Christopher Nolan Says TENET Has Fewer VFX Shots Than Most Rom-Coms, But It's "The Hardest Movie an Editor Has Ever Had to Cut"
We’ve all seen the trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s highly anticipated upcoming film Tenet. Nolan is known for his mind-bending stories, like Memento, Inception, and Interstellar, but this movie seems to have built upon those concepts and taken storytelling and action to a whole new level. Tenet has been described as a “mind-blowing espionage thriller so unique that audiences will puzzle over its intricacies for years to come.” It’s also said to be a “time-bending masterpiece” about a Quantum Cold War.
But with all that build up and what we’ve seen so far from the film, Nolan has some surprising things to say about the VFX that’s included in the movie. In an interview with ICG Magazine (via /film), Nolan said:
“The visual side of the film is huge in scale, but our VFX shot count is probably lower than most romantic comedies.”
Tenet editor Jennifer Lame (Manchester By The Sea, Marriage Story) came on board the project in the place of Nolan’s regular editor and collaborator, Lee Smith, who was still working on 1917 when Tenet started shooting. Nolan said of working with Lame:
“Working for the first time with editor Jen Lame was a real pleasure. I joked with her when she first came on that this might be the hardest movie any editor has ever had to cut — and I’m not sure she would dispute that right now [laughs]. Working out all the aspects of portraying time running in different directions meant going beyond what was down on the page, as the execution lay with a successful translation of the visual.”
That sounds like a crazy job for an editor to do! Nolan added that the visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson was the person who really made all the practical effects in the film possible, saying:
“Visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson was responsible for coming up with our safety net. We wanted it all in-camera, but if it couldn’t be done, what choices are there in post-production? I like to say Andrew kind of bid himself out of a job because he helped us achieve such an enormous amount practically. There were still very complicated visual effects for the team at Double Negative, but Andrew’s expertise and background in on-set effects benefitted us enormously.”
It’s crazy, because the trailers for the movie look awesome, but I know they’re only the tip of the iceberg of the story we will see when we finally get to see the movie! Tenet is currently set to be released in the UK on August 26th, and in the US on September 2nd. Fingers crossed!