If you ever wanted to get inside the head of a writer/director then now is your chance since there is now a way to download all of Chris Nolan’s screenplays. The one bit of caution that you might consider listening to is that once you get inside the mind of a writer, even just a toe inside that world, be ready to let go of a lot of your preconceived notions of what a story really is.
Christopher Nolan is among one of the many that is considered to be one of the most influential and greatest of his time. He’s brought us such stories as Memento, Inception, The Prestige, and of course the most recent Batman Trilogy. His talent for writing and directing make him unique in the industry and give him a definite edge since many directors tend to rely on others to write their stories and then attempt to create their vision based off of what they receive. Nolan is a man after my own heart really, he writes his own stories and then adapts them into screenplays using his own unique vision and style to bring to life some of the greatest stories we’ve ever seen.
Added onto that is that he’s more of a storyteller than anything and doesn’t get into diagramming his stories as much as others seem to enjoy doing. It’s understandable that this practice is a good idea for some people that need a visual timeline for their films, but Nolan seems to do it all in his head or onscreen instead of sitting down to nail down certain concepts that might be best represented in a more visual manner. It is far easier to show people what you want them to do than to spend a great amount of time on a diagram that several people might not fully understand.
One thing to think about however is that reading a screenplay is not like watching a movie. You might not understand certain aspects and you might think it sounds a little simplistic, but keep in mind that it is bare bones compared to the film to which it’s been applied. The screenplay is the blueprint that leads the movie, not the finished product. But it is also a look into the mind of the individual doing the writing and what they think is vital to the story so that people will find it entertaining and engaging. The screenplay is in a sense the mind of the writer as it’s allowed to play out on the page.
The form is important, the story is important, but the feeling behind the story is absolutely crucial. If there is no heart or soul put into the story at all then it will typically be noticed by a number of fans and will be torn apart as something that has a lot of flash but no substance. Some critics might claim that the heart and soul of a movie is nothing more than pleasant-sounding sentiment that explains away the need to cater to the audience, but the truth is that if you don’t have any heart in your work then your work isn’t going to come off as genuine.
Read just one of his screenplays and you’ll see that Nolan has miles of heart put into his work. Otherwise he wouldn’t be as revered as he is today.
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