Do filmmakers have a style?

[Ultra Lantern]

Each filmmaker has their own style of filmmaking,otherwise we get the same thing over and over again.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I would say stop motion is such a long painstaking process.That he may be right.Stop Motion can take about hours sometimes days.To do such short amount of animation.Depending on the type of detail there focusing on.

I remember on a documentary on Aardmann animation, they said that it took them a full day's work to get 2 seconds of usable material for a Wallace and Gromit film.

 

[Incrediblejeff]

I remember on a documentary on Aardmann animation, they said that it took them a full day's work to get 2 seconds of usable material for a Wallace and Gromit film.

Yeah ,to do Stop motion you need a lot of patience.I have the utmost respect for anyone that does it.

 

[CelticPredator]

I did it yesterday with Halo toys!

 

[Max J Power]

My friend doesn't think they do. I spent 2 hours tying to tell him the different styles of some IMO very visual directors, such as Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Zack Snyder, Sam Raimi, Martin Scorsesse...ect..

He doesnt think they do, and all films look the same. He's a music guy, his prefered medium is music, and everything about it.

So in his view, musicans have no style, therefor, filmmakers don't either. Musicans have genres.

Sam Raimi has that signature quick zoom he applies in all his films...yet, he says it's not a style to zoom in fast.

Can anyone prove either one of us wrong? Or what? It was such a long argument, that just frustrated me, because everything I said, was always argued. There was no end until I said enough. So I obviously lost. He couldn't see the visual difference between a Sam Raimi film and a Michael Bay one...

I'm guessing he doesn't have a good grasp on what style is.

 

[Evil Twin]

Apparently your friend is an idiot.

Go watch Tree of Life with it's gauzy cinematography, poetic, almost non-narrative cutting, and voice over narration and ask him if Terrence Malick has a style. And, if Michael Bay, and Steven Spielberg would have made the exact same movie. Apparently Errol Morris and Michael Moore make the exact same kinds of documentaries. Apparently, Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher, and Christopher Nolan made the exact same kinds of Batman films.

Apparently people are just making up film movements like German Expressionism, Italian Neorealism, and French New Wave.

The existence of auteur theory should be enough to disprove his argument, but it doesn't sound like your friend is a) open minded and b) willing to admit he's wrong. Frankly, he sounds like the shallow type that argues semantics rather than make real arguments.

 

[cherokeesam]

If your friend is a music snob, and he's arguing (ludicrously) that one person's vision is better than a group's vision, tell him, then, that by his argument, classical music fails, since it's performed by a whole frackin' orchestra and led by a conductor. Tell him that The Beatles and The Who and Led Zeppelin and U2 and R.E.M. and Radiohead and Arcade Fire have no style, but Weird Al does.

 

[geeknerddork]

You can't "win" an argument with someone who is ignorant. Obviously logic will not work. I'd just let it go.

He likes music but doesn't like movies. You like movies but don't like music. You both seem kinda odd, haha.

 

[Vid Electricz]

If your buddy can't tell the difference between a Scorsese film and a Michael Bay movie...and he's over the age of 12, then he's hopeless. Find new friends with some sense.

The equivalent of him telling you that "all film is exactly the same and all filmmakers have the same style" would you telling him that "all music is exactly the same. All musicians have the same style". It's something a child would know. Tell him that and see what he says.

 

[Figs]

He would say yes.

He also argued with me that films dont need stories, as they are a visual medium. If he wanted a story, he'd read a book. That was one of the few days I got really pissed.

All I can say is your friend is indeed a big dumb bastard...as well as a music snob.

 

[moviedoors]

Yes. But his arguments were "zooming in is not a style". And he would apply his point to music. He thinks that music can be compared to anything.

Films dont have as much work put into them as a painting done by one person.

Films dont have as much work put into them as someone who writes music....

I love the kid...but help me here. He's not a movie fan. In any way.

You're friend is full of **** is what he is. Tell him that. He's never set foot on a film set if he thinks its easy. And guess what? I'm a musician AND I've worked on movies. I've been doing both pretty seriously for like a decade now, I've supported myself with both at various times. Music is a walk in the park compared to movies. They're both hard to make money at, but remove money from the equation. Working on music, whether it be writing it, recording it, mixing it, performing it, whatever, none if it's that hard, at least not to me. Movies are exhausting. There's way more people involved, way more time on the line, way more things that can go wrong. The hours can be ungodly, the conditions everything from below freezing to "drink water and sit down or you will have a heat stroke". Tensions flare. One thing goes wrong and you've lost two hours of work and you've only got an hour before the sun goes down to get it again. You have to feed people, or on the other side of the coin, eat terrible food once in 20 hours of work. Cows moo and screw up the sound for 8 hours straight. You lock an actor in a trunk, accidently forget about him, and the car gets towed. The makeup girl is hungover. The police show up. (And yes, all of the above occured on sets I've been on). Making movies is hard.

And that's not even getting into a long rant about the particular styles various filmmakers have brought to their works for a century now. Cinema has works varied as anything music has to offer, from John Cage to NWA, and it expresses them in a way that is unique to its medium, like all the art forms. They all work because they do that "one thing" better than any of the others. No one is better than the other. They are all, if I may, masters of their domains.

 

[Kurosawa]

If your friend thinks music has no style, only genres, then he knows as little about music as he knows about movies. You can pick out any number of bands or musicians who play the same genre but do it in a different style. The Who's 60's R&B is different from the Rolling Stones 60's R&B, the Beatles were a different kind of vocal/harmony group than the Beach Boys, Buddy Guy and B.B. King have different styles of blues guitar playing, etc. Of course filmmakers have style.

 

[redhawk23]

Considering how much of a major role music alone plays in films, his argument is almost self contradicting.

 

[Lord]

Of course they all have different styles.
That's why i like Quentin Tarantino, Sam Raimi and Christopher Nolan so much, because their styles are so different and interesting.

 

[weezerspider]

As a film graduate.....this pisses me off. Here is a VERY VERY basic view on it from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_styles

Whether it be aesthetic styles like Scorsese's use of long tracking shots, Editing techniques like Snyder's use of slow-motion, or Narrative styles like Nolan's use of nonlinear story lines, Directors have PLENTY of different ways to put their unique style in their films.

 

[cabel]

With all due respect, your friend makes me want to face palm repeatedly.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Do filmmakers have a style?



Yes.

 

[darkseid26]

Of course filmmakers have a style....

Here is a whole series of videos on Wes Anderson's Style and other Directors influence on him. Pretty interesting.

http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/the-substance-of-style-20091109

 

[Lord]

As a film graduate.....this pisses me off. Here is a VERY VERY basic view on it from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_styles

Whether it be aesthetic styles like Scorsese's use of long tracking shots, Editing techniques like Snyder's use of slow-motion, or Narrative styles like Nolan's use of nonlinear story lines, Directors have PLENTY of different ways to put their unique style in their films.

Don't forget christopher nolan's more urban type of movies, even Michael Bay has a style too, the only guy that doesn't really have a style since he pratically copies Michael bay and others is Jonathan Liebesman.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Why is this even a question? Auteurs anyone?