Start FOLLOWING Nolan's Filmmaking Secret

- In this video, I'm gonna be looking at Following, I ended up actually finding a VHS copy. - [Interrogator] Something else you'd like to tell me? - I'm a writer. I was gathering material for my characters. - This particular film is told in a non-linear way as well, and it grabs you very early on. But I wanna go into some details of things want you take note of, in terms of your own filmmaking career, you being a film fan, specifically a fan of Christopher Nolan films. (ominous music) What I'm doing right now here is a scene detect function where every cut that is happening in the film is being detected by some sort of AI that we can potentially look at some of these edits. As far as I know, it probably took him several months, if not longer, to make this film. - When we came to do "Following," we were sort of shooting a short film every weekend, so it would be a, you know, two minute, three minute chunk of the film done every weekend. And that was the approach we took. - The character is changing appearance, his hair is long, and then it's intercut with scenes where his hair is actually short. And then at first I thought because it was shot at different times, but it actually makes sense in the storytelling. So in the middle it gets revealed that he actually changes his appearance. (ominous music)

Let's just go into this opening image right here. (whistling tone) Insert hand gloves. a keepsake box that he's going through, title. (ominous ticking music) - [- [The Young Man]] The following is my explanation, more of an account of what happened. I'd been on my own for a while and getting kind of lonely and bored. - The main character, long hair. He looks a little scruffy. A lot of these shots outside of him walking, like there wasn't really lots of a setup in terms of dialogue scenes or anything like that. They just sort of stole these shots. I think Nolan did camera himself. - Following people. - [Interrogator] Who? - [- [The Young Man]] Anyone, first. I mean, that was the whole point. Somebody at random, somebody didn't know who I was. - [Sven] This character actually becomes the costar of this film. - Just let your, your eyes go over, drift, across a crowd of people. All of a sudden, that person isn't part of the crowd anymore. They're, they become an individual, just like that. - [Sven] There he is again. - It just became irresistible. - You followed women. - No, I didn't follow women, it wasn't a sex thing, I followed anybody. I just wanted to see-- - The person that is interviewing him. We don't really know why he's talking to this person. We don't know who this person is. The beginning part kind of just explains the premise. - [The Young Man] It was supposed to just be completely random, and when it stopped being random, that's when it started to go wrong. - And he had some rules to it that he didn't wanna break. - Become hooked, I had to start making up rules to just try and keep it under control. - But then visually, we were already seeing that he's breaking those rules because this is not a random person, because why would he have a picture of her? - [- [The Young Man]] Other people are interesting to me. Have you never listened to other people's conversations on the bus or on the tube? Seen people, seen somebody on-- - Just like lots of random shots. And at this point I thought, okay, he's just kind of trying to find a story by slapping some VO onto it. It's not the case at all. It's all by design. (chilling music) (- [The Young Man] coughing)

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Little foreshadowing that things go bad, he's quite beat up. - [The Young Man] Most important rule was that even if I found out where somebody worked or where they lived, then you would never follow the same person twice. That was the most important rule. That was the one that I broke first. - So now we're going back in time again because it's got the long hair scruffy look. We're five minutes into the movie, and this sort of randomness to this starts to change. (sinister music) He follows this guy into a cafe, and then that guy actually takes action by walking up to him. - Who and why? Hi, yeah, I'll have a black coffee, please and one sec, another coffee, black. - So we're kind of entering the second act. There's a change of status, and now our main character is debating to go along to a path of change. - I wasn't following you. I saw you with your bag. I just thought you looked interesting. - Oh, no, you're a faggot. - No, no. - And then he opens the bag. - My name's Cobb. - Take a look for yourself. (bag zipper scritches) What are you expecting, drugs? - Why'd you nick their old CDs? - Easy to grab a load, easy to sell, totally untraceable. The other stuff's a bit more tricky. (bag zipper scritches) - You don't look like a burglar. - Sounds like a compliment. Are you interested now? - And that's sort of the beginning of their friendship, partnership.

And then he goes along one of his missions. He starts to learn the trick of the trades. - Gloves. You'd be surprised. - Gonna try and break in. - Finding the key, so it's not that. - Yes. - Much of a newbie, anyway. He's got some ideas. (door crashes) And then there's all kinds of philosophy about how to break in, how to steal things, how to change things. Our main character learns that this burglar actually likes to disrupt their lives. So take away personal things that are technically not worth much, but that they start to realize that they lose certain things. - Here's the box. - What box? - Everyone has a box. They're mainly just a shoe box. - So valuables in it. - No, more interesting, more personal. Each thing tells something very intimate about the people. We're very privileged to see it. It's very rare. (items crash) - Hey, what the hell did you do that for? - Have an impact on their life beyond just the material things. - Take it away. Show them what they had. - At this point, I'm sort of really kind of starting to invest in the story and these characters. You start to realize that Nolan really has a very good handle on what he wants the story to be and how he tells it. And things that looked random at first, you start to realize are actually quite intentional. (thoughtful music) And it all sort of comes back to this club and this particular woman that he meets. - Let you buy me a drink, but sex is completely out of the question. You still wanna buy me that drink? - No. Now his appearance has changed here quite a bit.

