The Dark Knight BD Live Chat with Christopher Nolan
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Man.. I feel bad for Chris when he has to do this.
ross2287
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gqxsensazn
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I registered but I doubt I'll be able to participate in the chat. The questions listed before would definitely not be the ones I'd ask but I'd like get more insight on what he was hoping to achieve with certain scenes. After reading his article describing the interrogation scene, it made me curious what he envisioned for the rest of the film.
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Nolan will be too smart for these people. Christ, all these people asking constant and stupid questions.
Got this off of Aint it Cool:
I can still see the ignorant 'fanboys' who refuse to accept the truth and still come at Nolan with 'But-!' I'm just happy to hear it straight from his mouth.
Aside from the usual questions being answered, I love the tidbits he mentioned especially of having Ledger run away with a camera for those Joker scenes when he makes threats at Gotham! You can definitely feel how Ledger embodied the role in the footage.
Went to the Dark Knight Blu Ray release event with Chris Nolan last night.
It was a great time and thought I'd send you guys my write-up. If you use it, call me LoquaciousMuse and link to my blog, All Things Fangirl (http://www.allthingsfangirl.blogspot.com).
Before tonight I had never even HEARD of BD Live. Apparently it's Xbox Live for Blu-Ray? If you have a BD Live enabled Blu Ray player or a PS3, then you can connect to the internet and partake in the potential awesomeness. The Dark Knight is Warner Brothers' first foray into this format and it's shaping up to be reason alone to invest in a Blu-Ray Player.
First of all, it comes with tons of content, waiting to be streamed for free- the newest Warner's trailers, episodes of Warner Premiere Motion Comics (Mad Love! Shadow of Ra's al Ghul!) and more. And because everything is streaming, you can get to the content faster and it doesn't take up any hard drive space. One of my favorite features of TDK BD Live is the commentary option. With a computer & webcam, you can record YOURSELF giving commentary for the whole movie or just a scene here, a scene there. Then, when people go on BD Live, they can select your commentary to watch with the film. Now, it's doubtful that I would ever watch a stranger's commentary, but a friend's? Certainly. Maybe even someone famous? A blogger, a writer, a director, an actor, a critic, a technician - people not involved with the film who would have no business doing commentary for the dvd, but would have an interesting perspective, making their thoughts available to the general public? Yes, I'm into that.
Also available is partaking in live text commentary - a bunch of people watching the movie at the same time, texting or typing their thoughts as the film goes on. So a whole group of friends, all in different parts of the world, could watch The Dark Knight together and read each other's commentary.
And you heard it here first - on December 18th, Chris Nolan is doing a live commentary with 100,000 Dark Knight Blu Ray owners. He will host the screening and answer questions as it goes on. With 100,000 people, it will most likely get a little crazy and who knows if Chris Nolan will tell me how exactly the Jim Gordan thing works (trying to keep this post spoiler free...), but it still sounds pretty damn cool to me. In Nolan's words, "It'll be interesting to see what it's like...the potential of it is very exciting." (Note: It had previously been announced that at some point Nolan would do a commentary, but only tonight was the date of this chat confirmed)
After learning all about BD Live and again wishing I had lots and lots money to spend on Blu Ray players and Blu Ray discs and giant HD televisions, we got to spend a half hour with Chris Nolan. Here are some highlights from the discussion.
-It was "a shock" to Nolan & his team that TDK was so successful i.e. is the 2nd highest grossing film of all time
-He really studied how to approach a sequel - what works versus what doesn't. His goal was to "provide a new experience, stretch in all directions" He wanted to delve deeper into the characters, both old & new and stage the action and story on a "grander scale", using an "operatic sensibility"
-He wanted the film to connect to what we as an audience are concerned about. What would impact us, what would excite us. In the end he realized he was tapping into his own "fear of anarchy" and that the Joker was a "distillation of that force"
-In his approach to the entire franchise, Nolan wanted to use a great ensemble a la Richard Donner in Superman. Get a cast that is wholly talented, all of whom bring a lot to the table. This was the mindset in casting Batman Begins & was carried through to Dark Knight
-In reference to Heath Ledger, he had "Something to express that was very much in line with the character in the script. It just meshed"
-Compared the home Blu-Ray version of Dark Knight to the big screen IMAX version and said that the advent of Blu-Ray is a vast improvement technically and important for the translation of IMAX to home video. Now people at home can see the difference between shooting in IMAX and shooting in 35mm in a way that even audiences who saw TDK with a 35mm projection didn't get to experience. Blu Ray points out the "grain structure" and "focus anomalies" and will actually expand in size the same way the IMAX print did, all of which are important for optimal TDK viewing.
