How Nolan uses color at 3 budget levels? Following (1998) - Nolan’s first feature film was shot in black and white. The budget was so low that it didn’t allow them to build custom sets, instead they had to film on already available public locations. Which meant they didn’t have the control over the color palette of the locations and set design. For that reason he chose to shoot with black and white 16mm film. With this decision he tackled the other 2 problems that arose because of the low budget