Celebrating 20 years of DNEG & Christopher Nolan!
This summer marked the 20th Anniversary of 'Batman Begins' - the first of our eight collaborations with Christopher Nolan.
20 incredible years. 8 unforgettable collaborations.
This summer marked the 20 year release of Batman Begins – our very first project with Christopher Nolan! To celebrate, we've been reminiscing on all the incredible work our crews have done to bring the acclaimed auteur's ambitious visions to life.
Enjoy this supercut of (just some!) of our favourite DNEG shots from each collaboration now!
Wonder what it's like helping to bring a Christopher Nolan film to life?
We asked our crew just that! Scroll for a closer look at each film, and to hear insights from our talented teams.
Batman Begins
The film that started it all. As the lead partner on Batman Begins, we contributed approximately 300 VFX shots to bring the expansive landscape of Gotham City to life, including large-scale miniatures, matte painting and highly detailed digital environment work. We also handled all of the monorail train work, the Batman digital stunt double shots, the miniature rooftop car chase sequence and the opening Himalayan Monastery sequence!
"Sometime in 2004, Dan Glass hired me to work on the shoot for Batman Begins. I supervised a small VFX Stills unit, getting photos of the Chicago locations for use in BGs and environments. I wasn't working for DNEG at that time, but I met Paul Franklin who invited me to come visit the office the next time I was in London, which I did. Clearly a good impression was made! In 2009 I relocated from Australia to work at DNEG in London. I've been here ever since - by far the longest I've worked at any one place in my career!"
- Tom Proctor, VFX Supervisor
"My first shot that made it all the way to the screen was for Batman Begins - I got to help out on some rig removal. The shot was when the SWAT team bursts into Arkham Asylum and charges up the stairs with their torches on. Being from the local area I knew that location very well, it was the Grand Staircase in what is now the St Pancras hotel. Back then it was a fairly derelict site used for underground exhibitions and events. One of the moments etched in my memory is the cast and crew launch held in the Odeon Leicester Square - it was very early on a Sunday morning when I went to listen to Christopher Nolan talking about making the film and thanking all the crew.
These experiences have held a lasting impression on me and they're probably what hooked me into this world ever since. 20 years have passed since then and countless other shots on many many films, but that simple bit of rig removal is still one of my proudest achievements!"
- Eliot Hobdell, MGFX Supervisor
The Dark Knight
Returning to Gotham for The Dark Knight, we once again acted as lead VFX partner, recreating Gotham City environments, creating a CG Batmobile, CG Batpod and digi-doubles, and working at 5.6K, and sometimes 8K, for IMAX resolution. We contributed 370 VFX shots to the final film, winning a VES Award for 'Outstanding Created Environment'.
Inception
The film of our dreams, Inception marked our third collaboration with the acclaimed auteur - and scored us our very first Academy Award for 'Best Visual Effects'! For this mind-bending film, we crafted 500 VFX shots across the film's most exciting sequences including the cafe explosion, Paris folding effect, hall of mirrors, zero gravity fight, "Limbo" city scenes and more. In addition to the Oscar, our team's work was recognized with the BAFTA Award for 'Special Visual Effects' and three VES Awards.
"I'm lucky enough to have worked on Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Interstellar. Working on each of these movies was a unique and rewarding experience in my career. Being part of dynamic teams, I have learnt a lot from working alongside so many talented people. I have very fond memories of working on Inception (as a Junior Artist back then), it was such a unique show and the craft that went into it was magnificent! I remember vividly working on the iconic scene of the Paris cafe explosion, especially the intricacy that went into removing all the practical wires and their shadows in this scene.
I'm grateful to have been part of these projects, and on a personal note I will forever remember the sheer joy of my family seeing their kid's name on the silver screen for the first time associated with such beautiful movies."
- Jean-Francois Leroux, DFX Supervisor, DNEG Animation
"My time working on Chris Nolan's films are some of the absolute highlights of my career, and I'll be forever grateful to Paul Franklin for giving me the opportunities I had to work with him on Batman Begins, Inception and The Dark Knight Rises in particular, because I got to go on set with him for those movies and see and learn so much about filmmaking from one of the greatest directors making films today.
Inception will always hold a special place in my heart though because I also got to PREVIS and work out the mechanics of the Paris folding city shot - Chris Nolan loved the PREVIS I did so much, they had it on set as reference to help them shoot the shot to match what I'd done!
The whole team at DNEG was just incredible on those films, with so much talent coming together to create the VFX - I was constantly so inspired by everyone I was working with, and I still look back on those movies now and can't quite believe how magical it was to be a part of working on those films with those people. I am so very grateful to have been a part of it!"
- Alison Wortman, Lighting TD
"Working on Christopher Nolan’s Inception provided my first opportunity in the VFX industry to supervise a team. Back then it was in-camera tracking and I had a young, fresh-faced crew of around 25 artists in the London office who had only recently left University - just like myself. For the show to go on and win the Oscar for VFX was the proudest moment of my young professional career, and the film remains the one I'm most proud to have worked on!
Fast forward 15 years later and I'm still working at DNEG, but now I'm a VFX Supervisor overseeing the work of hundreds of global artists. I'm still chasing an Oscar with my actual name on it though!"
