Shooting a film on the streets of New York City is usually a logistical nightmare. You need permits, massive lighting trucks, and an army of production assistants screaming at pedestrians to stop walking. Noah Baumbach wanted the kinetic, authentic energy of New York, but he refused the nightmare. He chose a different weapon for Frances Ha: guerrilla filmmaking.
The DSLR Advantage
Baumbach shot the film using a compact Canon EOS 5D Mark II. By utilizing this unobtrusive DSLR camera, the production was able to shoot on active streets, in crowded subways, and inside cramped apartments with unprecedented agility. They captured real-world environments that larger setups could never access without fundamentally destroying the spontaneity of the location.
Furthermore, this cheap, digital format gave Baumbach an incredible luxury: time. He did not have to worry about the ruinous cost of 35mm film stock. He shot a staggering number of takes—sometimes up to 40 per scene—ensuring he and co-writer Greta Gerwig captured the exact, hyperspecific rhythm of the dialogue.
Digital Texture
The true genius of the production, however, lay in post-production. Baumbach and cinematographer Sam Levy did not try to hide the digital origin of the image. Instead, they leaned into it. They utilized aggressive black-and-white color grading to construct a glistening, highly textured monochrome image. It evokes the spirit of the French New Wave, but its crisp, digital rendering is entirely modern. It is a brilliant example of using cheap technology not to mimic the past, but to create a wholly new aesthetic.
Insights regarding the guerrilla NYC shooting, the use of the Canon 5D Mark II, and the digital black-and-white grading were synthesized from production interviews.