Ridley Scott is who I chose because he has produced and directed a range of very successful films in multiple genres and has made a remarkable impact on the film industry. He has directed as many as 22 films to date and produced more than 45 films in his film career so far. I believe he has proven himself a force to be reckoned with in the film industry. While he has at times received criticism for some of his films, he has also been declared as one of the best in the film industry. Scott has directed a number of films that where seen as flops but he has also had far more films that have been a phenomenal success. I will look at some styles, techniques and film making practices used by Scott accompanied by achievements, critical acclaim and …show more content…
general reception of his films to prove that Scott is an extremely influential figure in the film industry, Ridley Scott has helped to redefine the science fiction genre with his works including Aliens (1979) an action/horror/sci-fi, Blade Runner (1982) a science fiction film noir and Prometheus (2012) an action/mystery/Sci-Fi.
I have watched more than a dozen of his …show more content…
films. On the day of Tuesday November 30th 1937 in South Shields, Durham, England Elizabeth and Colonel Francis Percy Scott gave birth to a son who they named Ridley Scott. As a child Ridley liked watching a lot of movies and had a passion for film during his time in college, and went on to work for the BBC. He later founded Ridley Scott Associates as his own commercial production company and his brother Tony Scott jumped on board as well. Ridley went on as a producer and a director of many films that were a world success. Some of these films include Blade Runner, Aliens, Gladiator, Thelma and Louise, American Gangster. (www.Biography.com n.d.) Already established as successful businessman and commercial director, Ridley Scott decided to pursue his dream of being a highly successful film director in 1975. Scott has previously cited his major influences as Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman, and David Lean. Scott would later go on to complete his first feature film in 1977, The Duellists. It would be Scott’s second film that would propel him into directorial stardom, that film was Alien (1979). (gradesaver.com) More than 2,700 commercials where produced from Scott as the director before he went into making films full time, debuting with the feature film The Duellists at the Cannes film festival and ended up winning the “Best Debut Film award.” (http://silverscreenriot.com n.d.). According to the article, Ridley Scott Likes Alien as Much as You Do (2015) It was with the making of Alien and Blade Runner that cemented Ridley Scott as one of the “best filmmakers of science fiction of all time.” (http://www.wired.com 2015) Without light it would be impossible to make a film. Light is needed to capture images of any kind on film or digital media. It can be natural light supplied by nature or man-made light that is produced artificially and projected onto subject matter. How we control the light will have a major impact on the images that are captured. The mood and feel of a movie are manipulated in many different ways from the light being controlled and directed from various directions, angles and intensity. The atmosphere that is created in a film from the lighting techniques used can give the viewer sense of meaning an understanding by controlling to what they are watching. Ridley Scott has been recognised for his lighting techniques and referred to as the “Rembrandt of light” ( www.theyshootpictures.com n.d.). This just emphasises the fact that he has got great talent and a great eye for what he needs to put in place to set the scene and mood of a movie. I cannot imagine any other person on the planet earth that would not like to receive that level of recognition when it comes to the making of movies. theyshootpictures.com found that when it comes to Scott; "Detractors consider him a stylish hack, someone capable of dressing up feces. But supporters contend that it is this same talent for rendering the everyday extraordinary that lends him truly awesome storytelling power. Never a shy filmmaker, Scott's cinema reveals characters and situations that are never what they appear at first glance”. “The often spectacular visual composition of his work has earned him the nickname 'The Rembrandt of Light'.” (theyshootpictures.com n.d.). The use of backlighting can be a great tool for making the subject in your film become a black silhouette.