-Drew inspiration from Frank Miller's work in the 80s - more serious, more contemporary
-If he made a third film, it would be for no reason but the continuation of story. He is currently looking into where the story would go and if it needs to go there. He maintained that it's very hard to make a movie of this scale (and specified he wasn't asking for our sympathy, drawing a laugh from the crowd) - it's two hard years and you gotta love it. One of his biggest fears is getting halfway through making a film and realizing it's unnecessary and he doesn't want to make it anymore. If there is a third story that needs to be told, there will be a third film, but nothing is set in stone or a given.
-There is no 3 hour cut anywhere - no deleted scenes. He, John Nolan & David Goyer would cut scenes before they ever made it to the screen in what Nolan calls an "aggressive editorial approach." Their criteria was that every scene needs three reasons to be in the film or it's out. This made for a difficult time in the editing suite as every single scene was essential and could not be removed.
-The music ended up playing a huge role in pacing and storytelling
-Shooting in IMAX is about "clarity" and "sharpness" not being big. It's about providing a "sense of the screen disappearing."
-He was shocked that no one ever tried to work with action films in IMAX before & would love to shoot a film entirely in IMAX. The problem with this? An IMAX camera is very noisy, SO noisy in fact that all the dialogue in every IMAX scene had to be looped in post - a feat more difficult for the younger generation of actors, who have less ADR experience. Would ideally like to shoot a hybrid film where all MOS scenes are IMAX are all scenes with dialogue are 65mm.
-When translating a story to a screenplay, the first question he asks himself is "What is the point of view?" For Memento, the protagonist couldn't remember what had happened right before, therefore telling the story backwards seemed a natural device. In TDK, there are many characters and a gradual rise in tension, so linear works best.
-The videos shot by the Joker were in fact shot and mostly directed by Heath Ledger. For the first video, Wally Pfister came in and checked the lights, the sound guys set up a few extra mics, everyone hid around the corner and they let Heath play. Ledger had been planning to direct and was an incredible collaborator with a great mind. Nolan trusted him implicitly. Ledger's work on the first video was so fantastic that Nolan wasn't even there for the second video shoot with Anthony Michael Hall. He gave Ledger the camera and said "do whatever you want." Apparently every take Ledger did was different, but always in line with the story and always fantastic. Where are those on the dvd, Mr. Nolan?!!
-Something was mentioned about scanning 8k...I couldn't follow the technical speak. Which is sad for me.
-He studied English Lit in school and is a self taught director. Started playing around with a camera at age 7 or 8. Believes in the Kubrick school of thought that the best way to learn how to make a movie is to make one.
He then bid us goodbye and a screening of Dark Knight began. Have I mentioned I really love that movie?
Also an important bit of information - Missed TDK in IMAX the first time around? The Dark Knight is being re-released on January 23rd in IMAX theaters across the country. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity and buy your IMAX tickets the moment they go on sale.
It was a great time and thought I'd send you guys my write-up. If you use it, call me LoquaciousMuse and link to my blog, All Things Fangirl (http://www.allthingsfangirl.blogspot.com).
Before tonight I had never even HEARD of BD Live. Apparently it's Xbox Live for Blu-Ray? If you have a BD Live enabled Blu Ray player or a PS3, then you can connect to the internet and partake in the potential awesomeness. The Dark Knight is Warner Brothers' first foray into this format and it's shaping up to be reason alone to invest in a Blu-Ray Player.
