Research
What’s Auteur Theory?
In this presentation I looked at Auteur Theory, my chosen director, and why I thought that they were an Auteur.
So, what’s auteur theory?
- Auteur directly translates from French to mean ‘Author’
- And the theory supposes that the director of a film should be considered it’s author as they have the most influential creative input.
- Auteur theory originated in French film criticism in the late 1940s – 1950s. However the term ‘Auteur Theory’ was coined by American critic Andrew Sarris.
But what makes a film director an auteur?
Well Andrew Sarris laid out a few rules:
- Basic competency – they have to be able to produce films which show a basic level of competency – they have to be good.
- Signature style – their films have to have a signature style, whether it’s visually, thematically or another element. If you can identify the director simply by watching a film then they have a signature style.
- Finally, Interior Meaning – an Auteur film must be personal to them.
Denis Villeneuve
So, with that in mind I’ve chosen Denis Villeneuve as the director that I believe is an Auteur.
- Denis Villeneuve is a Canadian film director born in Gentilly, Canada in 1967
- He is most well known for directing films such as Dune, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, Prisoners, Sicario, Enemy and Incendies
What makes Denis Villeneuve an auteur?
- Genre: Most of his more recent films fall into one of two genres: Science Fiction or Crime Thriller.
- Colour:
- Discordant Colours which build suspense,
- Transitional/Transformational Colours – blue when she is trying to understand what the aliens want but changes once she has greater insight,
- Associative Colours – Shows melancholy and isolation.
- Recurring Collaborators:
- Roger Deakins – Prisoners, Sicario, Blade Runner 2049
- Jake Gyllenhaal – Prisoners, Enemy
- David Dastmalchian – Prisoners, Blade Runner 2049, Dune
However these are the only significant common themes that I could find between Denis Villeneuve’s films which calls into question whether in fact he is an auteur or whether he is just a director who has a reccuring style…
Presentation Feedback
“Confident delivery, and nicely designed slides. You come across as very knowledgeable and did the most accomplished over view of what autuer theory is.
You chose Denis Villenueve, who certainly has a distinct style.
You occasionally look at your notes on your phone, but not very often, which is a good start to the year.
I fully believe you have watched these films and know what you are talking about.
Does he have themes of ignorance and enlightenment? He also has a way of turning blockbuster films in to art house films.
Feedback in class was that he uses female characters very well. So look in to that and add it to your blog.
This was good, just a little more detail would haven been good. “
– Darren
Our Film
After doing the presentations we then had to choose which auteur we would be doing a film in the style of. We initially chose to do a Christopher Nolan inspired film about parallel dimensions as David had done a presentation on him, however we settled on a Guy Ritchie crime-action film.
Plot Synopsis
A while ago a man stole a tiny bit of money from a crime boss. The crime boss thought he had gotten away with it, but one day a man, new guy, informed them that they had found the man. The crime boss would send her top guy, bullet, and new guy to capture him to either find out where the money had gone or to kill him. They manage to do so and the crime boss and bullet think they have the upper hand. However, they will soon learn that they never had it.
Pre-Production
Screenplay
Chase Scene Storyboard
Created by Kyle Dowman
Shot List
Created by Kyle Dowman
Created by Jacob Barnes
Equipment Reservation Sheet
Created by Jacob Barnes
Auditions
Production
Shoot Day Photos
Shoot Log
Day 1 – 28.11.23
On the first day of shooting we planned to film as much of the opening and chase scene as possible. We took out the gimbal and most shots were taken using it as it allowed us to move quickly because we didn’t have to set up and move a tripod around (although we did bring a tripod and used it for the final few shots). At the last minute, our main actor became unable to come to set which was rather disappointing as during the audition process we found out that Sam could do a rather good cockney accent which would have been great as it would have added to the Guy Ritchie-ness of the film, however, we replaced him with David as we had to film on that day and couldn’t delay. We shot all of the opening shots (post-credits) and the first section of the chase scene – up until the Dutch angle, worm’s eye shot.
Day 2 – 29.11.23
The next day we continued shooting from where we left off. We shot from the tracking shot of the three running past Tullie House until the POV shot of Jonny (‘Bullet’). This day went quite smoothly, we mostly stuck to the shot list however certain shots were changed where necessary. We managed to wrap shooting the rest of the first scene in about 3 hours.
Day 3 – 1.12.23
On the 1st of December, we started shooting for the 3rd scene which was set in an office and corridor. We shot the scene along the Maths and English corridor in the main college building. The setting worked well as an abandoned office building although it perhaps looks too much like a school (because it is) and could maybe have done with a bit more set dressing (or undressing). However, because we didn’t officially book out the room we had to move out of the room for a class to use it, which meant that we had to film in the arts building as there were no other similar rooms. This looks quite jarring in the final film as the two rooms don’t match at all.
Day 4 – 5.12.23
On the 5th of December, we shot the 2nd scene. It was supposed to be set in an abandoned warehouse which we had planned to film in the college sports hall, however, we were unable to secure the location before we had to shoot. Therefore, we filmed the scenes in the studio which worked quite well as it just looked like a black void, however, I had to add a bit of reverb to the audio to try and sell it as a warehouse and it would have been nice to have some authentic ambience and reverb. We also shot the rest of the shots for the 3rd scene in the main building (mainly of David’s character).
Day 5 – 6.12.23
On the 6th we finished shooting for the 2nd scene and in turn, wrapped shooting for the entire project. We had to rework these shots as originally they were supposed to include both David’s character and Sam’s character (the goon), however, Sam was unable to film, so we changed the shots to just feature David and removed some elements of dialogue.
Post-Production
The Edit
I began the edit by taking all of the video clips, the scratch track recorded by the camera and the audio from the zoom recorder and synced them up using the auto align tool in a separate timeline in the new Davinci Resolve project. I also went back through and manually synced up any audio that couldn’t be done automatically.
Then I started selecting the best takes and placing them onto the main timeline, starting with the 1st chase scene. I also added in an ambience track to overlap areas which we didn’t record any useable audio for (the shot in which the goons are waiting around the corner for the main guy) and also to create more of a realistic soundscape under the scene.
For the opening credits, Kyle shot some clips of various dodgy looking places in Carlisle and I simply layered over some royalty-free funky music and some titles. To make the end of the music have more impact, I selected a section which had a hit at the end and duplicated it onto another track and added reverb to the track. I also added reverb to all the sound for the second scene to make it sound more like it was recorded in a warehouse and I used reverb to make the gunshot at the end sound more dramatic.
For the shot in which the chase turns a corner next to a pole, I used speed ramping to recreate the effect that Guy Ritchie often uses in his films, in order to do this however, we had to plan ahead and shoot in a higher framerate on the day so that the slow motion looks smooth.
The final scene is incredibly disjointed because we were kicked out of the classroom we were using half way through filming the Crime Boss’ dialogue which means that the location changes and when we recorded the sound the gain was too high so it peaked considerably. So, to get the audio to sound usable I used Adobe Podcast to enhance the audio using AI.