While putting a light in the background can be good for making silhouettes it also can cause your subject to be underexposed. (lightsfilmschool.com n.d.) Backlighting is used extensively in Blade Runner. With the making of Blade Runner the lighting technique that was used is of a foreground that had an uplight that was warm and soft also incorporating a backlight that was really bright gave it a distinctive lighting style. With the leading lady who played Rachel a hard backlight was used to light up the neck while her face was lit by a soft front light. (theasc.com n.d.). Ridley Scott has proven to be a master of contrast and chiaroscuro in his work. There are times in life when we need to be creative and think out of the box and there is no exception to the rule when it comes to film making. Being creative helps solve issues of replicating or simulating lighting effects that might be seen in everyday life. Scott has proven with his cinematography and, more specifically, aptitude for lighting and composition to be a powerhouse within the
industry. Ridley Scott has been the recipient and nominated for countless prestigious awards throughout his career. Some awards that Scott has won include a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Special for Gettysburg in 2011, another in 2002 for Outstanding Made for Television Movie for The Gathering Storm, a BAFTA in 1995 and two Hugo Awards in 1983 and 1980 for Blade Runner and Alien respectively. (biography.com) Ridley Scott has also been nominated for such awards as Director’s Guild of America Awards multiples times, London Critics Circle Film Awards and Venice and Cannes film festivals on numerous occasions. This reinstates the fact that Ridley Scott is a highly regarded and highly influential figure as a director within the film industry. (biography.com) Ridley Scott’s work has constantly been polarising for audiences and critics alike. Blade Runner was original considered a flop by most critics and Scott himself has expressed that he thought the film was “a disaster” (Sammon, 1996) as it was not originally well received. Later Blade Runner would become a cult classic as audiences adapted and evolved to appreciate the highly stylised work. This proves that Scott’s work, even not initially well received, is technically and thematically ahead of it’s time. In recent times Ridley Scott’s work has skewed further toward more positive reviews from critics and audiences. This is partially due to the impact Scott has made in the industry over the last several decades. His style and ability to push the boundaries of film making have gradually become more widely excepted and celebrated as audiences have evolved to appreciate a more artistic approach to cinema. Film review websites such as imdb.com and rottentomatoes.com have reflected the trend of increasingly popular reviews over the length of Scott’s career. His latest hit The Martian receiving an impressive 93% positive out of hundreds of review. Throughout his career, Ridley Scott has been at the forefront of the box office ratings with numerous hit movies behind his name. Movies such as Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Hannibal, Prometheus and The Martian have helped Ridley Scott’s films to gross, in total, almost four billion dollars worldwide. Scott’s latest hit The Martian (2015) grossed over fifty five million dollars on opening weekend, almost surpassing Gravity, the highest grossing Sci-fi adventure movie with an October release. This supports the fact that Ridley Scott has maintained his reign at the forefront of the film industry and more specifically the Sci-Fi genre throughout his career spanning multiple decades. (variety.com) In summation, through examining the background and journey of his career, techniques and style used as well as his achievements within the industry and notoriety of the impact Ridley Scott has made within the film industry, one can determine that Ridley Scott has been a highly influential figure within the film industry and will continue to be so for years to come. His style has been easily recognisable and often imitated and attempted to be reproduced by directors since his early films. However no-one in the industry has been able to replicate the quality of work of the great Ridley Scott as his style and talent are undeniable and unmistakable.
The lighting in this movie is very effective. It helps to establish the characters very well. The audience is helping in distinguishing the bad and the good characters through the lighting. The movie overall is very stylized. There are some other strange lighting patterns brought out by Hype Williams, but by far the most effective lighting patterns are ones that help to characterize the main players in the film.
From A Bout de Souffle onwards, Godard was committed to filming in natural light and to the method of location shooting as opposed to the artificial light of the film studio .To realise his idea of making the present look like the dystopian future, Godard created an atmosphere of high contrast without using any additional lights, regardless of low light conditions. Suzanne Schiffman recalled:
First and foremost, film noir refers to the visual style of a picture. The imagery of film noir was influenced by early 20th century German expressionism, featuring distorted, sinister shapes and shadows. These precursors to film noir used abstract figures and looming shadows for bizarre, emotionally stirring results. Techniques such as chiaroscuro were used to give a dark and minimalistic feeling. In many cases lighting is limited to a single harsh light source, which obscures the image, and even throws shadows across actors’ faces. These elements ensure that an audience regards the actors and the setting with equal importance. Oblique angled shots permeate many film noirs, naturally provoking anxiousness and apprehension in the viewer. In Sun...
One way the filmmakers did this is with the on location shots of rubble in many scenes. The characters in these shots are carefully placed to make the rubble stand out behind them. Lighting is carefully placed to illuminate the rubble and make it stand out. However, the carefully planned cinematography also plays into the overall meaning of the film and not just how it looks. The lighting, for example, influences our feelings for certain characters. Susan Wallner is always filmed in light. This is a drastic difference from how we see Hans Mertens. Hans is usually filmed with low light and is very dim. This helps show that Susan is optimistic, while Hans is pessimistic. Another way lighting is used in this film is to create shadows. Shadows are very prevalent in the last sequence of the film. Hans has confronted Bruckner and as the camera cuts back and forth to each of them we see Hans shadow keeps growing bigger and bigger behind Bruckner. We can interpret that as the shadowing is growing bigger so his Bruckner’s fear, because the dialogue coming from Bruckner is getting faster and we can also hear the fear. There are many times in the film where close ups are used to make the storyline more dramatic. One scene that comes to mind that makes use of quick cuts and close ups is in the end of the film: Susan ran in, stopping Hans from killing Bruckner. At this point we
Mise-en-scène, what the audience sees in a film, is crucial to the movie’s development. Lighting and props are two of the many important aspects of this category. The previously mentioned scene has the goal of representing Kane’s early ideology of what the New York Daily Inquirer will become and provide for its readers. While writing the document, Welles constantly uses lighting to illuminate it for the audience, naturally drawing eyes to the paper even before it is introduced in the film. The lighting of the scene helps viewers identify the document’s value, especially in comparison to Kane as he tends to be less lit then the paper for the majority of scene. The other three cast members, Leland, Bernstein and briefly Sully, continue to be lit but almost never to the magnitude of the paper itself. The first cut of the scene shows Kane writing the document from outside; where a burning gas lamp is the key lighting, allowing the audience to easily notice both the flame and the paper. In the following cut, Kane continually looks at the paper and the gas flame as to signify their imp...
