How Does Christopher Nolan Run a Film Set?

David Senra, reading the book's account, says Christopher Nolan runs a film set on punctuality, discipline, and secrecy, and he prefers to shoot every frame himself.

Of the more than 600 people who worked on Dunkirk, only 20 were allowed to read the script. Copies kept on set were watermarked with the actors' names so a missing copy could be traced to its owner. When he recruits an actor, he brings the script to the house, stays in the living room drinking tea until the actor finishes, and then takes the script away. He refuses a second unit. Matthew McConaughey's description, as Senra reads it, is simple: minds do not wander on a Christopher Nolan set. Crews know Nolan for shooting fast, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a single break for lunch.

On every film he has to believe he is making the best film ever made. Films are hard and all-consuming, and he had never pictured anyone in the job who was not trying for that. Even if a movie will not be the best ever made, he has to believe it can be. He pours himself into it. When that feeling reaches someone else, the way he tries to wrap himself up in the film, he calls it a huge thrill. People online stay obsessed with Inception. He was genuinely obsessed with it for years, so the fixation does not strike him as strange.