He and his production designers travel extensively to find exotic locations that have a real patina of time, rather than create something on a sound stage, sometimes enhancing them further with set dressing or visual effects.
He mirrors this approach in his use of practical locations. Doing this creates a veneer of realism, which is critically important for a filmmaker who’s always asking the audience to question the reality of what they’re watching. The film was his first collaboration with cinematographer Wally Pfister. Two years later, he directed psychological thriller Memento which starred Guy Pearce as a man suffering from anterograde amnesia searching for his wife's killers. His feature directorial debut was the neo-noir crime thriller Following which was made on a shoestring budget of 6,000. On Inception, they created real explosions, then enhanced what they captured in post-production. Christopher Nolan is a British-American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He prefers to use computer graphics as a last resort, to shoot a practical version of any stunt or effect, and only then use VFX to enhance what he’s already captured. Nolan prefers minimal movement (unless absolutely necessary), and generally shows great restraint in anything that distracts from the story - such as dolly moves during dialogue. On the face of it, Nolan’s visual style is simple compared to the prevalent Hollywood style, which usually involves over-the-top visual effects and complex technocrane movements. His films share a consistent visual and thematic style that serves and highlights the stories he likes to tell. Here are a few insights into his method.Ĭhristopher Nolan has worked with Wally Pfister on seven feature films and Hoyte Van Hoytema on his most recent three. Very rarely has a single filmmaker’s style transformed Hollywood with as much force as Christopher Nolan.