Poetic Frames of “Train Dreams” – The Freedom of Capturing Life’s Beauty

Oscars 2026

by Mascha DeikovaMarch 12^th, 2026

Subscribe to How To

“Beautiful, ain’t it? Just beautiful! – What? – All of it. Every bit of it.” This is a quote from “Train Dreams” – its conclusion, meaning, and main message. The film itself is a visual poem, quiet, existential, and truly touching. (My favorite kind, what can I say!) With a well-earned Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, it is also a stunning work of art, born from a holistic, naturalistic approach and “stolen” improvised moments. Let’s talk about the beautiful frames of “Train Dreams,” the film’s authentic sense of life, and how all of this was achieved in just 29 shooting days.

“Train Dreams” is a poetic period drama about a man’s ordinary life, spanning 80 years and showing human existence on this planet in its purest form. Orphaned child, years of looking for meaning and purpose, love and family, future dreams, and how they can die overnight… Beauty and happiness, hand in hand with hardships and grief. It’s an intimate and, at the same time, epic story. In the end, the protagonist, Robert Grainier (portrayed by Joel Edgerton), does seem to find a connection across all his experiences. So do we, the viewers. After I watched “Train Dreams,” I felt as if I had touched the heart of something much bigger, if only for a fleeting moment. In my opinion, films like this are an important medium for speaking without words about the deepest and most universal topics.

If you haven’t been lucky enough to catch this masterful work in the theaters, it’s now available on Netflix.

Inhabiting spaces for frames of “Train Dreams”

“Train Dreams” is a film about life. Naturally, the filmmakers wanted to approach it almost like a documentary, capturing the real essence of living, memories, fleeting moments, and both happy and unhappy accidents. Yet it is also a period drama, a fictional story told by professional actors, with a proper budget, challenging scenes, and a large crew. So in order to film the world of “Train Dreams,” the creators first had to build it.

In the conversation with ShotDeck, the film’s cinematographer, Adolpho Veloso, calls their approach “inhabiting the spaces.” They shot everything (or nearly everything, with one or two exceptions) on location and built all the sets there. The cabin where the protagonist lives with his wife, Gladys (played by amazing Felicity Jones), and daughter is fully practical, down to the smallest details. There wasn’t a wall or a piece of furniture they couldn’t film or act with. If the actors decided to cook, they could go to the kitchen and jump into an improvised scene. Whenever they wanted to perform a dialogue in bed, it was ready for them. If the child didn’t want to stay inside one day, the crew would adapt and come up with a new idea outside.

As Adolpho explains, many shots in the movie were planned and meticulously prepared in advance. Yet there was just as much space for improvisation, last-minute ideas, and “stolen” moments that emerged on the spot. To make this possible, the filmmakers kept the trucks and most of the crew far enough away. The actors were able to truly inhabit the space. Adolpho, who usually operated the camera, could literally turn it around and point in any direction without worrying about C-stands. It sounds similar to the approach on “Hamnet” – another Oscar-nominated period drama, that we talked about yesterday – but multiplied by ten. To me, it is “method directing” in its finest form. (Head over here to read more on this term and philosophy.) As a result, the film feels authentic, spontaneous, raw, and magical – just like real life.

Natural lighting and approaching the scenes

This naturalistic approach meant they had less control than usual. For some filmmakers, it’s a challenging trip out of the comfort zone, says Adolpho. But during the shoot, they realized the freedom and pace they could acquire this way. No relighting for a reverse shot? New camera set-up in the blink of an eye? An entire scene finished in 40 minutes? An abundance of time for performance to unravel? Add all this to the beautiful frames of “Train Dreams” that the team witnessed in dailies, and the deal was sealed.

In the conversation, Adolpho explains how they worked through an example picnic scene. Imagine that sunset is at 7 pm. They would go outside and start prepping at, say, 5:30. First, Felicity and Joel, together with the director, Clint Bentley, would rehearse. After they found their position for the dialogue, Adolpho would take the camera and look for the frame. In this case, they quickly landed on a heartfelt and extraordinary close-up with a handheld cam on a sandbag. They immediately knew the whole scene could be captured in just this shot, so they waited for the sun to set lower and started recording at around 6:20 pm.

Sometimes they didn’t even cut; they simply shot take after take, improvising and trying different things. In the final takes of the shot above, the sun had already disappeared behind the horizon, but they knew they had the scene in the can. After that, Adolpho repositioned the camera for a wide shot, which only took a few minutes because it was a small setup. They filmed a few seconds for the scene’s opening, and that was it. That’s how they achieved continuity in the sky.

29 sunsets

If you shoot at the right time of day, your frame has a magical quality. Something that you cannot always replicate, even with the most expensive lights. This is probably the essence of life we were talking about before. However, for “Train Dreams,” they had only an impressive 29 shooting days to capture 80 years of Robert Grainier’s life. That meant just 29 sunsets! On top of that, Adolpho Veloso is an adherent of the one-camera approach, so they didn’t shoot anything with multiple cameras. How on earth was it possible?

