How Christopher Nolan Shot the Iconic Inception Hallway Fight Scene...Without CGI

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Inception Hallway Fight Scene Breakdown — the sets, cameras, stunts, and special effects Nolan and his team used to create a mind-bending fight scene without CGI.

How They Shot the Inception Hallway Scene ►►
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro — Inception Hallway Scene Breakdown
0:44 - Previsualizing the Scene
01:21 - Building the Sets
02:06 - Placing the Cameras
03:13 - Lighting the Hallway
3:52 - Choreographing the Fights
04:59 - Achieving Zero Gravity
06:43 - Takeaways

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How They Shot It — Inception Hallway Fight Scene

What was going through your mind the first time you saw the Inception hallway fight scene? Chances are it was some form of the question: “How did they shoot that?” In this video, we are going to break down the sets, camera rigs, stunts and special effects that Christopher Nolan and his team employed to create the Inception hallway fight scene…without CGI.

Inception Spinning Hallway

The most complicated part of the Inception hallway fight scene was the sets themselves. Taking a cue from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Christopher Nolan had a radical idea — to build a rotating set (two, in fact). Both the hallway set and the hotel room set could be rotated along the horizontal plane to simulate the shifting gravity. Then for the zero-gravity scenes, a new identical hallway set was built vertically.

Camera Rigs and Lighting

Two different camera systems were used in the spinning hallway. The first was a floor-mounted dolly that was attached to hidden rails in the floor,, which rotated with the set. The second was a Technocrane arm that was operated independently of the set, which allowed the camera to actually see the rotation of the hallway. The lighting was entirely practical — the light fixtures you see in the hallway were the actual sources of illumination.

Zero Gravity

For the zero-gravity shots, using the vertical set, the camera simply tilted up 90 degrees looking straight down (up) the hallway. Then the actors could lowered with a wire rig system that made them look like they were floating “forward” instead of “down.” The same technique was used for the hotel room in zero-gravity and the only CGI necessary was to paint out the wires. One final detail that helped sell this illusion was from costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, who stiffened the moveable parts of the costume like shoelaces and pant legs that would otherwise “betray” the illusion.

The Inception hallway fight scene will go down as one of the greatest examples of special effects filmmaking. Granted, it was only possible with a massive budget but the spirit of the low-fi, old-school trickery can be applied anywhere.


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VIDEO EDITOR: BRANDON SCULLION
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♬ SONGS USED:

“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)” - Eurythmics
“Mombassa Chase” - Hans Zimmer
“Mr. Charles” - Hans Zimmer
“I’m Still Dreaming” - Hans Zimmer
“Miles Introduces Ariadne” - Hans Zimmer
“Strategy” - Hans Zimmer
“Audition” - Hans Zimmer
“Totem” - Hans Zimmer
“Shared Dreaming” - Hans Zimmer

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