Christopher Nolan is a man of precision and most of his projects are deeply rooted in realism. He is known to keep it as real as possible in his movies and has certain non-negotiables in his filmmaking. Unsurprisingly, all his works are impeccable but The Dark Knight is his only project franchise and arguably the most popular one. A very humane account of the Caped Crusader’s origin story, which he co-wrote with his brother. He did one thing differently in this film going against his laws of filmmaking.

Christopher Nolan Bent the Rules For The Dark Knight

In a recent interview, the VFX artist who worked on The Dark Knight with Christopher Nolan revealed how the director had to subside his rules to adhere to the film’s integrity and ensure that the film feels as much authentic as possible.

Nolan tries to use real props and scenarios as often as budget, safety, and script allow. He believes doing so not only enhances the actor’s performance but adds to the element of the film. But when it came to Aaron Eckhart’s Two-Face in The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan didn’t chase his obsession with reality.

Instead of using prosthetics to get Eckhart ready as Two-Face, the production preferred computer graphics as they gave a more natural and believable effect than prosthetics.

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What Made Him Do So?

The VFX team explained that computer graphics were preferred over prosthetics as the latter adds to the face and that would naturally take away the natural feel of Two-Face. CGI on the other hand is a technology subtractive in nature.  It takes away from the subject and in this case, greatly facilitated to do justice to the complexity Two-Face‘s physical appearance possesses.

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The VFX team informed us that they used motion capture to make Two-Face’s face the unfailingly unrecognizable entity it is. They said:

“wherever [they] could, [they] kept the little bits that [they] could”

So what we see as the pupil of our half-skin-ripped friend is actually Aaron Eckhart’s real pupil. This small detail is the distinction that causes Christopher Nolan’s Two-Face so awe-inspiring with how real it looks.

It can then be certainly said that Nolan’s being “all about making stuff absolutely real,” stems from his need to deliver the absolute best experience to his audience and by bending his rule this way he essentially adhered to it more.

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Source: Corridor Crew