Director's Role.

A work done with http://sabricantini.blogspot.com/

Summary:

The director is responsible for the dramatic structure, pace, and directional flow of the sounds and visual images. He/she must maintain viewer interest: must position himself as audience and analyze the movie as a whole, but caring about every minimum detail in able to convey this “whole image”. The director works with the talent and crew, staging and plotting action, refining the master shooting script, supervising setups and rehearsals, as well as giving commands and suggestions throughout the entire recording and editing.

The director decides how the film should look, turning the script into a sequence of shots, therefore adapting it to reality –this gives him the responsibility of knowing how to correctly adapt the script, translating it to real images-. He takes the important decisions during the filming such as: camera angles and distances, lens’ effects, lighting and set design. He is also responsible for the hiring of new crew members (and managing the ones who are already working in the movie).

The director has to advise and order the actors on how to play the different scenes, in order to convey the desired mood/effect. He makes storyboards to illustrate the shot sequences and concepts (how the link with each other, ideas of the shot, etc). The director also has to participate in the general editing of the movie, advising on color grading, different sound mixes (both diagetic and non-diagetic), different shot sequences, etc.

A director has to have a general technical knowledge/understanding of the equipment being used (cameras, lights, etc). He needs to be able to have an outstanding communicative skill to interact with the other crew members efficiently through the filming. He should be extremely committed with the movie and an organized person (able to meet deadlines, work efficiently). A director is required a deep knowledge in visual composition, writing skills, technical applications, different software, and film structure in general (themes, moods, and how to create these!).

            A director must be able to have an accurate location planning, in able to convey scenery adequate for the script and the essence of the movie, shot pacing, acting styles, etc.  

The director has a los of responsibility on him.  He has to take care of all the problems in the film making. For example, if the actor refuses to do a scene, the director is responsible in taking care of this. The director is the one responsible in looking for the settings that sometimes they might not find.

The director must have the ability to see the movie as a whole, a unified and finished piece of work (even before it’s completed), enabling him to take care of the details which create this wider concept (He is the one in charge of putting together all the little pieces which make the movie together). This is because he is the one responsible of portraying/conveying the ESSENCE of the movie he is directing, and for being able to do this, he must pay crucial attention to every single detail which takes part in the movie.

Case Study: Tim Burton

Biography: born in 1958, in the city of Burbank, California, Burton was a very introspective person in his childhood, finding pleasure in drawing, painting, and occasionally filming short movies in his backyard. He graduated at CalArts and called Disney’s attention, in where he had a short work, because of his desire to follow a more solo career.

            His films have as a characteristic the setting of imaginary worlds, fantasy and exaggerated themes and a dark tone to many of his movies (Burton enjoyed reading Edgar Alan Poe in his early days). Between the actors he has worked with, there are some he particularly tends to use; examples being Johnny Depp (e.g.: Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd) and Helena Bonham Carter (e.g.: Corpse Bride, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland).

Hope

Low level shot, creating a certain stability in the picture, Lighting was ocassional

High angle shot, conveying inferiority of the actor in relation to his environment; hold down by something

Same shot as the first with incursion of a character 

Sequence of four shots, paired/grouped by two similar settings, giving a sense of motion as only the actors' positions change. mid-shots, could be taken as long in comparison to the rest of the pictures, they are meant to create a flowing sense in the motion of the actors

Dutch angled shot, together with the next picture (also in Dutch angle) in which the actors are in motion, the angle helps create instability in the picture (storyline is meant to be ambiguous, so i'm not going to go to deep on the theme)

Two-shot, showing the movement of characters, close enough for seeing detail

Close-up shot, showing the... lack of expression in the actor's face; although it would be used in the contrary sense, it seemed appropiate

Long-shot, balancing the previous long Dutch angled shots, creating stability, symmetry (actor placed on the side of the door, breaking the excesive perfection). Pintoresque effect created by the (casual, again) lighting, the sun in the leaves..

The meaning of this picture sequence is up to personal interpretation, ambiguety was meant to be created. The title partially helped us on this, as a short, catchy storyline for "Hope" was difficut to think. The problem was adding storyboards (actually, it remained impossible), due to lack of dialogue and/or scene-event clarity.

Spidergram was imposible to upload.. change of structure

Film Roles:

Producer:

-sustains the movie economically/finances movie

-deals with contracts

-deals with problems whichi might arise (after all, the movie is his product, he is responsible for it)

Sound Designer:

-needs to know about the theme of the story, its essence, in order to have a good shot at what diagetic and non-diagetic sounds to use.

-uses appropriate music/sounds for different shot moods, themes, etc.

Cinematographer:

-needs to have an achúrate idea of what the shot is trying to capture (theme, etc.)

-organizes shot, leads the shooting (ordered by director) e.g.: lighting effects

Editor:

-in charge of editing shots once they’ve been taken, digitalizing, rearranging, etc.