Immediately upon viewing either film, the viewer is struck with the unique visual style each presents. This impression is likely the defining image one is left with after viewing the entire film. Each took a different approach in using visuals to stage the environment and context of the plot. Blade Runner styles Dick’s vision of Los Angeles circa 2019 as a futuristic film noir, with an anachronistic mix of technology combined with dark angles and shadows. Virtually all of the visual styles of this environment happened pre-production; that is, they do not rely heavily on computer editing after filming to achieve the desired effect. The opening scene involving the interrogation of Leon in a dark, smoky, high-ceilinged room could be lifted right out of a 1950s mystery film. The detective then pulls out ...
Tim Burton, in Edward Scissorhands, uses high key and low key lighting. For example, Peg’s town is flooded with high key lighting in order to make the outside seem joyful and peaceful. The outside may look cheery and bring, but most of the people living there were not the most pleasant people. The women gossip and create rumors; the men are rude and conceited. He used low key lighting in order to make the audience feel anxious about the upcoming events. An example would be when Peg walked up to the top floor of the mansion and noticed that someone was sitting in the corner. Edward’s shadow may have given him a frightening appearance, as he is a ‘man’ with scissors for hands. But Edward was a kind and caring gentleman. In conclusion, he used reverse lighting to add an irreplaceable, distinctive quality to his movies.
All throughout The Maltese Falcon the camera angles change with the character. Camera angles and lighting affected the mood of the scene; scenes in which contained more mystery had additional shade and distortion of the lenses and hard lighting to create ominous shadows, among the characters. By creating depth in the scene and tilting the camera angle so that images were portrait, gave the impression of more events were taking place then actually were. Lighting was abnormal with neon lighting in the background and dull lamp light in the foreground, which in turn created it unable to get a clear picture of the situation. As well as background and foreground lighting, there was lighting that would only highlight specific objects, such as the Maltese Falcon, when it was being unwrapped. In some scenes camera angle would be slightly higher than the characters or shown through the characters eyes, the lighting would be underneath the character, not allowing the audience to see their full facial expressions. Lighting and camera angles played a huge role in creating the mystery in Film Noir.
Luhrman uses a similar technique In Strictly ballroom. The scenes in which Scott dances with Fran are juxtaposed to those of other dancers who are under Barry Fifes rule. The lighting is natural and simplistic compared to the harsh theatrical lighting, which is otherwise used to demonstrate the fake and falsehood of federation. As well as the use of shadows and half-light, which is used to create a sense of fear or suspicion. This makes for a great metaphor and image of Doug secretly dancing in, out and around the spotlight in the otherwise dark room. This use of lighting suggests to the viewer that contrast of belonging and not.
Beginning roughly with the release of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Loved the Bomb in 1964, and continuing for about the next decade, the “Sixties” era of filmmaking made many lasting impressions on the motion picture industry. Although editing and pacing styles varied greatly from Martin Scorcesse’s hyperactive pace, to Kubrick’s slow methodical pace, there were many uniform contributions made by some of the era’s seminal directors. In particular, the “Sixties” saw the return of the auteur, as people like Francis Ford Coppola and Stanley Kubrick wrote and directed their own screenplays, while Woody Allen wrote, directed and starred in his own films. Kubrick, Coppola and Allen each experimented with characterization, narrative and editing techniques. By examining the major works of these important directors, their contributions become more apparent.
With many different genres and types of filmmaking, it can result in a large variety of stories and conflicts. Nevertheless, film has always brought people together as a society. If there is one thing everyone can notice about films is the achievement in style and directing. The three directors talked about in this paper are the most successful at delivering a breathtaking style and direction to their films. Baz Luhrmann, Wes Anderson, and Martin Scorsese have produced and directed films over decades and each film as impacted not only the United States but worldwide. With the unmistakable trademarks that each director has, it is very easy to feel sucked into the world in which they are shaping around you and the story. Because of these three directors, the film world and industry has been revolutionized for many centuries to come.
It is true because most of the film noir greatly influenced by the German expressionism style, where most of the scenes are shot in night time, uses of extreme artificial lighting in film, chiaroscuro lighting creates the high contrast lighting to produce the focus points, deep shadows and obscured scene such as rain to highlight the confused emotions of the character in films. According to Jerold J. Abrams (2007), he mentioned that the evolution of film noir, Neo noir have been formed after classic noir, while neo noir is certainly new but some things never change. In this statement, although neo noir are formed after classic noir, but the techniques of film noir in classic noir are still retained and continue to be used in Neo noir
I am writing about the use of lighting in the opening scene of The Godfather, (1). The
the room. Light can really add a element to your scene . In this scene kubrick did a lot to add to
He made his first long film, ‘Following’ in 1998 which is a black and white film. He served as director, producer and writer of the movie. His non-linear story telling in this movie helped him to gain interest from other people in the business and propelled him to his next film ‘Memento’ Released in 2000. ‘Memento’ was a critical success and this was b...