What is an Auteur? An auteur is usually a director who has a distinctive type of style and aesthetic to their work something that makes you go ‘I know who’s film this is.’ Think Tarantino, Spike lee, Wes Anderson.An auteur will usually write and direct their own films which allows their style to creep through every aspect of the movie.

An auteur who’s films I really like and can appreciate the artistry of is Woody Allen.  Woody Allen is a film director who makes visually striking films. You may recognise one of his films by his constant use of the golden hour to beautifully light his scenes. It’s one of the most destruct parts of his filmmaking. Every scene seems as though it has been doused in sunlight before released. This is why I believe Woody Allen to be an auteur.

Take these two stills for example, both of them have similar visual elements that make up Allen’s Auteur style. The most obvious would be the 1930s aesthetic he has to all his movies but when you break this down even further his characters are always dressed in earthy colours. The men in browns, greys, beiges with hints of orange. The women always in pastel greens, pinks, whites, creams, yellows. This instantly creates an awareness of Allen’s stylisation when it comes to his characters. Allen’s character’s are always backlight with incandescent lighting to give it that warm Hollywood feeling.

Magic in the moonlight (2014). Dir Woody Allen.

Cafe Society (2016). Dir. Woody Allen

It’s clear when watching Allen’s movies that the same characters will appear over and over again such as the ‘Naive Sceptic Jewish New Yorker’ or the ‘Quick witted dream girl’ whose only purpose is to set the protagonist on track for his goal or to fix whatever problem he’s having. It’s apparent that Allen’s old school Hollywood views are reflected in his work.

Despite his somewhat flawed character writing, it is no doubt that Allen has developed a sense of style with his filmography. The character’s are always backlit, emitting this ethereal glow that makes it feel as though you are dreaming. Allen will then drape his characters against the most beautiful of cityscape backgrounds, usually New York but more recently Los Angeles, Making his cinematography all the grander to look at.

Wonder Wheel (2017) Dir. Woody Allen

Allen often explores the same themes of Sex, Love and death. His characters are always going through some sort of inner battle with their feelings and he explores that throughout the movie with countless voiceovers and monologues. Watching his movies almost feel like reading someones personal diary. Plot changes often come in Allen’s movies via small little changes almost reflecting life perfectly. His movies could become quite boring if it wasn’t for his character’s relationships with each other.

I believe that Woody Allen should definitely be considered an auteur and a great filmmaker, even though his thinking could do with a modern update and character check. Allen’s movies are undoubtedly stunning and recognisable to anyone to watches.

The Science fiction genre has developed a lot over time with more and more iconography distinguishing it from other genres. When we think of Sci-fi futuristic technology, spacecraft, dystopian/utopian societies often come to mind in a palette of greens, greys and whites.

Sci-fi movies often follow a hero narrative through a character arc as they try to right an evil. The sci-fi genre was originally quite a male demographic but, the increase in female leads in a sci-fi role has helped gained followings from women of all ages and is now one of the most popular genres as it takes fantasy to another level.

The Science fiction genre is also more prone to having a cult-like following due to their alternate realities, world building and in-depth characters.

Sci-fi is often a reflection of society and the ways in which we could end up if things keep changing as they are or if technology develops. Sci-fi often switches genres with elements of romance, comedy and more recently western with the HBO show Westworld. Because of this nature the Sci-fi genre is always changing and adapting in new ways.

For the film on film project, I decided to construct a film made up of all the opening sequences from movies. I thought that putting different movies together could showcase different film techniques such as CGI, graphics, framing and colour grading; all things that have been developed over time through the history of film. To then develop that idea I used scenes from only movies that I’d seen and shot them in a home video style. I made this because I felt like you could tell everything from a film from the first shots like genre, aesthetic, budget and style.  I feel like this went well and that I made something very reflective, however, I feel like if I was to do it again I’d use the original clips cut together moving through different movie themes like family, work and love.

Task 4

TASK 3

I found this task pretty easy to do once I started it, the hardest part of writing I find is actually starting. My previous knowledge of screenwriting I had accumulated from a series of youtube videos which are useful but don’t provide too much detail on where to begin. Looking at other screenplays helped me to understand the breakdown of a script and the many ways to introduce a character, they also helped me to figure out how to translate the pacing of a screenplay to screen. I feel as though my scene-setting and character descriptions were very strong and took up the majority of my writing. I didn’t, however, include many shot descriptions for how everything would be seen on camera. I think this is because it takes me out of the writing process and therefore is something I’d definitely have to work on in the future.

In my first attempt at recreating Early cinema, I feel like I successfully achieved the stylisation of the cinemas of attraction by demonstrating the mundane activity of human day-to-day life. I chose to film myself checking the mail, with help from someone else who operated the camera under my direction, which is a repetitive compulsive behaviour that I do most days without even thinking about. I chose to use a pan in this one-shot video to add action and change to the video as I move to open the mailbox and then walk away. Nowadays, however, I would have replaced the shot with a different one. Perhaps a close up as it takes a lot in the modern day to keep a viewer interested. All-in-all, I think I understood and executed this task to a good standard.

Mise en scene – This literally translates to “Place on stage”. This phrase describes the makeup and visual elements of what is seen within a shot.

Shot reverse shot – The term shot-reverse-shot refers to the sequence of shots where usually two characters are seen conversing and they appear in single alternate shots giving the impression that they are opposite one another.

Pan – To ‘pan’ is a camera movement where the shot moves from one side to another in a scene.

Track – To ‘Track’ is to move the camera forwards/backwards or side to side following the movement or to show something in a shot. This term is used because tracking shots are usually performed on a dolly which shares a resemblance to a train track; hence the term ‘Track’.

Zoom – A camera zoom is when a camera pushes in or out on a subject during a shot to give the illusion of moving closer or further away from something/someone.

Psychoanalysis – This term refers to the process used to understand a film or character’s thoughts and motives, whether that be conscious or subconscious. Psychoanalysis is used to understand the deeper meaning behind a film’s story.

Audience – The audience is the group of people who watch a movie or that the movie is targeted towards. When thinking about an audience it is usually a specific group of people that are most likely see and engage with a movie.

Representation – The word ‘representation’ refers to the way a group of people with the same gender, age, race, beliefs and sexuality are presented in the media.

Montage – A montage is a film editing technique in which shots are sequenced in an intentional order to convey a message to an audience.

Kino eye – Kino-Eye is a technique used in film to describe capturing something that is not visible to the naked human eye. This technique was discovered by Dziga Vertov.

Genre – This is a french word usually meaning ‘kind’, ‘type’ or ‘category’. A genre is a group of things/people that share the same characteristics and styles.

Auteur – A filmmaker who’s style influences their films so much that it can be visually scene and heard throughout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_reverse_shot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_shot

Psychological Film Theory

https://medium.com/truly-social/yes-theres-such-a-thing-as-a-female-gaze-but-it-s-not-what-you-think-d27be6fc2fed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9fx39q/revision/1

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