DOODLEBUG
Doodlebug is the third short film directed by Christopher Nolan, early in his career. It tells the story
of a man trying to crush a small creature in a filthy flat. The creature is revealed to be a smaller
version of himself, who’s movements match the movements of his. He is then squashed by a larger
version of himself. The film was shot on filmstock, which Nolan still uses in his movies such as
Dunkirk and The Dark knight Trilogy, saying he prefers it to digital recording and projection formats,
even inviting other directors to private screenings of his movies to convince them to use IMAX film
stock, which he believes is rarely used due to its costs.
Doodlebug was scored by David Julyan, who collaborated with Nolan frequently, with Insomnia
being the last film he scored for the director. The eerily tense music can be heard throughout the
whole 3-minute runtime of Doodlebug. This is the beginning of a staple for Christopher Nolan films
as music plays a huge part of his films. For example, in Dunkirk, the implementation of the ticking of
a clock (also used in Doodlebug) and the screech of instruments in the tense scenes as well as the
horns in the score for Inception, both scored by Hans Zimmer.
Doodlebug uses chroma key to make the man appear larger and smaller. This use of greenscreen is
still relevant to Christopher Nolan’s movies today. Nolan heavily used effects and chromakey in films
such as Inception and Interstellar, but not in films such as Dunkirk or Memento, instead opting for
more practical effects.