AS MEDIA STUDIES

1. DIRECTOR RESEARCH
Christopher Edward Nolan

2. WHO IS HE?
He is is an English-American film director,
screen writer and producer who is known
for making personal, distinctive films
within the Hollywood mainstream. He is
the highest grossing director by worldwide
box office.

3. ABOUT HIS EARLY LIFE:
Nolan began making films at age seven, borrowing his
father's Super 8 camera and shooting short films with his
action figures.These films included a stop motion
animation homage to Star Wars called Space Wars. He cast his
brother Jonathan and built sets from "clay, flour, egg boxes
and toilet rolls." His uncle, who worked at NASA building
guidance systems for the Apollo rockets, sent him some
launch footage: "I re-filmed them off the screen and cut them
in, thinking no-one would notice", Nolan later remarked. From
the age of eleven, he aspired to be a professional
filmmaker. Between 1981 and 1983, Nolan enrolled at Barrow
Hills, a Catholic prep school in Weybridge, Surrey, run by
Josephite priests. In his teenage years, Nolan started making
films with Adrien and Roko Belic. Nolan and Roko co–directed
the surreal 8 mmTarantella (1989), which was shown
on Image Union, an independent film and video showcase on
the Public Broadcasting Service.

4. FILMOGRAPHY:
Working from around 1998, the director has amassed quite an incredible reputation due to his
amazing filmography. Nolan has around 14 directing credits to his name:
2020Tenet
2017 Dunkirk
2015 Quay (Documentary short)
2014 Interstellar
2012The Dark Knight Rises
2010 Inception
2008The Dark Knight
2006The Prestige
2005 Batman Begins
2002 Insomnia
2000 Memento
1998 Following
1997 Doodlebug (Short) (as Chris Nolan)
1996 Larceny (Short)
1989Tarantella (TV Short)

5. POSTERS OF THE FILMS:

6. MOVIE THEMES AND METHODS:
In Script writing, there are 3 primary constituents; Script,
Narrative and Character. Nolan generally complicates
Script and Narrative, while the character is kept simple.
This is what keeps the audience interested throughout the
film and sometimes even after the movie gets over.
Protagonist and other characters in the film usually have a
Psychological problem and motivated by tragedy, resulting
in revenge and/or guilt.

7. STYLE:
 Film Noir (Moody, Dark and Dramatic)
 Keeps his camera moving or panning during tense dialogues.
 Uses storytelling techniques such as flashbacks, shifting points of view and unreliable narrators.
 Uses unconventional editing style of cutting away quickly from the money shot (or nearly cutting off
characters' dialogue) and crosscutting several scenes of parallel action to build to a climax.
 Other recurring themes include obsession, sacrifice, betrayal, solitude, memory, revenge, violence,
escalation, corruption, terrorism, surveillance, blackmail, alienation, self-incrimination, idealism versus
realism, ghosts of the past, regret and conspiracy
 Identity Conflict and the complexity of truth versus falsehood are among Nolan’s most prevalent themes.
 Nolan prefers shooting on film to digital video, and opposes the use of digital intermediates and digital
cinematography, which he feels are less reliable and offer inferior image quality to film. Prefers "IMAX" film.
 Nolan uses multi-camera for stunts and single-camera for all the dramatic action.
 Nolan uses hand-held camera to convey realism.
 Dialogue scenes framed in wide close-up with a shallow depth of field.
 Extreme Close-ups usually involve the character's hands.
 Modern locations and architecture are used.
 For establishing exteriors and locales, Nolan typically employs aerial extreme long shots captured by
helicopter mounted cameras.
 On 3D he chooses to minimize the amount of computer-generated imagery for special effects in his films,
preferring to use practical effects whenever possible, using CGI only to enhance elements which he has
photographed in camera.

8. SIGNATURE SHOT:

9. QUOTES FROM CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S FILMS:
 If you’re good at something, never do it for free.
 So you lie to yourself to be happy.There’s nothing
wrong with that. We all do it.
 You either die a hero or live long enough to
become the villain.
 Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough.
Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes
people deserve to have their faith rewarded.
 Memory can change the shape of a room; it can
change the color of a car. And memories can be
distorted.They’re just an interpretation, they’re
not a record, and they’re irrelevant if you have the
facts.

10. SOURCES:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_No
lan#Filmmaking
 https://www.bumppy.com/15-classic-quotes-
from-christopher-nolans-talented-films/
 https://prezi.com/u3hnzt6lbg4i/christopher-
nolans-unique-style-of-filmmaking/
 Images are taken from Google