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March 23, 2023

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Behind the Scenes, Filmmaking, Media & Society

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Notable Directing Styles

Have you ever wanted to find your own voice and style?

I remember being interviewed by a producer that was looking for a director. He was looking for a specific type of voice and style for his production and asked me to describe my voice. Back then, I didn’t know better than to say somewhere between tenor and baritone.

But he, of course, wanted to understand my visual voice as a director. I realized that studying a handful of directors and their styles would help me better understand my style. So I thought this article might help you do the same.

The first step is understanding the labels used to describe existing notable styles.

The art of filmmaking has come a long way since its inception in the late 19th century. The early pioneers of cinema are responsible for laying the foundation of this artistic medium, which has influenced society, culture, and politics.

Over the years, several great film directors have emerged, each bringing their unique style and creativity to the screen. With each style comes a platform to make a significant contribution to the industry and our culture.

When I mention box office dollars, they are the current ones on the day I published this article and were provided by The-Numbers.com.

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg brought in $10.7B in ticket sales worldwide and has won three Academy Awards, including two for Best Director (Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan). Two of his most successful films are “Jurassic Park” (1993) and “Jaws” (1975).

Spielberg invented the blockbuster style with the release of “Jaws” and is known for his ability to create engaging and emotional stories that resonate with audiences worldwide. His signature film was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

James Cameron

James Cameron is right on Spielberg’s heels, with gross receipts of $8.7B. However, if you thought his films brought in more than Spielberg’s, you would be right. It took Spielberg 36 films to hit $10.7B, and Cameron hit $8.7B with 14 films. He is likely to surpass Spielberg within the next five years. However, these numbers are only based on what the artists did as directors. Spielberg’s box office dollars as a DreamWorks producer are not counted in this report.

Cameron is best known for The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), Titanic (1997), and Avatar (2009). All of which were so popular they became franchises.

Cameron’s style is action-driven. His characters are always type-A personalities and often command each other. To further drive the story, Cameron is known for switching between sound effects and music to shift the audience’s emotions. His technique might even drop the soundtrack to near-silence and then build suspense with the volume to draw the audience to the edge of their seats.

Alfred Hitchcock

Regarded as the “Master of Suspense,” Alfred Hitchcock, an English film director, was known for his innovative camera techniques and ability to manipulate audiences’ emotions. His films were a perfect blend of horror, suspense, and drama. Two of his most successful films are “Psycho” (1960) and “Vertigo” (1958).

During his career, Hitchcock developed many techniques that altered cinema. He dedicated his legacy to pioneering innovations in film grammar. For instance, he created the zoom dolly shot where the camera zooms in while it is being dollied out, creating visual disorientation and emotional destabilization.

Hitchcock also popularized the MacGuffin. A MacGuffin (muh-GUFF-in) is an object, character, or event in a story that keeps the plot in motion despite lacking intrinsic value or importance. In Star Wars, George Lucas used R2D2 as a MacGuffin.

While Hitchcock was deemed one of the greatest directors of all time, he never won an Oscar for Best Director. Still, his style revolutionized the industry, brought him 32 prestigious awards, and pleased droves of audiences for several generations.

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese’s films reflect the gritty realities of life, infused with elements of violence, crime, and passion. He added to the legitimizing of profanity and violence more than other directors. He bared the souls of his characters to reveal their darkness, complexity, irony, and contradictions.

He grew up in Little Italy during the 1960s, where boys had two career choices: the priesthood or the mafia. He found a third alternative in filmmaking where he explored the good and bad within him. If there was a rule to break in filmmaking, Scorsese would find a way to break it.

He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Director for his film “The Departed” (2006). His other successful films include “Goodfellas” (1990) and “Taxi Driver” (1976).

I could share another 100 directors that impacted society due to their stylistic choices. But the examples I’ve given are a good start in helping you realize that what a director brings to the industry, based on who they are, impacts the way the film informs culture. Therefore, if a director wants to impact our culture, he or she must find their voice and style.

Copyright © 2023 by CJ Powers

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March 8, 2023

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Best Director’s Required Mastery

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The Oscars are right around the corner, and many people need to know what the director does to deserve the Best Director award. The director is the one that owns the vision for the film and translates the literary screenplay to the screen. In doing both, he makes the film his story while hopefully honoring the writer’s initial intent.

To pull these activities off, the director must address the following:

Understand the Story

The director must read the script multiple times. The first read is the emotional read. This will give the director an understanding of the heartfelt story elements and emotional undertones.  This first read is critical as it can never be done over.

The director only gets one first read to measure the emotional thread of the story. The nuanced vibe of the first read can never be recreated, so the director must read the story from top to bottom without stopping.

The subsequent reads allow the director to learn about the characters, themes, and tone. Each read-through will reveal new details and help the director identify the key elements that must come across on screen. Good directors take notes, analyze the plot structure, and review the character arcs.

Meet with the Writer

Meeting with the writer is a must. Not all writers can capture their vision on paper as clearly as others. The director can gain insights into the characters, settings, plot, and themes by meeting with the writer. Questions can be asked to clarify the character’s intentions and motivations.

The best discussion covers the central theme/message, the universal question, and the main character’s internal and external change. These must be crystal clear to translate the screenplay to the screen properly.

Break Down the Script

The director must break down every scene to understand the main character’s goal, obstacles, actions, conflict, and consequences. If one of those elements is missing from a scene, the director must decide how to adjust the story or drop the scene.

Directors are typically hit with about 1,000 questions every day during production. To answer these questions correctly and confidently, he must understand how the scene is a cohesive part of the story. Each decision is integral to enhancing the story and reinforcing the theme.

