Cuarón adopted an observational approach for the camera, as he explains. “It’s like a ghost from the present visiting the past, which was the way I described it to the crew. I tried to avoid any cinematic language that conveyed subjectivity. For instance, there’s not one single dolly in or out. The funny thing with this one is I made use of a framing style that Chivo finds to be flat. The character is framed from the front as opposed to three-quarters.”

Key crew members were gaffer Javier Enríquez, camera operator/cinematography collaborator Galo Olivares, first AC Francesco Cavazza, DIT Ernesto Joven, and Technicolor LA colourist Steve Scott.

Roma is the first production since Y Tu Mamá También (2001) that Cuarón has shot in Mexico. Principal photography lasted for 110 days and mostly took place in the Colonial Roma neighbourhood of Mexico City. The majority of the story unfolds in an exact replica of the filmmaker’s childhood home, which was a set constructed within a house that had the desired historical aesthetic and featured original furniture provided by members of his family.

“We would go out scouting locations and I’d try to reimagine the moment of memory in the context of the place,” remarks Cuarón. “We would come weeks or months later to mark where the track would go or where the camera would pan from place to place. The art department knew exactly what we were going to see. We would have to make considerations. I’d discuss with Javier the lighting of each shot. I knew that the camera was going to be cornered on one side framing the whole house with foreground and background.”