First of all, it comes with tons of content, waiting to be streamed for free- the newest Warner's trailers, episodes of Warner Premiere Motion Comics (Mad Love! Shadow of Ra's al Ghul!) and more. And because everything is streaming, you can get to the content faster and it doesn't take up any hard drive space. One of my favorite features of TDK BD Live is the commentary option. With a computer & webcam, you can record YOURSELF giving commentary for the whole movie or just a scene here, a scene there. Then, when people go on BD Live, they can select your commentary to watch with the film. Now, it's doubtful that I would ever watch a stranger's commentary, but a friend's? Certainly. Maybe even someone famous? A blogger, a writer, a director, an actor, a critic, a technician - people not involved with the film who would have no business doing commentary for the dvd, but would have an interesting perspective, making their thoughts available to the general public? Yes, I'm into that.
Also available is partaking in live text commentary - a bunch of people watching the movie at the same time, texting or typing their thoughts as the film goes on. So a whole group of friends, all in different parts of the world, could watch The Dark Knight together and read each other's commentary.
And you heard it here first - on December 18th, Chris Nolan is doing a live commentary with 100,000 Dark Knight Blu Ray owners. He will host the screening and answer questions as it goes on. With 100,000 people, it will most likely get a little crazy and who knows if Chris Nolan will tell me how exactly the Jim Gordan thing works (trying to keep this post spoiler free...), but it still sounds pretty damn cool to me. In Nolan's words, "It'll be interesting to see what it's like...the potential of it is very exciting." (Note: It had previously been announced that at some point Nolan would do a commentary, but only tonight was the date of this chat confirmed)
After learning all about BD Live and again wishing I had lots and lots money to spend on Blu Ray players and Blu Ray discs and giant HD televisions, we got to spend a half hour with Chris Nolan. Here are some highlights from the discussion.
-It was "a shock" to Nolan & his team that TDK was so successful i.e. is the 2nd highest grossing film of all time
-He really studied how to approach a sequel - what works versus what doesn't. His goal was to "provide a new experience, stretch in all directions" He wanted to delve deeper into the characters, both old & new and stage the action and story on a "grander scale", using an "operatic sensibility"
-He wanted the film to connect to what we as an audience are concerned about. What would impact us, what would excite us. In the end he realized he was tapping into his own "fear of anarchy" and that the Joker was a "distillation of that force"
-In his approach to the entire franchise, Nolan wanted to use a great ensemble a la Richard Donner in Superman. Get a cast that is wholly talented, all of whom bring a lot to the table. This was the mindset in casting Batman Begins & was carried through to Dark Knight
-In reference to Heath Ledger, he had "Something to express that was very much in line with the character in the script. It just meshed"
-Compared the home Blu-Ray version of Dark Knight to the big screen IMAX version and said that the advent of Blu-Ray is a vast improvement technically and important for the translation of IMAX to home video. Now people at home can see the difference between shooting in IMAX and shooting in 35mm in a way that even audiences who saw TDK with a 35mm projection didn't get to experience. Blu Ray points out the "grain structure" and "focus anomalies" and will actually expand in size the same way the IMAX print did, all of which are important for optimal TDK viewing.
-Drew inspiration from Frank Miller's work in the 80s - more serious, more contemporary
-If he made a third film, it would be for no reason but the continuation of story. He is currently looking into where the story would go and if it needs to go there. He maintained that it's very hard to make a movie of this scale (and specified he wasn't asking for our sympathy, drawing a laugh from the crowd) - it's two hard years and you gotta love it. One of his biggest fears is getting halfway through making a film and realizing it's unnecessary and he doesn't want to make it anymore. If there is a third story that needs to be told, there will be a third film, but nothing is set in stone or a given.
-There is no 3 hour cut anywhere - no deleted scenes. He, John Nolan & David Goyer would cut scenes before they ever made it to the screen in what Nolan calls an "aggressive editorial approach." Their criteria was that every scene needs three reasons to be in the film or it's out. This made for a difficult time in the editing suite as every single scene was essential and could not be removed.
-The music ended up playing a huge role in pacing and storytelling
-Shooting in IMAX is about "clarity" and "sharpness" not being big. It's about providing a "sense of the screen disappearing."