Visualize the Story

The Director’s Notebook is a great place to capture the style and visualization of the story. Some filmmakers use child-like chicken scratchings, craft or department-oriented codes, and rough sketches to make their stylistic decisions more visual. This way, the director can bring his vision to life and share his ideas with the production trinity (Production Designer and Director of Photography).

To bring their vision to life, the director develops a style that is all his own. Keep in mind that some directors have several different styles depending on the type of film created. For instance, the director might choose to express different moods using bright colors for a kids’ show and muted darker tones for a drama.

The visual style is tied to conversations with the production trinity. The decisions are related to color, camera angles, lenses, lighting, music, sets, and other things the art department touches. To fulfill this vision, there must be a collaboration with the department heads and key crew members.

The final decision belongs to the director and is filtered through his understanding of what will bring the characters to life while telling the story in a way that resonates with the audience and is easily understood.

Paint the Vision

Working with the cast and crew requires knowing the vision for the story better than anyone else. The director needs to be intimate with the story and motivate his team to execute his vision. This requires great listening skills and excellent communication.

Helping others to understand the vision is critical when getting 30 to 300 or more people in alignment. The director’s guidance needs to be clear, concise, and consistent. This will help ensure that the film is successful artistically and commercially.

Mastery Required to Win

The Best Director award typically goes to the director that demonstrates a mastery of the story, the writer’s intent, the key elements and beats of the story that are critical to its telling, has a style unique to the story, and knows how to help the cast and crew buy into that vision. The final film demonstrates these abilities with its cohesive and emotionally stirring story.

Copyright © 2023 by CJ Powers

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April 25, 2018

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Filmmaking

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Timing is Important, but Story is King

LIVING IN THE

The motion picture industry understands how to time the release of a feature film. Studios block out release dates years in advance to make sure their blockbusters have little competition. Even independent films attempt to release during down screen times to minimize the competition. But there seems to be a group of filmmakers that are more concerned about the actual dates than the competition.

Faith-based filmmakers compete for release dates around Easter, convinced their audiences want to see a religious picture during the highly celebrated season. While that might be the case, past surveys consistently reflected that those who enjoy the faith-based genre are only willing to see 1.5 movies in a given month.

That means the first faith-based film released, with some level of fanfare during the Easter season, will take the audience out of the equation for other faith-based films. This year I Can Only Imagine released first and drew in $80MM, Paul, Apostle of Christ released second and drew in $17MM, and God’s Not Dead 3 drew in $5MM.

While a substantial consideration, it’s not always the release dates that make the difference. The above films happened to be released in order from best to worst story. Regardless, an overabundance of a genre’s films during a specific timeframe can quickly saturate a niche market.

Plus, the average moviegoer only watches four films a year. That means the person who watched I Can Only Imagine and probably watched Black Panther only has two more films left to watch. The faith-based film attender might hold off on another genre film to consider a summer blockbuster that their peers will discuss at the water cooler, and a Christmastime film for the entire family to enjoy.

When I’ve talked to producers of faith-based films, they’ve made it clear that they never consider secular competition. This is a peculiar situation since avoidance of thought never reduces the number of actual competitors vying for box office dollars. And, everyone in the industry knows that PG-13 films, which are typically aimed at some form of family, are watched by members of all faith groups.

Movieguide’s annual report to the industry points out how family-friendly films, with elements of faith and patriotism, always bring in more box office dollars than the competition. This has been consistently true since I’ve tracked it over the past 20 years. In fact, when the audiences of successful blockbusters are looked at closely, people who live by faith are the ones that make a significant uprise in the box office.

One could surmise, yet no one has taken that bold step to publish a thesis on the topic to date, that those who live by faith are the determining factor in a film’s box office success. If that is the case, then faith-based filmmakers should become masters of the craft in order to drive their films’ successes. And, those who live by faith must be educated in how their ticket purchase determines what films succeed.

Now, I’m not talking about forcing change by purchasing up tickets for bad faith-based films to spur on the genre. I’m talking about faith-based filmmakers learning how to tell great story. The audience will always promote a film with great story. Consider Black Panther as a perfect example of a great story that took off.

Some might say it was the black community that came out in droves to support the film, but I say that’s foolishness. Anyone tracking Tyler Perry’s career knows that he regularly draws the niche black audience, which doesn’t look anything like the audience watching the Black Panther. The story was great and therefore pulled in a great audience.

I’ve heard that there are 12 faith-based films attempting to position their release for next Easter. The one that will win the box office is the first best story released. The others will have dismal results. This begs a new question—Why aren’t the 12 faith-based films releasing one a month throughout the year?

The answer suggested to me last month by a faith-based producer went like this… “Faith-based films preach; they don’t tell story, so none of them can stand on their own without the churches pushing people to attend.”

While the producer sounded cynical, I’m pretty sure his comment has some merit. Film is a story-based, emotional medium that does not handle preaching well. Radio, on the other hand, is an ideal medium for preaching. Finding the right medium for the right message is crucial to reaching an audience.

Independent horror films use similar production processes as faith-based films. Instead of focusing on preaching, horror films focus on generating screams or startlement. Both typically generate about the same expense to box office ratio and few of either genre put story first.

A Quiet Place is a horror film with a message on parenting that is driven by story, not scream gimmicks. Because of its focus on story, the film should soon cross the $150MM box office mark. The key to the film’s success wasn’t being timed for Halloween, since it was released this spring, but the fact is the story was king, focusing on parenting children in a hostile world.

Release dates are important to avoid too much competition, but without story being the key focus, timing won’t matter.

Copyright © 2018 by CJ Powers