Last summer, in the depths of a Japanese castle, a camera filming Christopher Nolan’s newest sci-fi flick began shaking violently. This was no mechanical failure; it was cinematographer Wally Pfister playing with ways to capture the turbulent world of the mind. The resulting movie, Inception, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a man who possesses coveted technology that lets him break into people’s dreams to steal their deepest secrets or to plant life-altering ideas.
Despite a budget of $150 million, Nolan insisted on creating these dreamscapes with minimal digital effects. “In the earliest conversations I had with Chris, he said, ‘Remember, this is a dream world. When you’re in a dream, it feels real and you believe it’s real,’” Pfister says. “He didn’t want the film to have an overstylized, surreal look.” For the chaotic castle scene, Pfister (who also shot Nolan’s Memento and The Dark Knight) tested three devices that mechanically ...
