Dreaming of the Crash
The Creative Rebellion • Dispatch #004 • 5 min read
Last week I wrote about how the idea for Cubism grew out of the popular fascination of a fourth spatial dimension, written about by French mathematician Henri Poincaré, in his book, Science and Hypothesis. The idea came from science, not art. And yet it revolutionized the art world.
While last week's dispatch focused on Picasso and how he incorporated the idea of a fourth dimension in a visual way, I briefly mentioned how H. G. Wells imagined the fourth dimension not as space, but as time in his book, The Time Machine.
And if anyone likes to explore the idea of time and play with the fabric of what we know as reality, it's filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
Nolan might be my favorite filmmaker of all time—definitely in my Top 5—so naturally his films top my list.
From Memento to The Prestige, Dark Knight to Dunkirk, and from Inception to Interstellar, the themes of time, reality, and sacrifice all strike a chord with me.
Nolan is a genius.
But for all his genius, he doesn't really work alone.
What would his movies be without the moving soundscapes created by long-time collaborator Hans Zimmer? The music in Nolan's films is as much a part of the story as any of the characters.
Here's the order in which I imagine Nolan's films are created, based on articles and interviews I've seen:
Concept or idea for a story
Mull the idea over for sometime
Begin writing the screenplay (sometimes solo, sometimes with his brother and frequent collaborator, Jonathan Nolan)
Make the film
Work with the composer to score the film
And for a writer/director, that is the usual order of the process.
But not for Interstellar.
I’ll be honest, I thought all of Nolan's movies were based on original ideas and screenplays that he wrote from scratch.
But Interstellar began its life as a Steven Spielberg project, penned by none other than Nolan's brother, Jonathan.
Had Spielberg made his movie, we wouldn't have the epic, yet intimate family drama of time and space that we have today. Spielberg's version would have been quite different.
When Spielberg's company, DreamWorks, moved from Paramount to Disney, a new director had to be found. Jonathan reached out to his brother, Christopher.
Not only was this not a 100% original Nolan idea, if it weren't for his composer buddy, Zimmer, he might not have even finished making the film. It certainly would have been missing its heart.
As Nolan wondered where to take the story (and what kind of film he would ultimately make), he had a conversation with Zimmer one evening at a party, telling Hans,
I have this idea. If I were to send you a letter with a story ... it's about a movie, but I'm not going to tell you what the movie's about, nor will the story in the letter tell you what the movie is about ... will you give me one day and write whatever comes to you?
Zimmer agreed to the challenge and later received the note, which he said,
was very personal, and the story itself was about a father and a son and the relationship, or what it means to be a parent. I mean, there's a line in it that once your child is born, you never look at yourself through your own eyes. You always look at yourself through your child's eyes.
And for Zimmer, that concept pushed him to consider his relationship with his own son, which helped him to compose what he called, "a fragile, tiny little piece."
So Zimmer invited Nolan to come in and listen to the piece.
So I play it to him without looking at him. [He was sitting on the couch behind me,] so I was not facing him, and I got to the end of it and I said, ‘So what do you think?’ And he’s just leaning back and goes, ‘Hmm, suppose I better make the movie.’ And I’m going, ‘What is the movie?’
Then Nolan fully explained the lofty, intense sci-fi epic of a plot and Zimmer became skeptical of his own work.
Stop, stop. Hang on. You're talking about this thing of epic proportions, and I've given you this tiny, tiny little fragile thing.
But that tiny thing proved to be more than enough for Nolan. He said:
Now I know where the heart of the story is.
Zimmer convinced him to make the film without even knowing what kind of movie it was.
While it's no surprise how important to the final film Zimmer's music is, the usual process of scoring a film was completely upended. Generally, composers are creating their music off of already filmed material, with editors sometimes even cutting to temp music in a way that limits the creative freedom of a composer.
Not only was Zimmer's process upended, but Nolan found the heart of his film in a piece of music that was written without any idea of the final product.
If you only look within your own niche for ideas and inspiration, you’re building shallow sand castles without ever digging deep enough to find the treasure buried a few more inches below the surface.
If you’re a writer, don't just read other books to find inspiration.
Look to music, film, and paintings.
If you’re a musician, don't just listen to other music to find inspiration.
Read novels, go to the museum, take long walks in nature.
If you’re a painter, don't just study other paintings to find inspiration.
Read poetry, study sculpture, and look at comic books.
If you're a designer, don't just doomscroll Dribble to find inspiration.
Study architecture, sketch freehand, and pore over maps.
Get outside of your own field.
Inspiration for original ideas are hidden under the sand where you play.
Until next Saturday...
Stay rebellious,
Travis
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