Jack Howard just had the opportunity of a lifetime, and we’re very, very jealous.
Jack Howard has been on a roll, with three uploads in as many days. First there was a Wonder Woman review, then a Spider-Man: Homecoming review, and now, Dunkirk:
All three of these videos have been half review, half love letter. This one just happens to be about a real-life human person: Christopher Nolan. We get it, Jack. We kind of love him, too. Well, his films.
This video is also unique in including an interview (by Jack) with the director spliced in there for good measure. You know, just a casual interview with Christopher Nolan!
Jack was recently given the opportunity that many people would kill for when he went along to the press junket for Nolan’s latest epic, Dunkirk, to interview the director for a whole six minutes. Those things are like a conveyor belt. From the answers Christopher gave in response to Jack’s insightful questions, we wish he’d had longer.
Jack talks about just how crazy it is that he got to meet an “actual hero” of his. “No-one has more impact or influence over my filmmaking tastes,” he says.
He was first exposed to Christopher’s work when he saw Batman Begins, the gateway drug for Jack to other films by the director, much like a lot of us.
He speaks to Christopher about his use of time as a plot device in a large number of his films, such as Inception, Memento, and now Dunkirk. The director had plenty to say on the matter, explaining that “cinema has a unique ability to manipulate an audience’s sense of time, more than any other media”. He goes on to speak about how he uses time in a much more obvious way than most filmmakers to “control and inspire different reads on events from an audience”.
Then, Jack goes on to a non-spoiler review of Dunkirk, waxing lyrical about it, positive hand gestures and all. Jack’s new mate Chris has made a great film, it would seem.
Dunkirk is a film in which all the narratives intertwine in an incredibly complex and fulfilling manner. Jack draws a comparison to his and Dean Dobbs‘s New Form Digital Incubator series pilot, Ghost Fighting Corporation, which also features intertwining narratives, albeit on a smaller scale, and he affirms that even when the stakes are lowered, the same device is just as effective.
As well as being an insight into the making of Dunkirk, the video is also incredibly informative about the tools of filmmaking. For example, you learn about Shepard tones, an audio illusion whereby tension is created by a corkscrewing of the sound to make it seem like it’s always closer to the crescendo when in actual fact, it’s not.
This is an “interesting” example of a Shepard tone:
Credit to @JackHoward and @DanielJLayton for… whatever this is. pic.twitter.com/x035utJLef
— Hazel Hayes (@TheHazelHayes) July 17, 2017
We’re glad to have videos that are as informative and passionate as this, and we’re definitely in agreement with Rosianna Halse Rojas:
loved this. Junket interviews can be so boring/repetitive — this was great!
— Rosianna Halse Rojas (@papertimelady) July 17, 2017
Want more?
Check out some more of our Video Spotlights, like David Firth‘s latest animation, or Trent Owers and Luke Shayler‘s video Young, Gay and Illegal.
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