It’s safe to say that the name Christopher Nolan is quite well known around these parts. He revitalized the Batman franchise with thought provoking films that didn’t settle for being standard popcorn-fare, and he made an extremely successful movie (Inception) that was based off of a wholly original screenplay instead of a board game or toy. With the impending release of the concluding chapter in his Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan recently sat down with the Directors Guild of America for an intensely in depth interview covering everything from his thoughts on 3D, to why didn’t shoot Inception in IMAX, how he approaches CGI, and much, much more. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

As Nolan is a huge advocate of shooting on film as opposed to digital, we’ll get to his thoughts, via DGA, on why he still shoots film first:

“For the last 10 years, I’ve felt increasing pressure to stop shooting film and start shooting video, but I’ve never understood why. It’s cheaper to work on film, it’s far better looking, it’s the technology that’s been known and understood for a hundred years, and it’s extremely reliable. I think, truthfully, it boils down to the economic interest of manufacturers and [a production] industry that makes more money through change rather than through maintaining the status quo.”

Given the fact that the film format is in grave danger of becoming extinct, Nolan decided to do something about it:

“I’ve kept my mouth shut about this for a long time and it’s fine that everyone has a choice, but for me the choice is in real danger of disappearing. So right before Christmas I brought some filmmakers together and showed them the prologue for The Dark Knight Rises that we shot on IMAX film, then cut from the original negative and printed. I wanted to give them a chance to see the potential, because I think IMAX is the best film format that was ever invented. It’s the gold standard and what any other technology has to match up to, but none have, in my opinion. The message I wanted to put out there was that no one is taking anyone’s digital cameras away. But if we want film to continue as an option, and someone is working on a big studio movie with the resources and the power to insist [on] film, they should say so. I felt as if I didn’t say anything, and then we started to lose that option, it would be a shame. When I look at a digitally acquired and projected image, it looks inferior against an original negative anamorphic print or an IMAX one.”

Filmmakers in attendance at the prologue screening included Edgar Wright, Joe Dante, Michael Bay, Bryan Singer, and many more, so we’ll see if Nolan’s little gathering had an effect on the directors in their subsequent films. Since he’s touted IMAX as the “gold standard” in quality filmmaking, Nolan was asked why he didn’t use the format for Inception:

“We didn’t shoot IMAX for Inception because we were trying to portray the reality of dreams rather than their extraordinary nature, so we used a handheld camera and shot it in a more spontaneous way. Whereas the operatic quality of The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises felt very well suited to IMAX’s larger canvas. So it’s different depending on what film you want to do. But, in each case, as a filmmaker who’s been given sizable budgets with which to work, I feel a responsibility to the audience to be shooting with the absolute highest quality technology that I can and make the film in a way that I want.”

What Inception did include was a bevy of incredible visual effects, most of which were done with as much in-camera work as possible. As such, Nolan talked about how he approaches CGI:

“The thing with computer-generated imagery is that it’s an incredibly powerful tool for making better visual effects. But I believe in an absolute difference between animation and photography. However sophisticated your computer-generated imagery is, if it’s been created from no physical elements and you haven’t shot anything, it’s going to feel like animation. There are usually two different goals in a visual effects movie. One is to fool the audience into seeing something seamless, and that’s how I try to use it. The other is to impress the audience with the amount of money spent on the spectacle of the visual effect, and that, I have no interest in.”

After CGI and IMAX, the next topic to tackle would be 3D. Nolan admitted that Warner Bros. would have been elated if he chose to shoot The Dark Knight Rises in 3D, but he explained why he’s not the biggest fan of the format:

“Warner Bros. would have been very happy, but I said to the guys there that I wanted it to be stylistically consistent with the first two films and we were really going to push the IMAX thing to create a very high-quality image. I find stereoscopic imaging too small scale and intimate in its effect. 3-D is a misnomer. Films are 3-D. The whole point of photography is that it’s three-dimensional. The thing with stereoscopic imaging is it gives each audience member an individual perspective. It’s well suited to video games and other immersive technologies, but if you’re looking for an audience experience, stereoscopic is hard to embrace. I prefer the big canvas, looking up at an enormous screen and at an image that feels larger than life. When you treat that stereoscopically, and we’ve tried a lot of tests, you shrink the size so the image becomes a much smaller window in front of you.”

Nolan has many more fascinating insights in the full interview, which I highly suggest you check out. He addresses why he doesn’t use a second-unit while filming, how he’s never done reshoots, and talks at length about his approach to working with actors.

他将普普通通的商业片系列灌注进人性的深度,他用扎扎实实的原创剧本力挫大牌厂商的围追堵截,他在制片公司的重重施压之下坚持不用3D——逆潮而动,风起云涌,克里斯托弗·诺兰是数字时代的另类英雄。在“蝙蝠侠前传三部曲”完结篇即将拨云见日之时,诺兰终于开口谈起他对电影新技术的个人看法。

对胶片心怀依恋 数字电影只为赚钱

众所周知诺兰是胶片电影的积极拥护者,对此他说:“在过去的十年里,我感到压力越来越大,因为我不明白为什么人们停用胶片而改用数字拍摄。胶片成本低廉、影像迷人,一百多年来一直与电影人为伴,十分值得信赖。我真觉得一定是金钱利益才使得制片厂商和整个行业对数字技术趋之若鹜,而放弃维持现状。”

对IMAX情有独钟 称其最佳电影制式

随着胶片工业渐渐消亡,诺兰决定另辟蹊径:“很长时间以来我都没有对此发表过看法,每个人都有自己的应对方式,这很不错。圣诞节前我召集了一些电影同行,包括埃德加·赖特、乔·丹特、迈克尔·贝和布莱恩·辛格等,向他们展示了试映版的IMAX《黑暗骑士崛起》,然后是原始底片和洗印后的版本,让他们看看IMAX的潜力。我认为IMAX是目前最好的电影制式,是使其他任何技术都相形见绌的黄金法则。我想说,没人会阻止你用数字摄影机,但如果我们还想保留胶片,如果有钱有势的大制片厂还坚持使用胶片,那么就不该选用数字。我觉得如果我不站出来呼吁,人们也渐渐弃用了胶片,那将是一种羞耻。每当我看到用数字技术拍摄和放映出来的画面时,那种影像效果都要比胶片或者IMAX逊色很多。”