BY: ALEX LUZAR

Beginnings  Born in London but has British and American Citizenship July 30, 1970  Began making films on his father’s Super 8 camera when he was only 7 years old  Knew by age 11 that he wanted to be a filmmaker

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 school’s 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)  ch?v=HseO9w0C308 ch?v=HseO9w0C308 Following Trailer  ch?v=0vS0E9bBSL0 ch?v=0vS0E9bBSL0 Memento Trailer

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 Director’s Guild of America (DGA) where he outlines all of his Traditionalist beliefs

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, it’s 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. That’s 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 there’s a good reason to change. But I haven't seen that reason yet.”

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 it’s three- dimensional. The thing with stereoscopic imaging is it gives each audience member an individual perspective. It’s 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 wasn’t considered in the slightest.”

Nolan on CGI  “The thing with computer-generated imagery is that it’s 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 it’s been created from no physical elements and you haven’t shot anything, it’s 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 that’s 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 don’t first shoot something with the camera on which to base the shot, the visual effect is going to stick out if the film you’re 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.”

Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight (2008)  Due to the high budgets of Nolan’s 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: tch?v=8PhiSSnaUKk tch?v=8PhiSSnaUKk  How the semi truck flip scene was filmed: tch?v=z45WGm7tdWE tch?v=z45WGm7tdWE

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.

Sources  Articles/1202-Spring-2012/DGA- Interview-Christopher-Nolan.aspx Articles/1202-Spring-2012/DGA- Interview-Christopher-Nolan.aspx This is the link to the complete interview Nolan had with the DGA  Nolan Nolan