20 Things You Didn't Know About Christopher Nolan

20. He Made His Feature Debut For Just $6,000

Though Nolan can command budgets north of $200 million these days, his 1998 directorial debut couldn't have been much more modest.

Nolan's first feature, Following, was effectively a "no-budget" film, completed for a mere $6,000 with the director writing the film to be as cheap as possible to produce.

This ranged from having his friends and family work on the film for free and even lend their locations for the shoot, to having the cast extensively rehearse scenes to avoid wasting expensive 16mm film stock, and using only available light.

Nolan ended up shooting and editing the film on weekends for roughly a year as he and his cast and crew had regular day-jobs, which in turn allowed him to spread the cost of the production out.

Following ultimately became enough of a cult fave that Nolan was able to secure a comparatively beefy $9 million budget for his sophomore feature, Memento.