Elise Erin lee
UAL
Extended diploma
in Creative Media Production and technology.
Video essay
Tim Burton
Born is California, Tim Burton always had an interest in drawing and anything to with Art. Burton was very lucky in his early career as he was able to work with such huge Hollywood companies. Burton has made many films over the years and some that are known worldwide however are not as well liked as some other films. One of Tim Burtons most famous films is Coraline which is targeted as a children's film was actually considered to be quite scary and not suitable for children at all. Burton has produced many more films such as The nightmare before Christmas which is actually more popular around Halloween.
Clint Eastwood:
Born is San Francisco, Clint Eastwood has directed so many different films one of his most famous films is Million Dollar Baby which addresses the issues of assisted suicide which made this film quite controversial. Other films such as Sully which was a true story, most of Eastwood's films have a western theme to them which means that these two films were actually something different for him.
Spike Lee:
From researching this director I have found that most of his films include a black cast and a black main character. This must be one of his signature styles which he uses in all of films. To my knowledge I do not think I have ever seen one of his films but would be interested in seeing one.
Alfred Hitchcock:
From looking into Alfred Hitchcock I can see that most of his films are a little bit older than the other directors I have been researching. This Autuer died over 30 years ago and therefore does not have any recent films. He is from London which is unusual as most directors do come from America. Hitchcock's most famous films would most likely be Psycho and the 39 steps which was even turned into a hit play in the west end.
Danny Boyle:
Another director from England who has directed many films which have become so well known all over the world such as 127 hours which was a true story and slumdog millionaire which may have been a break through for Danny Boyle as this was the first Bollywood themed movie which was a hit world wide. He has even directed one of the bond films.
Production meeting 1
Today I was not in college due to sickness I found the work from today on the college website I was not too sure of what to do so I research into different directors to find out there autuer stylings. The directors which I have decided to research into are all very well known and have directed films and I may not have seen but have heard of. My group has decided to conduct further research into Christopher Nolan, I have never heard of this director before so tomorrow morning I am planning on talking to my group to ask what kind of research they have conducted and what they have found so far.
Diary entry 12/11/2018
Christopher Nolan
Stylings
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there's a non-linear story
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there's a subjective point of view
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the story makes you a detective
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there is an ambiguous ending
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characters have a split identity
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there is moral ambiguity
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there is expressive lighting
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you see characteristics of film noir
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there are digital and practical effects
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it's self-referential
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it deals with common themes, like revenge, anger, and guilt
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Wally Pfister is behind the camera (and a number of recurring cast and crew)
Christopher Nolan: The Ultimate Guide to His Films and Directing Techniques
Nolan has built a reputation in the film industry as a grand showman and visual magician firmly in command of his craft.
He’s infamous for assembling his complex and intricately layered plots like a puzzle, presenting them in such a way that respects the audience’s intelligence while simultaneously indulging their desire for exhilarating escapist entertainment. He tells stories on a tremendously large scale, and it’s all too easy to be swept away the sheer scope of his vision and ambition.
Best known for his record-shattering, paradigm-shifting DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY, Nolan’s meteoric rise to consistently unprecedented heights of financial and cultural success has established him as one of one of those rare filmmakers who is able to harness the full power of the Hollywood studio system to his benefit.
It wasn’t always this way, however– Nolan’s ascent to the stratosphere of visionary directors was preceded by a long period of obscurity and rejection that any aspiring filmmaker can relate to.
Christopher Nolan was born in 1970 in London, the 2nd of 3 boys born to a British advertising executive and an American teacher. The jarring culture split that the Nolan boys experienced through their childhood is perhaps best exemplified by the difference in accents between Nolan and his younger brother, Jonathan– who would go on to become his writing partner and a close professional collaborator.
Christopher Nolan, is a self taught director which is explained in this video. The director likes to make big budget films however that can not be said that this makes him an auteur as it only means that he is trusted by the producers with a big budget. It is more frequently said that Nolan can be considered an auteur because of his continus use of dramatic scenes with no use of sound which makes the scenes more dramatic with more effect.
Diary entry 13/11/2018
In todays lesson I decided to catch up with my group to see what they had found in their research and try to understand more about the director. Because of my absense yesterday I had a catch up with my tutor so that I could understand the different deadlines which he have coming up. I am going to conduct some more research at home however for the time being I have looked into Christopher Nolan as a person and have found out the different films he has directed. i have also created a survey in which I am going to watch closely for different results. Tomorrow I am going to watch a couple of scenes from different films and analyse those scenes as I feel that this will give me a greater understanding of the director.
