If You Were a Director, What Would Be Your Hallmarks?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Shop Talk Directors
Madotsuki_the_Dreamer — 1 year ago(September 07, 2024 01:18 AM)
All directors have certain hallmarks that characterize their films, whether it's a particular visual sensibility or a fondness for certain kinds of stories.
If I were a director, I would make a concerted effort to be the most versatile and unpredictable director of all time. For example, I would unleash the most horrifyingly graphic, disturbing film ever made, then I would immediately follow it up with a heartwarming, family-friendly animated film. With that said, there would undoubtedly be certain qualities that would characterize my work, including:- Incredibly complicated characters with multi-faceted personalities. There would never be any one-dimensional caricatures or "joke" characters. There would be no black-and-white morality, and nobody would ever be 100% good or 100% evil.
- A completely detached, non-judgmental view of all characters and events. I would just observe things in an aloof manner and let the viewers decide for themselves. Even the most hideous characters (like child molesters and serial killers) would be portrayed in a neutral manner as three-dimensional human beings.
- Extremely intimate and personal views of characters' lives.
- Frequent use of very bizarre and unorthodox camera angles.
- Very striking and visually stunning cinematography. The camera would go underwater, underground, inside molten lava, into outer space, into clouds, onto swings, and wherever else I wanted to take it. The camera would usually be constantly moving, but would be still and static when necessary.
- Constant desire to do things that no filmmaker has ever done before, like shooting an entire movie with cameras attached to drones, filming with the fastest frame rate in cinema history, and filming a movie entirely in the made-up language of Lojban.
- Extremely graphic, no-punches-pulled approach to unpleasant subject matter. There is absolutely nothing that I would not be willing to show on screen in unflinching detail. Nothing would ever be censored or cut away from, and everything would be portrayed as graphically as if you were seeing it in real life. I fully believe in showing evil as it really is, with absolutely no phony sugar coating of any sort. With that said, not all (or even most) of my films would feature any shocking, disturbing content in them.
- Sex scenes would be extremely explicit, but shot in the most cold, clinical, detached, and un-erotic manner possible. In addition, my characters would usually have very weird attitudes about sex, and "normal", healthy sexual behavior would be pretty much unheard-of in my films.
- Shooting absolutely every single film in 3D. At the moment, 3D is universally seen as being only for mindless popcorn films and not for "serious" artistic films. I would do everything that I possibly could to change that.
- Incredibly extensive use of licensed music, spanning every genre and era. With that said, the music would mostly appear in-universe (like on car stereos or in nightclubs within the film). However, some of my films would have no music at all.
- Frequent use of music that clashes wildly with what's being portrayed on screen, like soft pop music playing during a brutal murder scene. At times, it would feel like the soundtrack was just chosen completely at random.
- Extremely naturalistic dialogue, documentary-like in its realism. The dialogue would always feel like real people talking and never like a contrived movie script. In addition, there would often be highly frank, candid conversations about subjects very rarely discussed on screen.
- Tendency to "leave the cameras rolling" long after most filmmakers would have cut away.
- Tendency to show things not normally seen in movies, like characters farting (in a non-comedic context) and characters emptying their bowels and bladders after dying.
- Tendency to cast singers, stage performers, and other non-screen actors in acting roles.
- Tendency to give films highly ambiguous, enigmatic titles that seemingly have nothing to do with the actual film.
- Frequent use of extreme close-ups.
- A desire to give each film a wholly unique and memorable visual appearance.
- Tendency to focus on very young, very strange (and sometimes outright disturbed) female protagonists. My protagonist would usually be a young girl, and my protagonist would never be a quote-unquote "normal" individual. A perfect example of my typical protagonist: a detached, emotionless, hyper-intelligent, and sexually abused 11-year-old albino girl from a family of Georgian immigrants who begins filming suicides and posting them on the internet. My protagonists would often be frighteningly amoral at times, but with a certain vulnerability that would make them at least somewhat sympathetic. You would view them the same way that you would view a troubled daughter.
- Tendency to end films in the most chillingly sad, heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching manner imaginable.
- Recurring themes and motifs: ladybugs; fireflies
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MissMargoChanning — 1 year ago(September 11, 2024 12:29 PM)
Your efforts are appreciated. You certainly have put a great deal of thought into this.
The problem? Most of us here don't make movies. We watch them.
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night! -
WarrenPeace — 1 year ago(September 10, 2024 10:52 PM)
Yeah, less is more.
Directors have just one or two trademarks.
Like old Hitch and his cameos in all of his movies.
Very subtle and simple which is how it should be.
"Please vote to preserve the unique character of Warren…" - Robert Duvall -
WarrenPeace — 1 year ago(September 10, 2024 10:55 PM)
So when is your first film coming out?
Based on his ideas it will be the most twisted, awkward, bizarre, surreal, darkest and just outright craziest Gilligan's Island remake you could ever see!
"Please vote to preserve the unique character of Warren…" - Robert Duvall -
MissMargoChanning — 1 year ago(September 10, 2024 09:34 PM)
If You Were a Director, What Would Be Your Hallmarks?
For starters, I'd never direct a Hallmark Christmas movie!
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night! -
∂³∑x² — 1 year ago(September 10, 2024 09:42 PM)
Those are the only ones I'd direct Margo
Well, maybe just the one with a rich successful American woman going to Europe for an important business trip just prior to her being married to that guy she doesn't quite love but knows it will please everyone back home. Only for…
…but just the one!
Call me ∑ -
MissMargoChanning — 1 year ago(September 11, 2024 11:24 AM)
So basically, you want to make the same movie, different settings, over and over. Gotcha!
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night! -
MissMargoChanning — 1 year ago(September 11, 2024 12:21 PM)
Many of the great directors have used the same actors in a number their films.
Hitchcock, Scorsese, Altman come to mind….
You go right ahead and use the lovely Winnie in each and every one of your films!
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night!
Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 