287 - Following, United Kingdom, 1998. Dir. Christopher Nolan.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

287 - Following, United Kingdom, 1998.  Dir. Christopher Nolan.

You may have heard of Christopher Nolan.

Here are some directing credits.:

Dunkirk, 2017
Interstellar, 2014
The Dark Knight Rises, 2012
Inception, 2010
The Dark Knight, 2008
The Prestige, 2006
Batman Begins, 2005
Insomnia, 2002
Memento, 2000
Following, 1998

In fewer than twenty years he went from being a self-taught independent filmmaker to one of the most admired, imitated, and sought after directors in the world.

Along the way he achieved that most notable of honors: the one where aspiring twenty-something males claim filmmaker street cred--and hope your powers rub off on them--by referring to you by your last name.

Nolan.

And he achieved this acclaim through a process understood by so few that it remains a mystery to many who wish to make their mark on the world.  If only someone could crack the code.  If only someone could figure out how to get there.  Christopher Nolan figured it out.  Here is the secret:

Work.

He started making films when he was young, and he states that there was never a time in his life when he was not making them.  Yes, he went to school.  Yes, he worked.  So he made movies in his spare time, at nights and on weekends.  He used whatever tools he had at his disposal.  A Super-8 camera.  Video.  Eventually 16mm.

He started making a feature film and realized he was over his head.  He did not have the resources--the knowledge, the skills, the technology, the money.  And that feature was never finished.

You may remember another director we wrote about recently who could not finish his first feature film: Alfred Hitchcock.

And like Hitch, Nolan did not quit but tried again.  He made some short films, and he used them as a training ground for learning the skills he needed.

He saw Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi in 1992 and Kevin Smith's Clerks in 1994, and he pointed them out to his friends.  Look.  People in America are making movies with no money, and they are getting distribution, and we are going to see them at the theaters like real movies. We could do that here in England.

So Nolan, it is estimated, spent $6,000 over the course of a year.  He chose to film in black and white because he did not have any lights.  He scouted locations that were abandoned or easily accessible.  He wrote scenes where two people are standing or sitting and having a conversation.  He chose a hammer as a weapon rather than guns.  He planned every shot ahead of time so that he would not have to shoot coverage.  He rehearsed his actors to the point where they could get it in one or two takes.  He filmed next to windows to use natural lighting.  He made his movie under 70 minutes long.  He filmed using a hand-held camera so that he would not need a crane or jib or rig or dolly or track or even a tripod.  He held the camera himself.

Whenever they were waiting for more money to come in or for the lab to develop what negatives they had, he worked on writing his next script.

When the film was finished he placed it in festivals.

The rest is history.

Making a movie is the hardest thing in the world if you consider the obstacles.

It is the easiest thing in the world if you want to do it badly enough.

I am in a position where somebody asks me every week how to become an actor or a writer or a filmmaker.  And I am happy to help them.

The majority never do it.  They do not listen.  Or they listen for a time and then quit.

Because they do not want it badly enough.

They are not willing to do what it takes to get there.

Which is to wake up the next day and work.
And wake up the next day and work.

They wake up the next day and do something else.

The great screenwriting teacher Jeffrey Gordon cracked the code when he said, "The secret to writing is writing."

That sums it up.

Nike trademarked the secret which was already being spoken by athletes around the world long before they came along.  Just do it.  And in doing so they sold millions of pairs of shoes to people who never will.

Nolan shows his awareness of this distinction here in his first film, as he makes his protagonist, The Young Man, a person who calls himself a writer.

Yet Cobb, the man whom he mistakenly follows more than once, who becomes his mentor, calls him out.  When they are in the Young Man's apartment, and Cobb presumably does not know it is his, Cobb points out the typewriter and other artifacts and states emphatically, This person is not a writer.  This person is someone who wants to be a writer.

The Young Man flinches, shrivels, knowing deep down that Cobb is speaking the truth.

The Young Man is a wannabe.

And when the twists come in this time-out-of-order tale, the wannabe writer proves to be the perfect person for the task at hand.

Meanwhile, Nolan did not wannabe a wannabe.

He did not want to be a writer.  He was one.

He wrote.

He filmed.

He finished.

The rest is history.


Who's next?