Director:

-coordinates other crew members

-tells actors how to play their roles

-organizes scenes/shots, decides on how they are to be, using the scrip as a “draft”

-makes storyboards to visualise the shot better, e.g.: what is it conveying?

-adapts script to the way he thinks it possible/better, etc.

Actors:

-(need to know their lines…)

-personal morale, ethics, might be involved in the producing of the movie

-need to capture the essence of the movie/shot conveying it by facial expressions, dialogue, etc.

Script writer:

-gets over-ruled by actors/director at the time of taking decisions

-creates the initial film structure

-needs to re-write, re-create the storyline in case the movie has difficulties being adapted to reality

-difficulty on how to convey/transmit different themes, emotions, in the script, and transferring this script to picture

Assistant Director:

-the voice of the director at the shot

-director’s backup

Claude Monet

2. There are several factors which influenced the rise of French Impressionist cinema. One of them was WWI, a situation which involved the whole of Europe in a socio-economic way. The disastrous state in which France ended, the horrors of war, and all of the consequences it had on the society led to new ideas, new ways of human expression, which where transferred to one of the major results of expression: art, music, filmmaking, etc.

Another important factor was the rising of Modernism, which had a powerful impact on culture and society throughout Europe. After the monotony and constant routine/convention guided lives after the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution leading to mass production, urbanization, etc., together with other factors which broke the mold in which society was set, resulted in a huge explosion in new ideas and ways of expression; this had, obviously, an impact in cinema: new techniques, genres, styles, were looked for in the whole of filmmaking, in order to break the demonstrate what society was going through.

3. New editing techniques were used, such as breaking the line of temporality in the shots (a flashback, for example, or a fantasy).

Mise-en-scene: a new variety of lighting situations were introduced, for example: single sources, off-screen actions indicated by shadows, etc.)

Camera angles were more varied (high-angles, low-angles), movement was used to convey points of view, graphic effects, etc; distance was also used (e.g.: close-ups to convey different effects.)

4. Abel Gance (25 October 1889 - 10 November 1981). He explored innovative filming techniques, as superimposition of images, extreme close-ups, and fast rhythmic editing. Many have criticized him because of his movies being too ingenuous or mediocre. La Roue / J’acusse / Napoléon

Jean Epstein (March 25, 1897, Warsaw – April 2, 1953, Paris) L'Auberge rouge (1923)/ Coeur fidèle (1923) / La Chute de la maison Usher (1928). He was an early film theoretician.

Germaine Dulac  (17 November 1882 – 20 July 1942) Vénus Victrix, ou Dans l'ouragan de la vie (1917) / Les soeurs ennemies (1915; first film) / Le bonheur des autres (1918). He produces some pre-Surreal complex narratives, and his career went in decline since the advent of sound film.

Shot Film Analysis – “Still Life”

Taking a close look to the main actor, we can proceed to say that in the first scenes in which he is driving the car he effectively conveys the impression of him being physically and psychologically worn-out/exhausted. This effect is correctly carried on throughout the film, and even increases as the actor becomes stressed and tormented by his situation. This makes the actor seem believable, giving the audience the possibility of following the storyline and approaching it in the more realistic way it can.

The storyline catches quick attention from the audience as it builds up with tension and proposes a paranormal situation. “This short film had a very interesting concept and was quite creative.”[1]

Different types of shots are used throughout the film to create different effects, or ideas. For example, the worm’s eye view camera angle in:

 

This angle in the shot shows first on the actor from below, but then focuses on the hands as they appear. It is made for the appearing bloody hands to be the focused object of the frame, making them stand out from the rest of the picture. This emphasizes the violence of the situation, and the fact that the actor is surprised by seeing blood in his hands. This is achieved as we see his face (out of focus) behind the hands, giving the audience the chance to see his horrified reaction. As his expression is out of focus, we could say that this adds to the fact that he is confused, as he had lost control/focus of the situation.

On this mid-shot:

We can see the scared expression of the main actor, positioning him in the situation he is in. Also, the shot allows us to see the other two people/mannequins/supernatural entities? which are still, (as the film shows, people petrify as the actor looks at them). But, what the audience can’t see is crucially important in this shot. This is the man behind the actor, which is trying to kill him. As the audience knows that the man will only move in case the main actor isn’t looking at him, the fact that the shot omits this man when the actor can’t see him (giving the point of view of the main actor) adds suspense to the scene, because the audience, knowing only as much as the actor does, is placed in his point of view, full of danger and suspense. This camera shots from his point of view are constant throughout all of the film, to emphasize this effect (audience, knowing only as much as the actor knows, experience a much more tense situation than if they were more kind of an omniscient audience).

            Non-diagetic sound is intelligently manipulated throughout the film. The fact that there is no constant music/rhythm emphasizes on the effect of “stillness” as the lack of sound creates tension because it can represent lack of movement, dynamism. Occasional violin short notes break the silence only to make this lack of sound more apparent constantly.

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[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0483437/