First of all, the creators of “Train Dreams” did lots of splits. Meaning, they would start at around 2-3 pm and end the day at 2 am. This way, they could achieve both day and night scenes and were “protected from midday light,” as Adolpho explains.

Second, being aware of the limitations and knowing that there was only time for two or three takes did something to everyone. Here is an example from Adolpho:

In this tower scene, Robert and Claire, a forestry services worker, talk about their lost loved ones, grief, and nature while building a deep, non-romantic connection. The director and cinematographer knew it was a long and demanding dialogue, and they didn’t want to put pressure on the actors. So they decided to start filming the single shots earlier, while the sun was still high enough. However, they quickly noticed it wasn’t working. The lighting didn’t look right, the actors had to squint, and the magic of the magic hour was missing, even though the characters were meant to enjoy a magnificent view. How did they solve this issue? Simply, they stopped and waited for an hour. Producers probably went a little crazy. Then they came back at the right moment, and suddenly everything clicked. Even the first take after the break was better than all the tries before. They managed to shoot both singles and the wide from inside in time, and even had 20 spare minutes at dusk to spontaneously film a crane shot of Robert watching the stars.

A lot of the process was: Yeah, we have 20 minutes. Let’s just grab something and shoot!

Adolpho Veloso, from the Shot Talk on YouTube

Introducing the visual language

Although they relied heavily on improvisation and chance, there is still an idea behind each frame that suggests the story it tells. For example, in scenes with family, Adolpho and the crew knew they had to shoot in the most beautiful natural light, sunset, dusk, and blue hour. With rays falling directly on the sensor. After all, these were the protagonist’s sweetest memories. And such memories usually look better in our heads than they actually were.

On the contrary, other moments required flat or harsh lighting. For instance, when Robert comes back to the cabin, he sees nothing but ashes. It is a heartbreak, a hard turn of fate for him, so the filmmakers needed high sun to contrast with the beautiful, warm family scenes.

Adolpho Veloso also elaborates on the 3:2 aspect ratio for frames of “Train Dreams.” Basically, it is a widely used format, but mostly for still photography rather than motion pictures. By using it, they wanted to evoke the feeling of looking at old photographs and trying to piece together a life through them. What a poetic point of view!

Camera and lenses behind the frames of “Train Dreams”

In this Netflix’s making-of video, Adolpho Veloso shares his technical decisions for “Train Dreams.” In terms of the camera, they had two ARRI ALEXA 35 bodies – one filming, the other one prepped for crane/dolly/steadicam. They shot a lot of scenes handheld, so it was essential to have a compact system. And because they shot mostly with available light, having 17 stops of dynamic range allowed them to film in tricky situations. In Adolpho’s words, some of the shots are lit literally by a single candle or a gas lamp, and this was possible thanks to the camera.

As for the lenses, Adolpho deliberately chose two different sets for “Train Dreams.” For the daylight sequences, he went for vintage Kowa Prominar spherical lenses. He loves them because they “have the most beautiful sun flares ever.” As they filmed a lot outside, the sun is a prominent guest in the frames of “Train Dreams,” and they wanted to transmit its magic; the lenses did their job wonderfully. However, they are quite slow and therefore tricky for dark sequences. So for the nighttime scenes, Adolpho chose Zeiss Super Speeds (f1.3) so they could literally shoot with candles and real fire. No filtration, no LUTs, no pushing the base 800 ISO… Filmmakers wanted to stay faithful to what they shot, and so they did.

A few words on shutter

Another decision that truly inspired me was regarding the shutter angle. In the daytime sequences, Adolpho frequently used a 45° angle. When you watch the battle scenes from “Saving Private Ryan,” famously filmed with a high shutter, they feel hyperrealistic, too hectic, too frenetic – almost too much. In “Train Dreams,” you barely notice the unusual setting. As the camera is calm and quiet, and there is little fast movement in the frames, the lack of motion blur does not pierce the eye. It doesn’t seem hyperrealistic. It rather feels simply realistic.

At the same time, the night scenes were shot with a standard 180° shutter angle. Naturally, because the camera crew couldn’t sacrifice two stops, but not only that. Adolpho explains that he tried to replicate how the human eye and brain perceive reality. When there is a lot of light, we usually see things more sharply, with less motion blur. When it’s darker, things become blurry. The creators of “Train Dreams” intended to give the film a sense of reality, and they succeeded.

Interestingly, the only scene they shot on the Volume was Robert’s nightmare of fire with Gladys and his daughter, stills above. The director, Clint, wanted to achieve a dreamy, unrealistic look through a 356° shutter and 5 frames per second. They couldn’t film with a real firewall, naturally, and they knew that such a blurry look would be almost impossible to work with in VFX if the fire effects were added afterward. That’s why, for this sequence only, they relied on virtual production.

Conclusion

“Train Dreams” received four nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography for Adopho Veloso. Soon enough, we will know whether it wins anything. But regardless of the result, this is one of those films that touches hearts and will stand the test of time, so I highly recommend it.

Have you watched “Train Dreams”? How did you like its poetic frames? What do you think about the available light and “inhabiting spaces” approach? Let’s talk in the comments below!

Feature image: a film still from “Train Dreams” by Clint Bentley, 2025.