What Nolan's 'The Odyssey' Can Teach Us About Craft

On Thursday night, my girlfriend and I went to see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

I’d been waiting for this movie to come out since its announcement, and so, as Nolan intended, we were fortunate enough to see it in the 70mm projection.

We got there an hour early after our own odyssey through the rain and chaos of Barcelona to queue, but the very first scenes took us back to Ancient Greece.

So today I wanted to share some of the takeaways I took from the experience as a creative, which I think will offer you some form of inspiration.

Let’s dive in.

Short of giving away any spoilers, I’ll aim to give an overview without giving too much of the story away. However, I am going to claim a bit of grace here, considering this is a 2,000-year-old story.

Throughout The Odyssey, I saw a complete dedication to creative crafts.

From the acting to the cinematography, it was a masterclass in what happens when you stick to something for a long period of time.

Take Anne Hathaway, for example.

Although her role as Penelope wasn’t as prominent as Matt Damon’s Odysseus, I felt like she carried the cutaway scenes in Ithaca. The feeling of him being gone for so long, the burden of managing the uncertainty.

Or Zendaya, who played Athena. Barely any words were spoken, but the emotion I felt was intense.

Now I don’t want to turn this into an acting review, so let me also mention the cinematography.

Hoyte van Hoytema not only shot it all on film (as you probably know), but the levels of experience required to get shots out at sea, or with fading natural light, were not missed.

You can appreciate this as a photographer, as it’s likely you too have been in a crunch for lighting and done your best to get the shot.

It simply felt like watching a movie where all the characters and artists involved were at the peak of their powers... and to me, this was inspiring.

It’s no accident these actors were paid that much or Nolan was given a $250 million production budget... that’s what happens when you’re moving like that!

I briefly touched on it above, but this is the first narrative feature shot entirely on IMAX film cameras. They even had IMAX engineer a soundproof housing so Nolan could shoot the quiet dialogue scenes on them.

And although that eye-watering budget may have appeared endless, I’m sure the consideration for risk in filmmaking had to be accounted for.

To me, seeing these beautiful locations in Greece, ships out in the Mediterranean, and weather logistics that needed to line up perfectly, all I could see was the risk associated.

The financial side is one thing, but with these cameras, only three minutes of filming could be done at a time before a reload... so the acting had to be precise.

It felt like Nolan and the cast played with this risk so cleverly to the point where a novice might not have noticed, but any creative would appreciate the level of precision required to pull this off.

I try to think of ways I can apply this to my process as a photographer and video creator.

The takeaway: embracing risk.

Being prepared to an extent is always going to be a requirement, but having the confidence to think in the moment and, like Nolan, dance with this risk is the goal.

It’s something I’ve been feeling since beginning to shoot analogue myself, but this movie helped me understand that this dance isn’t rehearsed. It’s like salsa, and you have to move with it.

It’s no surprise that this film smashed the box office purely from its casting. I mean Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o... even Travis Scott, who opens the whole thing.

All of these creatives have committed themselves to their craft to the point where their star power was felt (their aura, for lack of a better word).

This meant that each scene felt real. In each scene he was in, I thought Tom Holland was Telemachus and not Spider-Man (the movie I saw the night before).

It kind of showed me the power of stars... and the power of being surrounded by elite people.

The last few weeks, my girlfriend and I have been talking about how we see ourselves surrounded by others on our path. Other creatives, other entrepreneurs, other people building something of their own.

And for the same reason, we’re craving some more star power. Friends with ideas, advice, feedback, in a way to not only grow but to expand ourselves.

You are the average of the top 5 people you spend the most time with...

In this movie, Tom Holland was surrounded by Damon and Hathaway. I’m sure he walked away with some incredible feedback on his craft.

So prioritising that in my journey is becoming important.

From the outside looking in, The Odyssey did have some moments of pure intensity with fantastical beasts.

Short of any spoilers, the cyclops scenes felt so real and intense.

It wasn’t until afterwards that I learned how little CGI was used in this film. That the cyclops was a 60-foot puppet hauled into a cave in the Peloponnese, layered with prosthetics, forced perspective and wirework. Bill Irwin, the same actor who performed TARS in Interstellar, was the one inside it.

I was shocked... genuinely surprised. And kind of wished I knew that going into the cinema.

It taught me how keeping things as real as possible has true power.

Us humans, we’re smart. We don’t give ourselves the credit sometimes... but we can tell when something is fake. We just can.

It can be a movie, an enhanced photo, or even an AI video (although they are getting good).

And so there’s power in keeping things authentic.

Whether it be in your content, your editing style, your approaches to shooting... that feeling carries through in your work more than we give attention to.

For those three hours, I was in that Ancient Greek world. For no moment did I believe it not to be possible.

Albeit a myth, this felt real. And I’d credit Nolan’s commitment to seeing (and keeping) things “real” as the reason.

Looking back at that movie, and all the elements involved in bringing it together, the final takeaway for me was that although this movie was a colossus to bring together, it appeared effortless to create.

And that’s the most amazing feat an artist can achieve.

Making something appear effortless when in reality it was truly difficult makes it that much more impressive.

So it showed me to do difficult things, and become so good at them, they appear effortless.

We walked back out into the hot, humid night we arrived in, and somehow that hour of queuing faded from my mind.

If you get the chance to see this movie, take it.

There aren’t many films that make you appreciate the making of it as this one does.

Have a great weekend.

Matty