2. BACKGROUND
• Christopher Jonathan James Nolan was born 30th July 1970. He is a British-American film
director, producer and screenwriter. His nine movies have grossed over $4 billion
worldwide, and have gathered a total of 21 Oscar nominations and another six awards.
• In 1998 Nolan made his directing debut with Following. It was a movie which he
personally funded and filmed. It was made with a £3,000 budget. It won many awards
throughout its festival run and was released on DVD on the 11th of December 2012.
• After the success of Following, he went on to direct several other movies, such as
Memento (2000), Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008),
Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and his most recent movie, Interstellar
(2014).
3. SHOT ANGLES
• In his movies, Christopher Nolan uses a variety of shot types throughout his movies,
typically he begins his movies with a close up shot of the main characters hands
performing an action, or holding something.
Memento: The Dark Knight Rises:
The Dark Knight:
4. SHOT ANGLES
Insomnia
• Nolan also uses many medium
shots of two characters in the shot
to establish what is going on in
that part of the narrative.
The Dark Knight
5. WHAT DO THE FIRST TWO MINUTES OF THE
MOVIES REVEAL ABOUT THE NARRATIVE?
• The Dark Knight:
In the first minute of the movie opening, after some of the credits are shown, an establishing
shot of the location of where it is set is shown, following with a close up of a building, as the
close up moves into an extreme close up the one of the windows of the buildings shatters, and
we see two men in masks preparing to commit some sort of act, maybe of an illegal nature
considering the way it is all set out. As the opening progresses, we are then shown a long
shot of the back of a man holding a mask and carrying a big bag. He then proceeds to enter a
vehicle with two other masked men and they begin driving off and discussing how much they
will earn from the crime which they are committing. What the opening sequence reveals about
the narrative of the story is that there is some sort of crime which is about to be committed
and that the robbers are preparing to do so.
6. WHAT DO THE FIRST TWO MINUTES OF THE
MOVIES REVEAL ABOUT THE NARRATIVE?
• The Dark Knight Rises:
The opening credits of the movie finish off at minute 01:08, there is a sound bridge of a man
speaking between the ending of the opening credits and the first scene. The first scene then
descends to medium-long shot of a man who seems to be in the law enforcement speaking
about another man who has recently passed away. The scene then fades from this shot, into a
different one, of a car being driven in a field and heading towards a small aeroplane, where a
few men who again, seem to be part of the military/CIA are awaiting the cars arrival. This
connotes that they are waiting for the men in the car who had bags over their heads, and from
this the audience can infer that they are probably some sort of criminals which have
committed a crime and are going to be taken into custody because of it.
7. USE OF COLOUR IN MOVIES:
• It is known that Christopher Nolan is red and green colour-blind. This is why most of his
movies are known for using more subtle colours such as orange and teal.
