Kevin Smith and His Work Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is a screenwriter, film director, and the creator of View Askew Productions. He is also known as a comic book writer and actor, although he has criticized his own acting ability on more than one occasion. Smith's films are often set in his home state of New Jersey and are filled with pop culture references, particularly to comic books and the Star Wars movies. Many of Kevin's films take place in the "View Askewniverse" and feature appearances from small-time play-marijuana-dealers Jay and Silent Bob, the latter portrayed by Smith himself.
Smith was born and raised in Red Bank, New Jersey. He grew up going to the very same Quick-E Mart in which his first widely received film, Clerks, took place (www.uidaho.edu). Smith always uses his own experiences as a lower-middle class male in New Jersey to compile his scripts, and adds his own humor as well as the humor of recurring actors who appear in his films. His four semi-cult hit films are (in order of production): “Clerks”, “Mallrats”, “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma”. In all four of these films, Kevin Smith wrote the scripts, directed, produced and made appearances in the films.
Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cukoos Nest and the Movie. The film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, produced by Milos Forman, contains many similarities to the novel, however the differences are numerous to the extent that the story, written by Ken Kesey, is overlooked by anyone who only saw the film. Ken Kesey wrote the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, after experimenting with drugs and working on a psychiatric ward in 1960 and the novel was published in 1962. “Kesey became a night attendant on the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital psychiatric ward so that he could concentrate on his writing.”
How would mankind communicate to each other without names? Names are what describe people in terms of personality, traits, and association. That’s why names are immensely important and thus, used in films such as Bound, in order to create a deeper meaning in a character’s actions and personality. The film Bound is written and directed by The Wachowskis. The film is about two lesbians: ex-convict Corky, and lesbian prostitute Violet who is in a relationship with mob money-launderer Caesar but decides to escape from Caesar after meeting Corky for she fell in love with her the moment she sow her in the elevator. So Violet wants to leave Caesar for Corky, but that’s not all. She and Corky come up with a strategy to steal two million dollars from the mob and blame it on Caesar. "Your name defines you," says Gregg Steiner, a Los Angeles talent manager (Parenting). In the film Bound, characters’ names have a lot of significance in which some have more connotations than others. Each character’s name holds symbolic meaning to the character’s role in the film and this is very apparent among Corky, Violet, and Caesar as well as the supporting casts: Gino and Johnny Marzzone.
Adam Sandler is a well-known comedian, musician, actor, screenwriter, and singer. He is known throughout the nation for his accomplishments in the entertainment business.
Judd Apatow (‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’, ‘Knocked Up’) is known for his contained and loveable comedies, but this marks the first time he’s directed a film that he didn’t write or co-write himself. He co-wrote ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ with his leading man Steve Carell, but he’s never not taken part in the screenplay of one of his films, at least not until this film. I personally walked into this film with a lot of hesitation, I’m not well-versed in Amy Schumer’s particular brand of humor thus I’m not sure how much I can trust her, but the trailers worked for me and Judd Apatow has never made a bad film in my eyes, and this is definitely not a slipup.
Robin Williams: Living the American Dream Americans are blessed with the freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Each person is entitled to pursue the true dreams and desires of his or her heart. These individualized opportunities are often referred to as the American Dream. Difficulties frequently arise on the journey to one's dream. One must find a way to conquer these struggles to make his or her dream a reality.
Mark Wahlberg is one of the most impressive men in the world. Starting as a fresh faced teen into a well formed acting career. Most recently, Mark is known for branching out in many different fields, such as an actor, singer, and male model. However, Mark’s life hasn’t always been easy. The purpose of this paper is to share with you the journey of Mark Wahlberg, a child living in poverty on the Streets of Boston, to a man with a multi-million dollar paycheck.
On August 25, 1958, Timothy Walter Burton was born (“Biography”). Burton had a painful childhood in which the relationship with his parents and brother was nonexistent (Morgenstern). Through his intense feeling of isolation, his visual talent began to develop. The comfort found in hobbies such as writing and drawing led him to attend the California Institute of the Arts which led him to his first job in any artistic field at the Disney Animation Studios (“Biography”). Burton has since been referred to as one of the most visually gifted writers, artists, and filmmakers that America has seen (Hanke). His short stories, poems, and film scripts are centered on an inner darkness which he has been slowly acquiring since his childhood. He throws himself into everything he writes and makes even the simplest characters have a deep, complex meaning. His famous darkness and symbolism is shown in his book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories. The book contains a collection of his short stories, poems, and illustrations about a variety of fictional characters that can be compared to Burton and his life. Tim Burton’s home life and previous hardships have made a significant impact on his work. In my paper, I will draw parallels to his life and work as well as prove that there is reasoning and beauty in the way he is.
