Style and The Director
A director has a distinctive filmmaking style that differs from other directors, similar to an author's own distinctive writing style. Through the analysis of film techniques, differences between filmmakers' styles become apparent.
There are many technical possibilities to use in a film. As a result, no single film can have every single technique. Historical circumstances limit the choices for the director. During the silent film era, filmmakers were not able to use synchronized dialogue until sound became possible in the late 1920s. Films before the 1950s had to be black and white; now directors have the choice of shooting in color tints or in black and white.
There are many techniques that a director has to choose which techniques to use and which ones not to use. One of the most noticeable ways to adjust film style is through mis-en-scene, or what appears on the screen. Lighting, costumes, props, camera movements, and backgrounds are all part of mis-en-scene. There are countless ways to create a film based on the same script simply through changing the mis-en-scene. Adjusting these techniques creates meaning and highlights similarities in the narrative. Many filmmakers will relate the overall film style to reflect the story.
Read more about this topic: Film Styles
Famous quotes containing the words style and, style and/or director:
“To translate, one must have a style of his own, for otherwise the translation will have no rhythm or nuance, which come from the process of artistically thinking through and molding the sentences; they cannot be reconstituted by piecemeal imitation. The problem of translation is to retreat to a simpler tenor of one’s own style and creatively adjust this to one’s author.”
—Paul Goodman (1911–1972)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The director is simply the audience. So the terrible burden of the director is to take the place of that yawning vacuum, to be the audience and to select from what happens during the day which movement shall be a disaster and which a gala night. His job is to preside over accidents.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)