was during post production and they went to the IMAX at the Universal City Walk in Los Angeles. Like most filmmakers, at this point in the process Peele had only seen AVID outputs of the footage. But Markoe had a treat for the filmmaker.

"We went and did a color version to make it look even better," he said of the footage.

"So I said, 'Let's start with these so you can see how it looks when it's done,'" Markoe said. "When the image hit the screen for the first time, there was probably 15 people in the room, it was an audible gasp. They were like, oh my, and there was a little cheer."

Markoe said there is about 48 minutes of footage in the two-hour movie that was shot on IMAX cameras, including the thrilling final half hour. That means if you are watching the movie on an IMAX screen, those with a keen eye may notice that suddenly the entire giant screen has picture. Sequences not shot on an IMAX camera have a subtle narrow look on an IMAX screen.

A good example is the shot in the "Nope" trailer when OJ (Kaluuya) is on his horse and galloping down a dirt road while the giant UFO is behind him. That was shot on an IMAX camera and looks glorious on the screen.

Markoe also noted the shot of when Em (Haywood) is looking out of the window of the house and the camera pushes past her and through the window. During that camera move, the aspect ratio subtly widens to full IMAX picture view.

"Jordan creatively built the change of aspect ratio into that moment to make it more powerful," Markoe said.

Markoe said regardless how you see "Nope" it's going to look great, but seeing it on IMAX is the "elevated way" to watch it.

"All filmmakers work so hard on a project to make every aspect of the movie be perfect, they obsess over it, so really the audience is going to experience the movie the way Jordan intended on an IMAX screen," he said.

Could you say Peele is an IMAX lifer now?

"I think so," Markoe said with a laugh.

"Nope" is currently playing in theaters.