Oppenheimer cost $100 million — but do you know what it cost Christopher Nolan to get his first film made?
Quentin Tarantino made his debut with Resevoir Dogs — that had a budget of $1.2 Million.
Paul Thomas Anderson made Hard Eight with $3 Million.
And Wes Anderson made Bottle Rocket with $5 Million.
All the while, Nolan’s first film, Following, had a budget that totaled to…
$6,000.
How? He worked with what he had.
He didn’t wait for a studio to fund his film.
In fact, that $6,000 was money he had saved up from working his job as a corporate video producer (making training films).
And rather than spending 96 consecutive days filming across Italy, Estonia, Denmark, and India as he did with Tenet…
…Nolan spent almost every weekend across an entire year filming in London;
At his parents’ house, a friend’s restaurant, and in the streets of London…
Where Nolan operated the camera himself, and shot without permits.
When you watch Following (1998), you realise that Nolan did something very clever:
…he took the technical and financial limitations and worked with them by building them into the story.
For example, he made Following a noir film, giving him the stylistic permission to film in black and white, which meant the cheaper film’s graininess added to the mood of his film…
…rather than detract from it, like it would have done had he made Following an action film shot in colour.
TAKEAWAY:
Don’t wait to be discovered. Don’t wait to be funded. Don’t wait to be seen as the up-and-coming star!
Create your project with what you have now.
As Tennis player, Arthur Ashe, puts it:
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
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Originally published on Medium.