So we are later in the story. This is a scene that sets up him for some form of ploy. Now, I don't want to get too much into the actual revealing what this twist is in this film, but I just wanted to point out that Nolan already had this idea of non-linear storytelling very much in his mind when he made his short and then this feature film before he even arrived at "Memento," which is probably the perfect version of this concept that Nolan tends to apply over and over again. It really reflects the character's state of mind. (footfalls echo) (buzzer signals) Do you notice anything about the shot? Because when I saw it the first time, I'm like, "Oh, I guess Christopher Nolan already was a big Batman fan. " (intense music) Why would there be a Batman sign on the door? So he might have just given this character traits that are close to Nolan himself. There's that symbol again.

- Okay, right there. - What's actually happening here is that they're breaking into a new place, and that place happens to be our main character's house. So he initiated this, for some reason, wanted to get a kick out of this burglar burglaring himself and see what he would take away the personal things, how he would disrupt that life. This turns out differently than he anticipated. - Not even check this out at all. We're going now. - We're not gonna take anything. - No, I feel like scrounging off some poor doll head fucker, no offense. - None taken. - What's really interesting about watching the film is you're being challenged to really figure out what is this riddle? Visually, I knew in the moment that this is the main character's apartment, but it wasn't told to me. There were just clues there. - This guy's unemployed. - No, he's not, look at the desk. - He's unemployed. People who have jobs don't have this kind of fucking shit in their homes, he's unemployed. - You are really putting the puzzle together as it happens. There's another scene where I felt like that's actually really interesting because they're burgling this place of the woman we saw earlier in the bar. And in particular, he's doing this. He's looking at the piano bench (ominous music) and we don't know what he's looking for. This is 28 minutes into the film. So then we come back to this where he has the scruffy look. So this is 30 minutes into the film. So two minutes later where actually it gets revealed to us why he was looking at the piano bench. He's with his partner. - I found a baggie. - But then there's this earring here. He's going back to that premise. We wanna change people's life by showing to them that we were there and messing with their personal things. - That's what it's all about, interrupting someone's life, making 'em see all the things that they took for granted. - Yeah, definitely too big, I think. - [Sven] Here comes the earring. - I just misplaced this - And he puts it in the piano bench. So this is happening 33 minutes into the film, and then he goes back to the place at 28 minutes to look for it, and it is gone. When he looks for it the first time, we don't know what he's looking for. But then three, four minutes later, Nolan tells us what he's looking for is the earring that's not there anymore. So there's all these kinds of little twists and turns in the story that he's setting up and that he figured out either in the writing or in the editing, to make us constantly be engaged and start thinking about what does this mean? What is happening? Well, we still don't quite know what the relationship is between him and the woman and our main character that he now clearly has an affair with and that he has a relationship with. (tense music) I'm not gonna get too much into the twists, like the main twist of this film, but I just wanna encourage you again. This is a masterclass in filmmaking where somebody figured out what is the story that they want to tell, and then figuring out what's the best way to tell the story so that the audience is constantly engaged. And it has to do with giving the audience the right information at the right time. There's an example where I can demonstrate to you where Nolan actually uses suspense versus surprise. So if we go to 55 minutes into the film right here. - I want to hit a place. - I've been scanning out couple places. - A particular place, some photos. - Photos? Where? - For a friend. - What's the place? - Photos are in the safe, but I've got the combination. - Well, if it's for a friend with money. - Money's in the safe. - We already know that this character knows exactly what that new place is that he wants to hit up because it was already explained to us. The burglar is actually in a relationship with that woman and that they were scheming the whole time and setting this up. - He's gonna deal with it himself. - Meaning? - Meaning he took the bait and he's hooked. God, it's perfect. The photos worked. I even got him to cut his hair and change his clothes. - So does that mean you'll tell me why you hid my earring? - No, and I wouldn't wait for your panties either. - We are being told at 48 minutes into the film that this was all a setup and that he promises to do this hit for her, so then at 55, he's pitching that plan to his partner here. And we already know this whole thing is set up and it's actually intentional. So we're going into this knowing more than the main character and it creates suspense. How will this affect this outcome as opposed to surprise? That could have revealed all this, that he was in on it the whole time, somewhere at the end of the movie and make it kind of a surprise reveal, a twist ending. But Christopher Nolan decides to give us more information than the main character so that we're more involved long term. Because the more we know, the more we are engaged in the story. - What the fuck's going on? - He knows exactly what's going on. - I'm seeing someone. - He just revealed the whole plan to him and he's like, "What's going on? " - I thought she looked interesting and followed her. We had a drink and now we're involved. - Have you slept with her? - Yeah, we're getting on really well. I want us to give some of her stuff back to her, but I thought that would mean that-- - You telling her that you fucking robbed her. How shrewd, I mean, how fucking prudent of you not to tell her that. - His partner in crime, he knows exactly what the plan is because he set it up that way. (tense music begins) - I's a nice haircut though, nice suit as well. What about the (indistinct). (writer groans) (bodies crashing) - So if this was a surprise, if we didn't know that he's in a relationship with that other woman and that this was a setup, we would be completely confused right now. Why is he attacking him? Because we have all this upfront knowledge, we understand exactly what's happening. This is a great film and it's entertaining to watch his career defining already. (pensive music) Nolan could use this film that he shot over several weeks on zero money, whatever he could scrounge together to shoot this film on, I don't know what it is, 16 or so, black and white. And it became his calling card for "Memento. " This is the reason why he got to make that film. And as soon as he made "Memento," he was on the map. Nolan has proven himself very successfully. He's accomplished everything now, including winning an Oscar and being knighted. It'll be interesting to see how he goes from here, but I do recommend that you check out this first feature film to be able to take these in-depth studies. Thanks so much for watching. Happy Editing and cheers. (serene music)