Christopher Nolan: Filming Techniques and Characterization
Starting from a young age, director and writer Christopher Nolan has been focusing and creating film since the age of 7. Nolan always has a unique touch to his film. This includes often using non-linear story telling throughout his films, his frequent uses of symmetric image composition, a use of unconventional and deep characters, his surprising and twistful plots and Nolan commitment to sticking to traditional film as oppose to the use of digital.
Nolan likes to use a non-linear story telling when it comes to his films. Nolen comments on his non-linear structure saying that “It really is a question of finding the most suitable order for releasing information to the audience and not feeling any responsibility to do it chronologically, just like we don't in life” (Anon). Nolen explains a non-liner narratives illuminates that there is no rules to its structure. So, with that the film can be remodeled it to the story it best represents (Anon). Nolan structures of non-linear story telling helps the audience perceptions affect the way they interpret the world, truth, and the passing of time (5 Major Defining…).
Take his film Memento for example that start scene of the film right at what seems to be the end. This non-liner structure fits as the main protagonist, Leonard suffers Anterograde amnesia. It shows his inability to remember. The film displays this by showing things to be a mix series of events. It makes the audience feel as though as they are part of the main character themselves, try to figure out the pieces just as much as the character himself.
Nolan use of non-linear narrative in film also fits in his film, Inception. The film itself deals with nature of dreams ...
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...still best because it provides the filmmaker the most range, captures the most depth of image and works best as a tool to tell a story. Nolan said that moving to digital creates a risk of “devaluing what we do as filmmakers”('Dark Knight Rises').
Nolan also quotes that “The problem with the push to digital is it has been given a consumer aspect,” He suggest that it confuses the camera with an Ipad. Nolan believes that digital is “not what is best for the film. Nolan states that he does use digital technology in the editing process and for special effects and in other ways but in the end he wants his films to be shot on film ('Dark Knight Rises').
Christopher Nolan source and aspect of filmmaking makes him uniqueful as a director. From the structure, characters, and the shooting of the film, Nolan defines what it means to stand out as a director and writer of films.
In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.
The intermix of a great literary work into a modern production is not a new concept, but the use of digital enhancement to carry a theme was unheard of prior to the making of this film. Both Director of Photography Roger Deakens, and Business Development Director Sarah Priestnall from Kodak, helped to explain that the digital process used is the modification of the film at the pixel level, in which the film is digitized frame by frame and each frame is color matched to allow for manipulation. The mastering process was done in the film developing...
All directors of major motion pictures have specific styles or signatures that they add in their work. Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest directors of all time, has a particularly unique style in the way he creates his films. Film analyzers classify his distinctive style as the “Alfred Hitchcock signature”. Hitchcock’s signatures vary from his cameo appearances to his portrayal of a specific character. Two perfect examples of how Hitchcock implements his infamous “signatures” are in the movies, A Shadow of a Doubt and Vertigo. In these movies, numerous examples show how Hitchcock exclusively develops his imagination in his films.
Alfred Hitchcock’s unique sense of filmmaking and directing has allowed him to become a very famous and well known film maker of his time. He uses similar recurring themes, elements, and techniques in many of his films to engage the viewers in more than just the film, but the meaning and focus behind the story.
Terrence Malick has a very distinct stylistic approach that is clearly evident through his films. In almost all his films he utilizes the same themes and technical devices. Three themes and technical devices Malick utilizes in almost all of his films are man v. nature, voiceovers, and religious themes.
A set of practices concerning the narrative structure compose the classical Hollywood Paradigm. These conventions create a plot centering around a character who undergoes a journey in an attempt to achieve some type of goal (). By giving the central character more time on screen, the film helps the audience to not only understand the character’s motivation but also empathize with his/her emotional state. Additionally, some antagonistic force creates conflict with the main character, preventing immediate success(). Finally, after confronting the antagonist, the main character achieves his or her goal along with growing emotionally(). This proven structure creates a linear and relatively easily followed series of events encompassing the leading character and a goal.
As a filmmaker, whose individual style and complete control over all elements of production, Alfred Hitchcock implied a great deal in the motion pictures that he made.
Through materialism, Kane became a self-invested individual. The highly acclaimed Citizen Kane creates drama and suspense for the viewer. Orson Welles designed this film to enhance the viewer’s opinion about light and darkness, staging, proxemics, personal theme development, and materialism. Creating one of the most astounding films in the cinematography world, Welles conveys many stylistic features as well as fundamentals of cinematography. It is an amazing film and will have an everlasting impact on the world of film.
Non-linear storytelling is the structure of a film in which time is presented. This means that the film can start at the beginning or the ending. The first film cited as an experiment of non-linear storytelling was Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). The structure that Kubrick based the film was from Lionel White's novel Clean Break. As Kubrick's film was nearly meant to be a test, it wasn't until Quentin Tarantino whom with the release of Pulp Fiction (1994) raised the popularity of non-linear storytelling in the twentieth century (LoBrutto 2012). So non-linear storytelling is fairly ne...
The vision Christopher Nolan had for The Prestige (2006) was to add to the outbreak of street magician film, whilst playing a large dramatic subplot equal in grandeur to the magical performances within the film. In the final sequence of the film, I will analyse how the cinematography and sound helps to resolve the plot so that it summarises the themes present in the film, whilst also invoking a response from the audience. Nolan uses close up shots, non-diegetic sound (music) and dialogue collaboratively to convey the dramatic, personal subplot of the characters and their relationships, whilst appealing to the audience bringing forth an emotional response from the audience. The heavy, slow, dramatic atmosphere of the ending sequence uses various
Director Tim Burton has directed many films. He started out working at Disney, but shortly after he decided to make his own films. He split away from Disney because they wouldn’t let him add the scariness and darkness he has in his films. After he left he created many great films and also developed his own style. He uses many cinematic techniques in his films for example he uses close-up camera angles on symbolic items, he uses music to show foreshadowing, and he uses lighting and color to show mood
Inception remains one of the most complex and deeply engaging narratives of this century. By defying traditional filmmaking, Nolan crafts a stunning cinema masterpiece that plays with the human subconscious. Equally, he provides audiences with the question of whether their reality is true, or perhaps the world they know is a dream. Paralleling the film’s ambiguous ending, the line between reality and the dream world is blurred due to the exceptional strategies Nolan and his team utilize. Mise-en-scéne elements of setting, brilliant cinematography, and profound editing techniques institute the film’s prevailing narrative form and motifs. Many film directors manipulate the concept of fantasy versus reality, but instead of providing a mundane exposition, fantasy becomes the new reality in Inception.
His technique to create a great movie is to use unique setting, gothic, weird character and murky stories. In addition “Burtons” acting techniques was to bring in funny and unique characters into his movie such as “Johnny
From comic book pages to the big screen, creating a film adaptation of a beloved graphic novel series can be a challenging task. Talented writers and directors must work to devise a faithful adaptation without turning the audience’s attention away, as most loyal readers of a series can have high expectations. Whether a composition is praised or criticized, the greatest wish for a film that carries such immense weight with its audience is for it to succeed. One adaptation that has successfully captured viewers is Batman Begins, a superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman. Cowritten and directed by Christopher Nolan, the film reboots the series with an origin story laced with action and dark realism. The film premiered