What comes to your mind when you think of Christopher Nolan? Unique and mind-blending narratives and some breathtaking action sequences, most likely. He is someone who constantly pushes the limits of filmmaking and his latest project Oppenheimer is just another proof of that. There’s however another thing to which Nolan is obsessed with. His love for using IMAX cameras.
But, while trying to deliver clever, original action scenes in his movies, he broke many IMAX cameras during his film’s shooting. Be it Dunkirk or Tenet, or the Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan always has done something stunning that must be watched on the big screen. And it seems like he never learns from the mistake of breaking such expensive things.
Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman Double’s Accident Crushed Camera on the Set of The Dark Knight Rises
Christopher Nolan is obsessed with IMAX cameras and he did it in 2012 when there were only four IMAX cameras and one of them was of Nolan. But the unusual happened. An accident occurred during the filming of Nolan’s Batman sequel The Dark Knight Rises when a stunt double for Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman crashed the Batpod into it. And the $500,000 IMAX equipment shattered beyond repair. Luckily, nobody got injured.
Catwoman’s daring rides take an unexpected turn when she and her Batpod motorcycle barrel down the building steps, oblivious to the expensive IMAX camera directly in their path. Despite the relatively slow speed, the stuntwoman and cameraman were unaware of the impending collision. The unfortunate cameraman loses his grip on the high-tech equipment, leaving everyone momentarily stunned but thankfully unharmed.
IMAX increases the resolution of the image by using a much larger film frame: while a frame of 35mm film offers approximately six thousand lines of horizontal resolution, an IMAX negative can potentially display the equivalent of 18 thousand lines of horizontal resolution.
That Was Not The Only Instance By The Way
He is known to bring IMAX cameras into more attention in the industry, but he is also known to break such cameras as well. IMAX cameras are much heavier and bigger than other cameras. So, it is obvious that they are harder to control. They’re also hugely expensive. And seems like Nolan made a habit of breaking them.
And, his history of breaking such expensive cameras started in The Dark Knight (2008) when in an exciting chaotic scene that was filmed in close shot and with kinetic camera movement, one truck flipped over and landed on one of those cameras, which cost $500,000.
The same thing happened during the filming of Dunkirk. The director used IMAX cameras for the action sequences in the film and strapped the camera into a plane and in an attempt to do the scene Nolan destroyed his third IMAX camera, However, despite having sunk in water for 90 minutes, Nolan retrieved the footage from it.
Watch The Dark Knight trilogy on Netflix.