Dunkirk
This is the first scene I have watched from a Christopher Nolan film. This is a scene from Dunkirk which is a recent film about WW2 in this scene there has been an oil spill and the soldiers are trying to escape and stay safe. The scene is very intense which makes you want to keep watching to find out exactly what happens. The part in which there is an actor who is under water trying to hold his breath from the fire above him, as I have not yet watched any more scenes or films that Christopher Nolan has directed I am unable to comment on any stylings I can see as I have nothing to compare it to. However I am very excited to watch some more scenes to see for my self the stylings of this director.
Interstellar
In this short clip from Interstellar, it is again just like Dunkirk in terms of how intense that scene was, the two films are obviously worlds apart in terms of narrative structure however I am starting to see Christopher Nolans stylings from watching both scenes as I can see that he clearly likes his scenes to be intense. I really liked the part where the actor pressed a button and the space ship exploded, we did not hear any noise as an audience. I think that with no sound this was very effective. As I am watching and researching more and more into this director I am starting to notice different stylings to before and what I had researched.
Inception
I always knew what inception was as a film and always understood that the film was very popular when it first came out as it was very confusing. From watching this scene I can see why the audience was confused when watching this film. However again I can see some auteurs stylings through out this scene which are the same as the previous two scenes I have analysed. The main stylings that I have seen throughout all three scenes, is intense scenes. I like this about this director as it makes me want to continue.
Diary entry 15/11/2018
Today in my lesson I started to research into Christopher Nolan films, I have never watched Christopher Nolan film before so at first it was quite hard to see and understand any stylings this director may have, however after watching and analysing 3 different films I have picked up on a few and am excited to research more into this director to understand why he may like to use these different stylings in his work and see if he has any future plans for any more films.
Survey analysis
For my first question I have asked what the ages are of my audience, I usually find this question to be quite helpful as it gives me an idea of who is answering my survey which will help me understand different answers too. The highest age range that has answered the most is 17. This tells me that this may be because of my method of distribution and because of my age that this is the reason for this answer.
I asked this question as I would like to know who the majority is that is answering my survey, I feel like this will help me in my research as I know that a lot of Christopher Nolans films could be considered to be more aimed at males. However I have had more of a response from female to male this tells me that this could again be because of my method of distribution.
I thought it would be appropriate to ask my audience if they had heard of Christopher Nolan at all, as before researching into him I had not before. As you can see I have had a mixed response, However the majority of people have heard of him before which tells me that this director is very well known however it does not tell me if they are aware of his stylings.
This question was not compulsory to answer as some people may not have heard of Christopher Nolan and therefore will not have a favourite film. The most popular two answers were "Dunkirk" and "All of them" this tells me that Christopher Nolan's styles are very well liked by lots of different people. This helps me with my project as when it comes to my group making our own film we know what people like.
I asked this question as I thought it may be useful, to see who is the most popular director/auteur, the most popular answer was Christopher Nolan, however what I am wondering is if people have only written this as they can not think of anybody else at that certain time. However if not then this is really good for my research as when we are creating our film we now know that he is very well liked.
Biblography
Video essay script
19/11/2018
Today I finished all of my research, I analysed all of my answers from my survey which I purposely left till last so that I can get as many responses as possible, I have found this unit the hardest of them all so far. I think this is because I am not a huge film fan and am not too familiar with a lot of the terms. Other than that I have enjoyed learning new things about different sections of the media. Today I also finished my video essay script and will start pre production. I am excited to see how my video essay and group film turn out.
20/11/2018
Today I recorded all of my voice over for my video essay, I then collected and downloaded all the clips I need for my essay and am going to start putting everything together in premier pro at home. At first I was quite confused about the essay and what it needed to include, however after talking to the other people in my group I think I might have understood and have managed to create the right work. I should hopefully be finished my essay by Thursday period 1 so that I can move on to creating my idea for the short film. I am going to carry on editing at home while I work on my personal statement in order to be able to meet both deadlines.
Video essay
Video essay Biblography
22/11/2018
Today I finished my video essay in period 1, after break my group and I all came together and discussed what we think our idea should be, in the end we came up with the idea that our film should be a re make of James Bond, as when reviewing our surveys one of my group members said that the most common answer when asked "What film do you think Christopher Nolan should direct" was James Bond. We have chosen the storyline to be that Bond is asked to complete a mission, however the mission is very personal to him as it is to track down his brother and kill him. We later on find out that the brother of Bond is actually the joker, this works as Nolan has previously directed Batman and therefore it does link. We are going to be writing the script over the weekend and will start on Pre-Production paperwork next week.