DIRECTING RESEARCH – FINAL SCRIPT 25/09/2020 2

DIRECTING RESEARCH
BY BETH TALMER-JONES
DIRECTING RESEARCH – FINAL SCRIPT 25/09/2020 2

DIRECTING RESEARCH

Directing and cinematography go hand in hand with each other, the

director gives directions to the cast and crew about where they want the
production to go, directing of cinematography includes both the camera
shots and the lighting to obtain a particular type of effect and mood.
They also have control over the editing to create the pace, rhythm,
coherence, story, and character development.

Louis Le Prince was a French artist and the inventor of early motion
picture. He was born in 1841.His work began officially in the late 1880s
just before his disappearance. His most known work would be the
"Roundhay Garden Scene" an 1888 short silent film. This was the first
live action film to ever be made it was recorded at 12 frames per second
and runs for 2.11 seconds. It was made using a single lens camera and a
strip of film.

The Great Train Robbery 1903 was made by Edwin S. Porter, this is
arguably one of the most important films to be made as it is considered
to be one of the first significant narrative US films made however, was
influenced by a British film “Daring Daylight Robbery" (1903) which was
a huge influence to American audiences with film techniques such as
cross cutting, camera movements and location shooting.

The Jazz singer (1927) is an American musical drama film, it happens to

be the first feature length motion picture with synchronised recorded
music to the actors lip-syncing and speech in isolated sequences, this
was a huge thing at the time considering its release in the silent film
era. In total the film contains around two minutes of synchronised
dialogue; the rest of the speech was shown through caption cards which
were common in silent films of the same era.

The Vitaphone was used in nearly 1000 short films made by warner
brothers, it was the last major analogue sound on disc system to be used
and was the only one to be commercially successful. "The Jazz Singer"
being one of the best productions the vitaphone brought to the screen.
Seeing spoken words like that on screen was a huge moment for the
industry and was clearly a game changer in the way that people viewed
film. The vitaphone was a large step in technology at the time and would
later get developed to the sound we witness today.
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The wizard of oz (1939) changed the history of filmmaking, from the

moment Dorothy Gale opens the door to an amazing world of Technicolor,
the way people viewed film was changed, yet again. The film instantly
became a pop culture icon due to the use of Technicolour, the most
famous colour process in Hollywood.

What is Technicolour?
Technicolour is a series of processes used to first produce colour in
motion pictures. Today, Technicolor is perhaps more known for the end
result of the colouring process. Technicolor films are known for their
bright, bold, saturated colours.

Even Though "The Wizard Of Oz" made such a huge impact to the industry
with its use of colour, It wasn't the first movie out there to use it
and we can’t leave the first uncredited. Around 190 motion pictures
experimented with some sort of colour techniques prior to The Wizard Of
Oz. The first motion picture projected in natural colour was "A Visit to
the Seaside" an 8-minute British short film, and the first feature
length of the same colour "The World, The Flesh, And The Devil."

Citizen Kane (1941) is yet another film that changed the industry, the
creator, Orson Welles had full freedom and responsibility when making
this film, allowing him to play around technically and do whatever he
wanted. Many of these experiments changed the way film was being used to
story tell. Gregg Toland, the cinematographer was a huge impact with the
way cinematography changed. He used deep focus lenses, meaning everyone/
everything in a scene at once was in focus, rather than just the main
subject, the film as a whole doesn't use the focus as guidance to where
the audience should be paying attention but instead that was left to the
dialogue and certain movements, using perspective in a way that had not
been seen on screen before. The trick with Citizen Kane is how the use
of camera movement is so subtle, you don't notice it, you're left
immerged in the narrative and this was a huge step for the industry and
made a huge impact in the way future films would be made.

