In Chapter 5, the text discusses the role of a director and how significantly it can influence the artistic influence of a project or film. Depending on a director’s aesthetic focus, a film can create a completely different look and feel from another director’s vision.
In order to better create a specific artistic expression, a director must know how all facets of the film making process work together to create the final project. Once the director understands lighting, sound, angles, filming, and editing, the director then has complete control over their entire project beginning to end.
Growing up, I had very little exposure to movies and television. It wasn’t until I started college that I began going to the movie theatre and watching film regularly. It was during this time that I developed an appreciation and love for Quentin Tarantino and his artistic approach to film. With a modernist style, Tarantino takes moments of realism and moments of postmodernism and blends the two worlds together to create something audiences might not have experienced before.
In any director’s film, you can typically identify the aesthetics of film: Function, form, and content. These things are what drive the purpose and vision of each project and provide clear direction for the film maker and crew.
Some directors use traditional shots and angles to create realistic images, while others choose to integrate angles and shots, providing a jarring visual for the viewer. While these modern and postmodern styles of film are valuable in film, often times it is important for a director to follow more “realistic” styles when filming professional interviews, news packages, or educational material. The Rule of Thirds, Essential Area, Framing, Speed of Motion, and Scale and Shape are all things that are important for a director to know before he/she can break the rules.