David Fincher

Garrett House

Currently another favorite director of mine is David Fincher. I found very little regarding Stanley Kubrick impact on David Fincher as a director and storyteller. But what I could find was a similarity between Kubrick and Fincher that possibly is how Kubrick influenced Fincher. Is that they are both very meticulous; both directors are known for being very detailed and precise. (Gilstrap)

 One thing I think Fincher is good at is creating suspense even out of simple storylines and I think that is something Kubrick has done with his movies too. Since I couldn’t find much on Stanley Kubrick’s impact on David Fincher I will look at some of the archetypes in one of Fincher’s movies
The Social Network. The movie is about the creation of facebook. The shadow I believe is the Winklevoss twins who try to take money from are main protagonist, Mark Zukerburg, by suing him for stealing intellectual property. The shape shifter can be seen in one of Zukerburg’s partner’s named Sean Parker. Sean puts questions and ideas in Mark’s mind that lead him to betray Eduardo. Zukerburg’s friend Eduardo I believe sometimes takes on the archetype of “the herald” because he tries to warn him about dealing with Sean.

 

Woks Cited

Gilstrap, Jesse. “Masters of the Meticulous– The Films of Stanley Kubrick and David Fincher.” IceBox Central. N.p., 28 Aug 2011. Web. 12 Jun 2013. <http://iceboxcentral.blogspot.com/2011/08/masters-of-meticulous-films-of-stanley.html&gt;.

Christopher Nolan

Garrett House

Another Favorite Director of mine currently is Christopher Nolan. One thing Nolan said about Kubrick is that he admires how Kubrick had a certain calm and confidence about him. “From a storytelling point of view, from a directing point of view…there is such an inherent calm and inherent trust of the one powerful image…” (Jensen). Nolan also says how Kubrick is a great example that people look to, to see someone who made “…films that were very personal to him, very idiosyncratic, with a great degree of passion…” and be able to fit his films in with the times (Jensen). He also stated how Kubrick trust in his movies is apparent because they had simple storytelling and simple images (Jensen). I agree with this statement for example 2001: A Space Odyssey has a pretty simple story but it still is able to draw you in.

Nolan writes for a lot of his movies and I think my favorite movie by him is Memento because it is told in such an interesting way. The movie is about a man with short-term memory loss and the film itself has part of it told normally and part of it told backward. Doing this helps put the audience in the characters shoes and experience what he is experiencing.  Relating this back to class a little bit, I don’t believe the movie really follows the hero’s journey but like with a lot of stories you can see archetypes in it. The hero is Leonard he is the main protagonist and we follow his adventure through the story. But in some ways Leonard is also the shadow because he is fighting his condition of short term memory loss.

 

Works Cited

Jensen, Jeff. “To ‘Room 237’ and Beyond: Exploring Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Shining’ influence with Christopher Nolan, Edgar Wright, more.” Entertainment Weekly. N.p., 6 Apr 2013. Web. <http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/04/06/room-237-stanley-kubrick-shining-influence/&gt;.

Martin Scorsese

Garrett House

One of my favorite directors currently is Martin Scorsese. While I had trouble finding how Stanley Kubrick influenced Martin as a director I did find Martin’s opinion on Kubrick and some of his films. Martin offered high praise saying “Watching a Kubrick film is like gazing up at a mountaintop. You look up and wonder, how could anyone have climbed that high? There are emotional passages and images and spaces in his films that have an inexplicable power, with a magnetic force that draws you in slowly…” (“Kubrick Corner”).  One person says that Taxi Driver seems like a film Kubrick could have made (Raymond).  And with consideration of the above quote by Martin. I have to agree because Taxi Drive, through good uses of images and visual storytelling the movie does a good job of drawing you in and creating slow suspense.

