Where to Begin?

“Just to be clear, I didn’t go to film school because I couldn’t get into film school.”

That was Christopher Nolan, newly-minted Best Director winner and the filmmaker behind the highest grossing biopic of all time (Oppenheimer, 2023).

Even for a man of his caliber, the path to a successful filmmaking career wasn’t easily paved. Greatness, especially in creativity, is hard to spot by others.

Even harder for the artists themselves to materialize.

If you want to become a doctor, the path is difficult but understood:

• Get good grades

• Take internships

• Pass the MCAT

• Graduate from medical school

To be an Olympic Gold medalist wrestler:

• Compete well in high school

• Get a scholarship to wrestle in college

• Qualify & pass the Olympic trials

• Win every match in the Olympics

These pursuits require a Herculean level of difficulty and skill, but you know the steps that need to completed. There’s no ambiguity on what will make you pass or fail.

None of that exists for the artist. No established path or system.

Graduating from film school definitely doesn’t come with job security like graduating from medical school does (but leaves debt nonetheless).

Aspiring filmmakers all see the end goal, but the road seems frighteningly covered in fog.

Today I’m going to look at his early rise to see the principles of growth that apply in any time period – both in career and skill.

Modern technology will only make these principles more effective.

As you read, you’ll find Nolan didn’t strategically plan this all out.

This letter was written to break down the planned and unplanned decisions he made that led to a successful career, so you can plan your own path.

By the way – I’m not hating on film school. I’m hating on the mindset of relying on another authority to define your potential and success.

It is impossible to make a living with YOUR art that way.

An artist will fail if they rely on an institution. They will succeed with a self-driven path built on increasingly superior projects.

This is the Nolan Method.

The Creative Path

Literature, Short Films, & Corporate Media

Nolan chose to study English Literature at the University College London.

“So I studied English because that was the academic subject that I was best at. But what I found when I studied it, is (that) it greatly informed my filmmaking process and my writing process. I started to become more at ease with a lot of the literary concepts that underline film criticism.”

While studying he joined the college film society and continued making shorts, as he’d done since he was a child.

While this was made after graduating, one noteworthy short that’s made its way into the Internet is Doodlebug.

Watching it you can see the prototypes of different concepts and imagery that will continue to show up in his filmography.

Key point: He developed both his filmmaking and writing process in college. He studied storytelling formally through his English major, then applied it by creating his own films (also developing his technical ability).

Nolan didn’t just learn useful skills, he immediately applied them.

He also understood what skills were important to develop for his craft.

Some of the skills he developed:

• Filming creative concepts on low budgets

• How to make a film look technically polished

• Creating stylized visuals (ie. black & white cinematography)

Upon graduation he went into corporate media – in particular camera and sound work for media training sessions.

He also recorded radio programs in a studio.

“I learned a lot about going into an environment, using a couple of lights, setting up very fast, and then having to do something to a very rigorous schedule because you’d be interviewing the chairman of some huge corporation and he’d come in for just 10 minutes and expect me to just run and walk out.”

Being hyper efficient, working within less than favorable deadlines – all while producing professional quality work.

Nolan made a living within his industry doing work that let him develop the know-hows for his own projects. 

As Nolan notes himself, these were all skillsets that only grew in relevance as he made bigger films.

First Feature – Following

In 1998 Nolan released his first feature film Following. It’s a crime-noir story about an unemployed writer who follows strangers for inspiration. One person he follows catches him and invites him to his own hobby – burglary.

It represented the culmination of everything he could do independently.

As in – using his own money, casting his friends, & being his own camera man.

The skills and experience he developed since college informed every aspect the film’s production:

• Natural lighting

• Shot in black & white

• Shot almost entirely handheld

• Used simple props (ie. hammer vs a fake gun)

• Intercutting (cutting back and forth between 2 or more scenes)

• Shot on weekends over a year (few minutes of the film every shoot)

Natural lighting – When indoors, the characters are almost always by a window. If he ever created extra light, it was to enhance what was already present.

Less gear, faster filming.

Black & white – again, for efficiency. He didn’t have to worry about the set’s colors or the look from different lights, removing a “massive set of variables.”

Handheld – He had no big crew to manage extra equipment nor had the resources to use them. So he went handheld for a personal, documentary style.

BUT, he did borrow his college’s dolly (the cart that moves along tracks) for the opening scene. This made the shaky camera work for the rest of the film seem like a stylistic choice (PRO-TIP from the legend)

Simple props – Crime films tend to have guns. But inexpensive fake guns just don’t sell on camera and he wouldn’t be able to fire blanks.

So he created a nice torture scene with a modest hammer.

Intercutting – Ever watched Inception, Interstellar, or any of his films since? He loves this editing style, but for Following it also served as a cushion in case a moment didn’t work or he wasn’t able to get all his shots.

Weekend filming – His actors all had jobs to do on the weekdays. So he settled for making a mini short film every weekend. Remember the rigorous schedules?

His focus was on spotting anything that would “betray the film’s budget” and then creatively working around it.

People can judge production value much better than creativity.

It’s also less excusable. And distracts from a good story.

So he made sure his feature would be undeniable on that front.

Nolan self-produced the kind of project he wanted to make a living from to convince people to pay him for similar ones.

Be Prepared For Success – Memento

Following did well on the film festival circuit and got him and his wife opportunities to connect with producers.

Guess what they were asked?

“So what are you working on now?”

“Oh, nothing. I’m just happy to be here and am grateful for the opportunity.”

The first line was real, the second one is from an alternate reality.

In this reality, Nolan already had a script ready to pitch.

During the last bits of editing for Following and in the wait period of hearing back from festivals, Nolan began adapting a short story his brother wrote called Memento Mori.

By the time his first feature was getting noticed in festivals, he had already finished the script.

“It wasn’t conscious on my part to have another script ready to go… In retrospect, it was a massive advantage because I was able to say, ‘okay, you like that film. This is what I want to do next.’”

Unplanned, but he was able to take advantage of a very short window of interest to finance his next project.

Going from a $6000 self-financed film to a studio film with a $9 million budget.

Creating the psychological-noir classic Memento.

The rest is film history.

Take Christopher Nolan’s story and make your own path for a successful filmmaking career.

A successful artist’s career.

Build → Release → Learn → Repeat.

And don’t give up. No rejection, even from your industry, matters a damn.

Cheers,

Joe Soon