Auteur Theory is a way of looking at films and states the director is

the "author" of a film. It shifted some power away from actors and
producers. Moving it towards directors and towards specific types of
directors. As much as the scriptwriters are technically the "authors" of
the film, the result is based on the execution of the script... which
comes down to the director, essentially shaping the film completely. An
auteur director is a filmmaker whose individual style and complete
control give film a personal and unique touch.
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Quentin Tarantino found his love for movies, growing up he worked in a

video store, it was during this time that Tarantino began writing
scripts, some of these would include 'True Romance' and 'natural born
killers.' In 1992 Tarantino made his directional debut with Reservoir
Dogs but did not receive critical/ commercial acclaim until 1994 with
Pulp Fiction, earning an academy award for best screenplay.

Trantino is known as an auteur director he says to use personal

experience and take what you are feeling in real life to portray
something deep and personal into your writing. Do it in a way where you
can mask and hide and emotions and bury them into something visual. He
calls his films his “little biographies” suggesting that each one of his
productions is deeply personal to him but disguised in the form of
entertainment. "Hong Kong action" is a way of filming that he likes to
use a lot, rather than filming in the typical way of shooting a whole
scene once through and then again from another angle, he would take two
or three moves in a fight scene and film them several times from several
different angles to get the best out of it.

Wes Anderson is another example of an auteur director, he creates his

own visual style including highly original framing and chatter filled
screenwriting. He is extremely visual in his productions, using bold
colours and framing, Anderson keeps his production unique to him with
his well dollied cinematography and challenging shots. He began with a
shot film that was shown at Sundance in 1994 called Bottle Rocket where
it hardly got any recognition until the producer showed the film to Jim
Brooks and from there Andersons career took off. His work is now known
as direct directing, his audience see what he wants them to see, knows
what he wants them to know and feels what he wants them to feel.

For me personally, a few different films speak out as significant pieces

of work. One of these being Titanic (1997) by James Cameron. Titanic is
a period piece with various themes, what makes this speak out to me is
that within these very normal, everyday themes there is an abnormal
conflict. The contrast between love, society, class and freedom with the
drastic narrative of the boat sinking is huge. The titanic sank in 1912
making this a period piece film, times have changed massively over 100
years later, yet people can still relate to those main themes, this
draws the audience in more as we feel we can relate with the characters.
As well as the story being told in a factual yet relatable way, the use
of colour in this film is so impactful and really stood out to me.
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Before the titanic sinks, most of the film is shot with beautiful warm
tones and red/gold lighting. This is mirroring not only the wealth of
Rose and her family, but the passion and lust Jack and Rose feel for
each other. The uplifting lighting makes us feel like we are simply
watching a romance and distracts us from the lurking disaster.

Towards the end of the film, the deep blue tones not only reflect the
pure coldness of the water but can also be represented with heaven and
considering the narrative of the story, this fits in so subtly with what
is going on all around them. Blue can also be seen as calming and this
is such a tender moment in the film that I think any other colour used
would take away from the real raw emotion of this scene.

Another film that stood out to me was Jojo Rabbit directed by Taika
Waititi. Jojo Rabbit is yet again a period piece based in world war two.
I think the way Waititi went about such a real and hard-hitting topic
using comedy was so well done and to me, very influential. There are so
many war films made, a lot of them extremely impactful and well done
however, seem to be quite predictable and all the same, Jojo Rabbit
broke down that stigma and opened the door for a new way of approaching
such serious topics. As well as having the most amazing use of camera
angles and again, colour making a huge impact to the film.

The Symmetry shown throughout the film is in perfect contrast with what
was going on in the world at the time, there was so much uncertainty and
everything seemed so out of place and abnormal but this film being
visually so organised stands out massively with the state of the world.
This links back to the comedic aspect of this film, the neatness and
sharpness of all the shots come across as if it is taking the piss out
of the world. Colour can have the same effect, there is a good use of
strong bright colour in this film, which is associated with happiness
and uplifting moods, however against the context of the film this is
comical and overall, really well done.

Film is made up of so many aspects and people collectively working

together to produce pure art.
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