While he can’t say he has a favorite film of Kubrick’s, Martin says he comes back to the film Barry Lyndon because it gives a very …”emotional experience. The emotion is conveyed through the movement of the camera, the slowness of the pace, the way the characters move in relation to their surroundings” (“Kubrick Corner”). The Fact that Martin has repeatedly “…watched and studied Kubrick’s work…” (“Kubrick Corner”) and how much he admires his films. Helps show how much of an influence Kubrick has been on directors and other people in film.

 

Works Cited

Raymond, Marc. “Martin Scorsese.” Senses of Cinema. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/scorsese/&gt;.

“Scorsese on Kubrick.” The Kubrick Corner. N.p.. Web. <http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/id93.html&gt;.

Stanley Kubrick impact on film

Garrett House

For My Integration Project I followed the Who do you love? Option and for that I will be looking into Stanley Kubrick’s impact on film in particular I will be looking into his impact on my 3 current favorite directors: Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and David Fincher. As well as exploring a little bit into those directors films. Stanley Kubrick is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time. He was also a great storyteller. He made 13 feature films during his career ranging from a wide variety of genres. “Kubrick’s influence on film is manifested in numerous ways, from lighting to special effects to film content to music” (“The Kubrick Legacy”). One way he impacted cinema is that he helped increase the ASL or Average Shot Length. “In 1963, the ASL of all movies was very low 7.5 seconds…However, Kubrick’s 1962 film. Lolita, has an ASL of 17.5” (Wiese). Obviously this is well above the norm at the time but Kubrick helped make this aspect of filmmaking more common.

Another impact Kubrick made was in special effects. Kubrick felt “…it was necessary to make… [2001: A Space Odyssey]… in such a way that every special effects shot in it would be completely convincing-something that had never before been accomplished in a motion picture” (DeMet).  Kubrick and his crew tried to revolutionize how special effects where done. For example “The “Star Gate” scene in the final segment of the film… was created using a “Slit Scan” machine developed by Douglas Trumbull, which allowed the filming of two seemingly infinite planes of exposure” (DeMet). But “2001: A Space Odyssey” biggest impact was probably on future sci-fi films. It inspired other directors such as Spielberg, George Lucas, and Ridley Scott who each have added classics to the genre. Spielberg calls “2001” “the big bang” of that generation of science fiction films (“2001: A Space Odyssey (film)”). I have agree with this statement, because there is something intriguing and inspiring about how the story of 2001 is told that you can see in other sci-fi films. Such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, and Blade Runner.

Another way Kubrick impacted movies was through his selection of music. He was innovative when using certain pieces of music to create “…complex meanings, create idyllic ambiance, and punctuate emotion” (Pfeiffer). In a number of his films Kubrick choose music from “…existing sources, especially classical compositions”… (Wikipedia) instead of having music composed for the movie. His use of this has popularized certain pieces such as “…Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra” in 2001, or Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” in A Clockwork Orange…” (Wiese).

 

Works Cited

“2001: A Space Odyssey (film).” Wikipedia. N.p., 9 Jun 2013. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)

DeMet, George. “The Special Effects of “2001: A Space Odyssey”.” Palantir.net. DFX, n.d. Web. 11 Jun 2013. <http://www.palantir.net/2001/meanings/dfx.html&gt;.

Pfeiffer, Oliver. “50 Reasons Why Stanley Kubrick Is The Greatest Director Of All Time.” WhatCulture!. N.p., 1 march 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2013. <http://whatculture.com/film/50-reasons-why-stanley-kubrick-is-the-greatest-director-of-all-time.php/8

“Stanley Kubrick.” Wikipedia. N.p., 1 june 2013. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick

“The Kubrick Legacy.” University of the Arts London. N.p.. Web. <http://www.arts.ac.uk/about/departments/kubrick-archive/thekubricklegacy/&gt;.

Wiese, Brent. “Stanley Kubrick: Influence Through Film.” . N.p.. Web. <http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rhetoric/105H16/cofa/bjwcofa.html&gt;.