Transcript of BY: ALEX LUZAR. Beginnings Born in London but has British and American Citizenship July 30, 1970 ...
- Slide 1
- BY: ALEX LUZAR
- Slide 2
- Beginnings Born in London but has British and American
Citizenship July 30, 1970 Began making films on his fathers Super 8
camera when he was only 7 years old Knew by age 11 that he wanted
to be a filmmaker
- Slide 3
- College Years and First Film Nolan Attended University College
London (UCL) as an English Major Made two successful short films
while there: Tarantella (1989) Larceny (1995) Considered to be one
of the schools best short films First feature film: Following
(1998) (available on Netflix) The success of Following brought
Nolan wide acclaim and attention around the film festival circuit
Led to his breakthrough film Memento (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=HseO9w0C308
https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=HseO9w0C308 Following Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=0vS0E9bBSL0
https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=0vS0E9bBSL0 Memento Trailer
- Slide 4
- Beliefs in the World of Film Nolan has repeatedly stated that
he is a Traditionalist when it comes to his approach to filmmaking
He prefers shooting on IMAX film as opposed to digital and dislikes
3D His beliefs on the use of CGI are also very traditional as he
rarely uses it, and when he does, it is only used to help tell the
story as opposed to being there purely for visual impact He gave an
in depth interview with the Directors Guild of America (DGA) where
he outlines all of his Traditionalist beliefs
- Slide 5
- Nolan on the Industry Switch from Film to Digital For the last
10 years, I've felt increasing pressure to stop shooting film and
start shooting video, but I've never understood why. It's cheaper
to work on film, it's far better looking, its the technology that's
been known and understood for a hundred years, and it's extremely
reliable. I think, truthfully, it boils down to the economic
interest of manufacturers and [a production] industry that makes
more money through change rather than through maintaining the
status quo. We save a lot of money shooting on film and projecting
film and not doing digital intermediates. In fact, I've never done
a digital intermediate. Photochemically, you can time film with a
good timer in three or four passes, which takes about 12 to 14
hours as opposed to seven or eight weeks in a DI suite. Thats the
way everyone was doing it 10 years ago, and I've just carried on
making films in the way that works best and waiting until theres a
good reason to change. But I haven't seen that reason yet.
- Slide 6
- Nolan on 3D Warner Bros. would have been very happy, but I said
to the guys there that I wanted it to be stylistically consistent
with the first two films and we were really going to push the IMAX
thing to create a very high-quality image. I find stereoscopic
imaging too small scale and intimate in its effect. 3-D is a
misnomer. Films are 3-D. The whole point of photography is that its
three- dimensional. The thing with stereoscopic imaging is it gives
each audience member an individual perspective. Its well suited to
video games and other immersive technologies, but if you're looking
for an audience experience, stereoscopic is hard to embrace. I
prefer the big canvas, looking up at an enormous screen and at an
image that feels larger than life. When you treat that
stereoscopically, and we've tried a lot of tests, you shrink the
size so the image becomes a much smaller window in front of you. So
the effect of it, and the relationship of the image to the
audience, has to be very carefully considered. And I feel that in
the initial wave to embrace it, that wasnt considered in the
slightest.
- Slide 7
- Nolan on CGI The thing with computer-generated imagery is that
its an incredibly powerful tool for making better visual effects.
But I believe in an absolute difference between animation and
photography. However sophisticated your computer-generated imagery
is, if its been created from no physical elements and you havent
shot anything, its going to feel like animation. There are usually
two different goals in a visual effects movie. One is to fool the
audience into seeing something seamless, and thats how I try to use
it. The other is to impress the audience with the amount of money
spent on the spectacle of the visual effect, and that, I have no
interest in. We try to enhance our stunt work and floor effects
with extraordinary CGI tools like wire and rig removals. If you put
a lot of time and effort into matching your original film elements,
the kind of enhancements you can put into the frames can really
trick the eye, offering results far beyond what was possible 20
years ago. The problem for me is if you dont first shoot something
with the camera on which to base the shot, the visual effect is
going to stick out if the film youre making has a realistic style
or patina. I prefer films that feel more like real life, so any CGI
has to be very carefully handled to fit into that.
- Slide 8
- Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight (2008) Due to the high
budgets of Nolans films, many people mistakenly believe that he
uses a lot of CGI Scenes like the tumbling hallway in Inception and
the semi truck flip in The Dark Knight were all done without any
CGI at all How the hallway scene was filmed:
https://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=8PhiSSnaUKk
https://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=8PhiSSnaUKk How the semi truck
flip scene was filmed: https://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=z45WGm7tdWE
https://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=z45WGm7tdWE
- Slide 9
- Nolan prefers in-camera effects, such as Christian Bale jumping
off a building in Hong Kong in The Dark Knight, to CGI effects.
Nolan believes that shooting with the larger IMAX camera gives him
the best visual quality.
- Slide 10
- Sources http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-
Articles/1202-Spring-2012/DGA- Interview-Christopher-Nolan.aspx
http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All- Articles/1202-Spring-2012/DGA-
Interview-Christopher-Nolan.aspx This is the link to the complete
interview Nolan had with the DGA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_ Nolan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_ Nolan