Insight Editions, one of the leading publishers of quality illustrated books for entertainment and pop culture, have recently been releasing shooting scripts for movies such as Inception, Red Riding Hood, and Cowboys and Aliens. I had the chance to get my hands on a few of these books and I am more than pleased with the way they were presented. The books feature the entire shooting script of the movie, storyboards and concept art, and in some cases interviews with the screenwriters themselves. Shooting scripts published by Insight Editions would be a great addition to the library of an aspiring filmmaker, film connoisseur, or people who just love movies. An aspiring screenwriter myself, I found them very interesting.
In this article I will discuss the first of these three books, Inception: The Shooting Script. Be on the look out for the reviews of Red Riding Hood: From Script to Screen, and Cowboys and Aliens: The Illustrated Screenplay coming soon!
Check out a deeper look into the shooting script of Inception after the jump.
Inception: The Shooting Script
Right at the start of Inception: The Shooting Script we get a 10 page interview with Christopher Nolan himself discussing how he came up with the idea for the story and why it took him 10 years to do so. It is a very interesting look at the mind behind the complex movie that was Inception. Possibly one of the most interesting parts of the book comes during this interview in which we get to see a detailed diagram that Christopher Nolan drew while writing the script — apparently to keep track of all the different story lines within the dream.
The actual shooting script itself reads very fast. The pacing matches that of the movie, and you can tell how much work went into the script to get the right feel. Within the script itself the book features 31 pages of storyboards, 8 pages of concept art printed on thick glossy paper, a detailed instruction manual on The Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous (PASIV) Device (dream machine) featured in the film, as well as a full list of film credits.
I have to say, as a huge fan of the movie Inception, and a fan of screenwriting in general, I found this book extremely interesting and am very happy to add it to my growing library of scripts and film books. I highly recommend picking it up at a local bookstore or buying at online at:
Insight Editions: $16.95
Amazon: $11:53
Inception, writer-director Christopher Nolan’s seventh feature film, joins the epic scope of The Dark Knight with the narrative sophistication of Memento. The story of a group of thieves who specialize in invading the mind through one’s dreams, Inception explores the writer-director’s signature psychological themes of memory, paranoia, and self-doubt as his protagonist, Dom Cobb, is pitted against a hostile subconscious spurred on by personal demons and regrets from the past.
In a conversational preface, Christopher Nolan discusses and frequent collaborator Jonathan Nolan, discuss the genesis of the idea for the film and the decade-long process it took to write it. An exclusive exploration of a highly original concept, Inception: The Shooting Script is the record of a writer-director at the height of his craft.
Christopher Nolan began making movies at an early age with his father’s Super-8mm camera. While studying English Literature at University College London, Nolan shot 16mm films at UCL’s film society, learning the guerrilla film techniques he would later use to make his first feature, Following. Since that time, he has directed Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight. For his work on those films, Nolan has been honored with a Producer’s Guild Nomination (The Dark Knight), a Writer’s Guild Nomination (The Dark Knight), and two Director’s Guild Nominations (Memento, The Dark Knight.) He also received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Screenplay for Memento.