July 2025

Dream Thieves: Wally Pfister, ASC and Christopher Nolan on Inception

This in-depth look at the making of Inception first appeared in American Cinematographer's July 2010 issue. For full access to our archive, which includes more than 105 years of essential motion-picture production coverage, become a subscriber today. Tight security is in place on Universal Studios’ Stage 12 as a film crew readies for a take on a surreal-looking set: A large, high-ceilinged vault with black walls divided into blocks by a grid-like pattern of thin, white lines. More than 100 space lights are positioned overhead, above a layer of Full Grid and another layer of muslin; the light they cast is neutral, sterile and shadowless. Actor Cillian Murphy kneels on the floor. At the call of “Action!” two cameras roll, one capturing the...more