-He was shocked that no one ever tried to work with action films in IMAX before & would love to shoot a film entirely in IMAX. The problem with this? An IMAX camera is very noisy, SO noisy in fact that all the dialogue in every IMAX scene had to be looped in post - a feat more difficult for the younger generation of actors, who have less ADR experience. Would ideally like to shoot a hybrid film where all MOS scenes are IMAX are all scenes with dialogue are 65mm.
-When translating a story to a screenplay, the first question he asks himself is "What is the point of view?" For Memento, the protagonist couldn't remember what had happened right before, therefore telling the story backwards seemed a natural device. In TDK, there are many characters and a gradual rise in tension, so linear works best.
-The videos shot by the Joker were in fact shot and mostly directed by Heath Ledger. For the first video, Wally Pfister came in and checked the lights, the sound guys set up a few extra mics, everyone hid around the corner and they let Heath play. Ledger had been planning to direct and was an incredible collaborator with a great mind. Nolan trusted him implicitly. Ledger's work on the first video was so fantastic that Nolan wasn't even there for the second video shoot with Anthony Michael Hall. He gave Ledger the camera and said "do whatever you want." Apparently every take Ledger did was different, but always in line with the story and always fantastic. Where are those on the dvd, Mr. Nolan?!!
-Something was mentioned about scanning 8k...I couldn't follow the technical speak. Which is sad for me.
-He studied English Lit in school and is a self taught director. Started playing around with a camera at age 7 or 8. Believes in the Kubrick school of thought that the best way to learn how to make a movie is to make one.
He then bid us goodbye and a screening of Dark Knight began. Have I mentioned I really love that movie?
Also an important bit of information - Missed TDK in IMAX the first time around? The Dark Knight is being re-released on January 23rd in IMAX theaters across the country. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity and buy your IMAX tickets the moment they go on sale.
I can still see the ignorant 'fanboys' who refuse to accept the truth and still come at Nolan with 'But-!' I'm just happy to hear it straight from his mouth.
Aside from the usual questions being answered, I love the tidbits he mentioned especially of having Ledger run away with a camera for those Joker scenes when he makes threats at Gotham! You can definitely feel how Ledger embodied the role in the footage.
Bim
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Thanks for posting that, JokesonU
Indeed, where the heck are those
that's the kind of stuff i was really hoping would be on the dvd 
Indeed, where the heck are those
that's the kind of stuff i was really hoping would be on the dvd 
Bats
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Okay I registered with WB BD-Live and signed in with the Blu-Ray already. Is that all I have to do? Basically wait for an email to see if I'm picked for the screening?
I thought I had to do more with the movie in the player, but it doesn't seem like it.
I thought I had to do more with the movie in the player, but it doesn't seem like it.
Infinity9999x
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all right, I just registered on that page and I have my own little profile and everything. How do you know if you'll be able to participate in the event? Is it just whoever signs on quick enough on the 18th?
Bats
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Not sure except that the instructions say to sign in with the movie in the player. Then I guess we wait for an email asking if we want to partake. That's what I'm doing now is waiting.
Infinity9999x
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Oh balls, you have to do it on a blu-ray? I don't think my family is buying a player until christmas
I thought it was just a thing you watched online.Well they say that people will be able to record their own commentaries via BD Live and they will be uploaded for other people to view (i.e. you can listen to a complete stranger's thoughts and opinions on TDK) so hopefully Warner will upload Nolan's finished commentary to this system too.
I hope they do.
I find it interesting that Nolan stopped doing commentaries; his first three films all had commentaries, but none since. It's disappointing because he's a very insightful guy.
YsoSerious
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Sweet! I'm registered as YsoSerious and looking forward to chatting with Chris Nolan and telling him how much his movie rocks!
escobar2248
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According to TDK website...they are going to start sending out the emails at 11:59pm PST, 2:59am EST, December 10th.
I'm a devout TDK fan just like the next guy, but this staying up late two work nights in a week is gonna hurt! haha.
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Bats
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You do need blu-ray to do the Nolan thingy unless they figure out a way for everyone to at least read/hear what's going on.
I'm pretty sure that means a screening you or your friends set up and doesn't necessarily pertain to the one Nolan is doing.
I'm pretty sure that means a screening you or your friends set up and doesn't necessarily pertain to the one Nolan is doing.
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