- Daniel Baldwin, VFX Supervisor
The Dark Knight Rises
To finish off the iconic Dark Knight trilogy, we returned one more time to Gotham for The Dark Knight Rises - this time as sole VFX partner! Our work on this action-packed installment included bringing to life the stunning aerial hijacking that opens the film, the destruction of Gotham Rogues Stadium and the final battle for Gotham City.
Interstellar
For our fifth project, we traversed space and time for the stunning Interstellar. Again working as sole VFX partner, we crafted a number of sequences including the creation of the Tesseract, the space craft Endurance, the robots TARS and CASE, alien world landscapes, frozen clouds and ice, massive waves, and the most accurate depiction of a blackhole and wormhole yet seen. Our team's incredible work was recognized with an Academy Award, BAFTA and VES Award!
"From Runner to FX Artist, working on Christopher Nolan films represents a huge portion of my VFX career at DNEG. As a Runner, I still remember running film reels of The Dark Knight across Soho, which truly seems like another world now!
Inception was my first film credit, and my first Academy Award - so a pretty good start to a career! I cut my artistic teeth in the world of MatchMove. The film was shrouded in secrecy and delivered with no audio; I remember spending many an hour with the team desperately trying to figure out the plot. On The Dark Knight Rises, I earned the honor of being MatchMove Supervisor. I learnt a lot more about all the departments and especially the incredible world of FX, which would go on to shape my career path moving forward. I still remember the artists working on the epic Gotham Stadium destruction shot, which became such an iconic image in that movie.
My final Nolan project before I joined the world of Feature Animation was Interstellar, which was an incredible experience. Working with talented peers watching the creation of Black Holes, impossibly large Tidal Waves, Tesseracts and other worlds was amazing from start to finish!"
- Matt Sadler, FX Supervisor
Dunkirk
After traversing space and time, we returned to Earth for our sixth collaboration with the acclaimed director: Dunkirk. Based on the gripping true story, this film depicts the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II. Working again as sole VFX partner, we contributed 429 shots across the film, and earning a VES Award for 'Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature'.
"I’ve worked on two Christopher Nolan projects, first as a Coordinator and then as a Show Production Manager, and both times one of the highlights was the team I worked with! I learned so much on both projects, and winning the Oscar for Tenet was definitely a highlight of my career.
But the best thing that came out of it was I met my now husband whilst working together on Dunkirk! 8 years later we're both still at DNEG and have been married for 3 years."
- Liz Dawkes, Central Production Manager
"Working on Christopher Nolan's films has always been a great experience. From camera tracking aerial shots over water on Dunkirk to working on shots with miniatures on Interstellar, each project has had something new to think about. Watching The Dark Knight Rises and Dunkirk on a proper IMAX screen was awe inspiring!"
- Simon Pynn, Layout Lead
Tenet
Our seventh collaboration with Christopher Nolan was the time-melting Tenet. Once again working as sole VFX partner, we contributed approximately 300 shots to visualize the film's complex concepts of ‘reverse entropy’ and ‘time inversion’ - and scored an Academy Award and BAFTA for doing it!
"The concept behind Tenet made making this film so unique and mindblowing. Working without knowing how the shot will be in the final is just as usual, but after the final output the same scenes had a dramatically different feel. We worked with 100% precise roto of objects in some scenes, which was very challenging. Overall a great experience of working in this show!"
- Sabari K, Senior Roto Artist
"I worked on Tenet back in 2020, which was an incredible film to participate in. It was fantastic to see the work finally on the big screen, but even better on the slightly smaller screens in the office; it was always great fun watching everyone constantly trying to remember if we're going backwards or forwards! I was on the project for around 6 months, we had a fab team, and it's been one of my DNEG highlights."
- AJ Mulley, Production Supervisor
"It was a great experience working on Tenet. One of my dreams has always been to work on a film by the legendary director Christopher Nolan, and I’m truly grateful to have been part of it. I’m eagerly looking forward to the next project. Big thanks to DNEG for making this possible!"
- Vinothkumar S, Body Tracking TD
Oppenheimer
The visionary biopic Oppenheimer marked our eighth collaboration with Christopher Nolan. As sole VFX partner, we embraced innovative practical effects and complex compositing treatments to help visualise physical phenomena, ranging from subatomic particles and huge nuclear blasts to exploding stars and the formation of black holes. For our work, we earned the Critics Choice Award for 'Best Visual Effects'!
"Working with real film while on Oppenheimer (like all of Mr. Nolan's projects, for that matter!) is amazing and challenging from a grading perspective. Due to the nature of that movie we had the idea to try watching it on the biggest IMAX screen possible and a 70mm film projection. When planning for the summer holidays that year, we discovered the biggest IMAX was situated near Stuttgart at Traumpalast Leonberg. Lucky circumstances allowed us to make it for the last original english version on a stormy Friday at 23h15. It was so worth the detour that the expensive Uber back to the hotel at 3:30am was (almost) forgotten!"
- Christian Ganea Reitmeier, Senior Colourist Supervisor
Thank you for 20 incredible years!