In my opinion: Best Director Christopher Nolan

Christopher  Nolan is a American film director, screenwriter and producer. Nolan created several of the most successful films of the early 21st century, and his eight pictures have grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide. He is known for bridging the gap between art house and blockbuster films by presenting audiences with intelligent, challenging narratives.

Having made his directorial debut with Following (1998), Nolan gained considerable attention for his second feature, Memento (2000). The acclaim of these independent films afforded Nolan the opportunity to make the big-budget thriller Insomnia (2002), and the more offbeat production The Prestige (2006); both were well-received critically and commercially. He found further popular and critical success with the big-screen epics The Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012) and Inception (2010). He is currently working on the science-fiction film Interstellar, which is set to be released in November 2014. Nolan runs the London-based production company Syncopy Inc. with his wife Emma Thomas.

Nolan's visual style emphasized urban settings, men in suits, muted colours, dialogue scenes framed in wide close-up with a shallow depth of field and modern locations and architecture. He has noted that all of his films are heavily influenced by film noir.

Nolan spoke of Terrence Malick's work and how it has influenced his own approach to style:

"When you think of a visual style, when you think of the visual language of a film, there tends to be a natural separation of the visual style and the narrative elements. But with the greats, whether it's Stanley Kubrick or Terrence Malick or Hitchcock, what you're seeing is an inseparable, a vital relationship between the image and the story it's telling".

The protagonists of Nolan's films are usually psychologically damaged, obsessively seeking vengeance for the death of a loved one. They are often driven by philosophical beliefs, and their fate is ambiguous. In many of his films the protagonist and antagonist are mirror images of each other, a point which is made to the protagonist by the antagonist. Through these clashing of ideologies, Nolan highlights the ambivalent nature of truth. His writing style incorporates a number of storytelling techniques such as flashbacks. Crosscutting several scenes of parallel action to build to a climax. Nolan has also stressed the importance of establishing a clear point of view in his films, and makes frequent use of "the shot that walks into a room behind a character, because ... that takes [the viewer] inside the way that the character enters."

Nolan uses cinéma-vérité techniques (such as hand-held camera work) to convey realism.

Nolan explained his emphasis on realism in The Dark Knight trilogy: "You try and get the audience to invest in cinematic reality. When I talk about reality in these films, it's often misconstrued as a direct reality, but it's really about a cinematic reality."

Film Noir Research

Our teacher had mentioned film noir a couple of times in this last week so I decided to research about what exactly is Film Noir?

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period was from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir in this era was associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography.

Film noir conventions

Characters

·         Corrupt cops

·         Alienated protagonist

·         Misogynistic man

·         Femme fatal (seductive women)

Visual Style

·         Low key lighting

·         Low angle shots

·         Wide angle shots

·         Shots of characters reflection

Iconography

·         Dark sidewalks

·         Rain drenched streets

·         Flashing neon signs

·         City is villainous

·         Cigarettes

·         Guns

·         Trench coats

Settings

·         Urban settings such as New York and Chicago

·         Bars

·         Lounges

·         Nightclubs

·         Gambling Den’s

·         Industrial settings such as factory’s and power plants

Vladmir Propp - Character Theory

Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:

1.       The villain (struggles against the hero)

2.       The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)

3.       The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)

4.       The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)

5.       The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)

6.       The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)

7.       The hero [AKA victim/seeker/paladin/winner, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

Character theories

A character theory in the context of media, such as films and plays, is useful for analysing and understanding media in which people take on the role of an actor or social actor. Character theories are popular with academics teaching and researching media and film studies as they are useful for appreciating the structure of different types of media and the roles of the characters, fictional or otherwise that are portrayed in them. Character theories are often based on stereotypes, and the different characteristics that make them up can either be used for positive or negatives purposes.

Erving Goffman's character theory …

Suggests that there are four main types of broad character in a media text or production;

1.       The protagonist (leading character)

2.       The deuterogamist (secondary character)

3.       The bit player (minor character whose specific background the audience is not aware of)

4.       The fool (a character that uses humor to convey messages

Richard Bartle's character theory …

Was one of the earliest dedicated to the Internet, and is still used for analysing early virtual worlds today. It took the following form:

1.       Achievers (preferred to gain "points," levels, equipment and other concrete measurements of succeeding in a game)

2.       Explorers (preferred to be discovering areas, creating maps and learning about hidden places)

3.       Socializers (preferred to be interacting with other players, and on some occasions, computer-controlled characters with personality)

4.       Killers (preferred to depart from the norm of being "the good guy" who comes to save the day and play on the side of evil or conquest

John Campbell, Gorden Fletcher, and Anita Greenhill …

 Developed a character theory for analysing online communities, based on tribal typologies. In the communities they investigated they identified three character types:

1.       The Big Man (offer a form of order and stability to the community by absorbing many conflicting situations personally)

2.       The Sorcerer (will not engage in reciprocity with others in the community)

3.       The Trickster (generally a comical yet complex figure that is found in most of the world's culture

Editing and Camera in Kill Bill

The use of extreme close ups on the eyes and the eye contact between the two women in the scene are very effective to build the tension for the audience encoding that something might happen between the two at any second.

Long shot durations as the climax is getting built in the scene where she moves lowly with the swords to show that her patients is her strength which connotes to the audience that she believes she is in control.


The over-head shot wear the blonde women is smaller from the POV from the camera showing that she is less able and has less power.