” … an auteur is able to maintain a consistency of style and theme by working against the constraints of the Hollywood mode of production.” – Warren Buckland (2008)
With this short but very interesting and informative class I have just scratched the surface of the what it takes to make a full fleged film. It takes much more than I had presumed to make a movie in Hollywood. The number of people that it takes to make a minute of a movie let alone the entire movie was astonishing to me. There are many things that it takes to start making a movie but without an idea of some sort there is no movie to be made.
Shelton Jackson Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia March 20, 1957. Born to teacher Jacqueline Carroll and jazz musician William James Edward Lee, Shelton grew up in Brooklyn, New York where he was provided with a rich cultural upbringing that included plays, movies, and music (Gale 1). At a young age, Lee was nicknamed “Spike” by his mother who noticed his rough nature and the nickname stuck well into his adult life. He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia where he gained an interest in film and then graduated with a Bachelors degree in Mass Communication. Lee went on to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where he created his first student film and graduated in 1982 with a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television. Being one of the few black students to attend Tisch School of the Arts, the aspiring filmmaker’s first year at New York University was a particularly difficult one. Lee’s experiences, race, and upbringing have all led him to create controversial films to provide audiences with an insight into racial issues.
According to Ward, the creation phase is the early entrepreneurial stage of the company as the entrepreneur assembles the beginnings of an organization geared towards bringing the organization’s first product or service to market. In this phase, the Creator’s role is to create the organization from scratch, breathe life into the organization, and establish the organization out of nothing (Ward, 2003). When Spielberg was in college, he wrote a screenplay titled, Amblin’. This movie was about a teenage couple making their way through the desert to get to a beach that symbolized paradise. Amblin' became a reality after Spielberg was introduced to aspiring producer Dennis Hoffman. This movie, only 26 minutes long, led to his becoming the youngest director ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio (Universal) after Sid Sheinberg, then the vice-president of production for Universal's TV arm, saw the film (Amblin', 2011). Spielberg was not so awed by this attention from a studio bigwig that he did not have some misgivings. “I was still several months shy of my twenty-first birthday, and I hadn’t graduated from college.” But Sheinberg said, ‘Do you want to graduate, or do you want to be a film director?’ (Sanello, 1996). The movie had a $15,000 budget. In 1968, his friend Dennis Hoffman provided financing of approximately $10,000 for the production of the film. Spielberg and Hoffman agreed to the “1968 Amblin’ Contract” that prohibited Spielberg from receiving money for directing Amblin’ and was to direct movies presented by Hoffman for the next ten years. Amblin’ received many awards including the Atlanta Film Festival and Venice Film Festival (Amblin', 2011).
Quentin Tarantino’s auteur is one that speaks of gore, racism, and certain shot techniques. Above all, the aspect that Tarantino is best known for in his long history of filmmaking is the fact that he only uses traditional, or analog, filmmaking techniques. In fact, Tarantino believes that digital cameras used to shoot film will lead to the eventual demise of filmmaking. His views and ideas of digital vs. traditional filmmaking and how his films could be impacted if they were shot in a digital format are explored.
The Analysis of Quentin Tarantino as a Director The director I have chosen to look at is Quentin Tarantino. His films have achieved a cult ang global status and I dont think anyone is going to argue that he is not an auteur. I am more interested in examining his style and seeing how this makes him an auteur and if it has changed when he was receiving a higher budget. Tarantino was born in Noxville Tennessee on 27th march 1963. Tony
The film that is being used for the movie analysis is “Enough”, this movie was chosen due to the fact that it is based on domestic violence towards women. The movie begins with in Los Angeles diner were a waitress named slim works with her best friend Ginny (Kazan, 2002). While working her shift slim has a customer that starts harassing her over the name she has, but the companion of the annoying customer defends slim, which in turn starts a romance, later to become a marriage between the two (Kazan, 2002). The couple is later blessed with a daughter they name Gracie, and at the beginning the marriage seems to be a fairy tale out of a story book (Kazan, 2002). The fairy tale becomes a nightmare as time moves forwards for the couple,