INCEPTION• Director Christopher Nolan and DOP Wally Pfister opted to shoot scenes of the film in high speed

so they were constantly filming in the highest possible frame rate. After recording in this format, the footage can be played back in slow motion.

• Many of the scenes in Inception were filmed in daylight but several of them were also done in an artificial light.

• One complicated scene to light involved rotating a van 360 degrees. To heighten the effect of Leo’s characters being in a dream state, Nolan asked for a speed ramp which is used massively in action films for dramatic effect. Nolan’s goal was 1000fps. Originally, DOP Pfister was measuring the light at 24fps so to achieve Nolan’s goal of 1000fps the the DOP team attached 6 rows of 18k fresnels, all of which were lined up around the van aiming straight in. The van then spun within the tunnel, a set built out of truss, which resulted in what was basically a wraparound blanket of daylight. Nolan and Pfister decided against having lights on the ground, so as the van spins the intermittent darkness showcases that the characters are spinning over as well.

These daylight range of fresnels are hugely popular in the film industry. These ARRI AD Spotlights have the largest lenses and the finest light distribution so far.

• In another scene, a hotel hallway comes into play that features a zero-gravity action. The hallway was built twice with identical interiors. However, in one case the entire hallway rotates 360 degrees, whilst the second stands vertically on one end with the camera on a towercam rig looking straight up.

• Nolan wanted the corridor set to rotate freely without having to constantly be reset. Luckily the set design team found a company that designed a system to supply power to the hotel hallway. Nolan told them what there power needs were, so the company built a carousel like system based on their Nolan’s suggestions that enabled electricity from the land power to travel to the rig.

• Pfister had three dimmer packs placed onboard, although they had to balance their cables and dimmers around the entire rig so it would not make the set light unevenly. Furthermore, due to the high speed work a lot of light was required, so the lighting had to be extra sturdy as the actors were having to fall on top of it. The art department created practical fixtures which held six 150w photofloods.

• In addition, Pfister also opted to use sconces and a soffit built around the existing fixtures and fitted with nook lights with 1,000-watt globes behind milk glass.

• In another scene which was shot on the third floor of a hotel in downtown LA, Leonardo Di Caprio’s character has his dream interrupted when he falls backward into a bathtub full of water. To heighten this effect, to communicate to audiences Leo’s passage from a dream state to consciousness, Nolan asked for another speed ramp. His goal was 1000fps which required the use of a fast Photo-Sonics camera and a seven stop light loss. To achieve this, Pfister set two condors outside the windows that each held two Arrimax 18k pars with spot reflectors, all of which were less than 15ft from Leo.

• Pfister also attached two 12k Pars to the ceiling to add a “bit of a feel” to the scene. He explained that “the shot looked great, thus allowing the audience to see individual beads of water which gives the scene an otherworldly feeling.” (The American Society of Cinematographers. (2010.)

• In another set, was a hotel bar where gravity suddenly shifts and the weather outside undergoes a dramatic change. The set design team built the entire set to tilt 30 degrees and the windows looked out onto green screens that would be replaced in post. To effect the sudden lighting change, Pfister’s crew wired all fixtures to dimmer boards.

• The scenes initial lighting required a sunset feel so mole beams were gelled with a filler. As the light dimmed, 60 long soft boxes filled with maxi brutes and covered with grid cloth were brought up to create overcast light. Using this technique of lighting combined with the set tilling, created a very unsettling sensation.

Soft boxes filled with maxi brutes.

Mole Beams with filler.

• Onstage at Warner Bros, part of a Japanese fortress interior was built and destroyed for the production, this footage was then mixed with exterior shots at Abalone Cove in Palos Verdes, Calif. The set was surrounded by large green screens which were later replaced by snowy rocky mountain shots. Nolan explained that in order to have enough green outside and still give the feel of daylight coming through the windows, both the lights and the green screen needed to be placed a considerable distance back, which meant that the green screens had to be bigger.

• Pfister said “we knew the actual location near Calgary would have soft ambient light and that the sun would be behind the mountain, so we built about a dozen 20ft long soft boxes that we could raise and lower.” (The American Society of Cinematographers. (2010.)

• Additionally, the crew opted to hang space lighting just outside and above the windows to create the feel of natural skylight that would act more secure when the floor fell away.

• Bibliography…1. THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS, (2010) Inception – Dream Thieves Page 1. [Online]

Available from: http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/July2010/Inception/page2.php [Accessed: 24th November 2013]

2. THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS, (2010) Inception – Dream Thieves Page 3. [Online] Available from: http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/July2010/Inception/page2.php [Accessed: 24th November 2013]

Research gathered from ‘The American Society of Cinematographers’ (www.theasc.com) and ‘CGSociety – Inception’ (www.cgsociety.org)