AUTEUR THEORY
Auteur, it comes from the French language. It simply means author.
Auteur theory is the theory in which the director of a film is viewed as the major creative force of the film.
Becoming big in France in the late 40s, the auteur theory as nicknamed by the American critic Andrew Sarris – was an eruption from the pictorial theories of André Bazin. This is also known as the director-as-author.
Auteur theory was taken heavily from a person called Astruc who’s explanation of the idea of caméra stylo known simply in English as “Camera-pen”. It states that the director who has control over all audio and visual aspects of a film to be considered the author of the movie they are making moreover than the writer of the screen play.
The director has full control over a film and all aspects of it, he will write the script, plan the scene, choose what the characters in the scenes wear. Some film production companies support this and some don’t.
Auteur theory is the theory in which the director of a film is viewed as the major creative force of the film.
Becoming big in France in the late 40s, the auteur theory as nicknamed by the American critic Andrew Sarris – was an eruption from the pictorial theories of André Bazin. This is also known as the director-as-author.
Auteur theory was taken heavily from a person called Astruc who’s explanation of the idea of caméra stylo known simply in English as “Camera-pen”. It states that the director who has control over all audio and visual aspects of a film to be considered the author of the movie they are making moreover than the writer of the screen play.
The director has full control over a film and all aspects of it, he will write the script, plan the scene, choose what the characters in the scenes wear. Some film production companies support this and some don’t.
Alfred Hitchcock was a well noted Auteur with reoccurring shot in films such as Vertigo, Psycho, Rear-view window. He used the fly on the wall shot many times throughout his films which put the viewer right up close to the action. This image on the right is an example of the fly-on-the-wall shot, taken from Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho.
Quentin Tarantino, most arguably one of the best contemporary auteur at the moment rose to fame with his first low budget film Reservoir Dogs.
He made the film his own using his own techniques and really taking full control of the film. Due to the films success he made more and more films, getting to the likes of KillBill Series one and Pulp Fiction. When he was producing Django under Miramax films corp. The people at Miramax said to Tarantino “go ahead, make the film exactly how you want. We trust in you”.
He made the film his own using his own techniques and really taking full control of the film. Due to the films success he made more and more films, getting to the likes of KillBill Series one and Pulp Fiction. When he was producing Django under Miramax films corp. The people at Miramax said to Tarantino “go ahead, make the film exactly how you want. We trust in you”.
You can see that a Tarantino is an auteur because of his notable camera shots and themes. Most notably of his camera shots would be the trunk shots and the mirror shot, there are so many things that make his films unique to that of any other director in the film industry today.
My chosen director, Steven Spielberg, is most definitely an auteur director.
He has many reoccurring themes among the films he’s directed.
It has been noted that Steven Spielberg has an interest for alien extra terrestrial life, he is a big fan of science fiction as was his father whom he gained the interest from. The alien theme is used quite a lot in Spielberg’s films. Spielberg has made a lot of alien or sci-fi themed films, such as E.T
Spielberg likes to use the image of parent and child relationships, often showing how parents, moreover fathers, and children can sometimes have trouble getting on.
Spielberg likes to show tension between parent-child relationships you can clearly see this in his 2005 version of the classic H.G Wells novel, War of the worlds. Ray Ferrier, played by actor Tom Cruise has trouble getting along with his kids a lot more so with his son Robbie than his daughter Rachel
The particular scene when Robbie runs to the road where the army is driving, he and Ray have an argument. Robbie states that Ray doesn’t give a crap about them and that the only reason for him taking them to their mum is so that he can dump them on her and so that he can go be to being selfish and only having to worry about caring about himself.
Towards the end of the film the bond between the father Ray and his children grows back as seen here when Ray hugs it out with his son Robbie.
This theme of family is played heavily in the Jurassic park films too with. The film has two characters Tim Murphy and Lex Murphy who are the grandchildren of John Hammond. Tim Murphy builds a bond with character Alan Grant due to his apt love for dinosaurs
Dramatic over-the-shoulder shot:
A good camera shot to take a look at would be the dramatic over the shoulder shot. Spielberg uses this particular shot over the shoulder of the protagonist to convey a feeling of dominance as the shoulder in the foreground is very big.
The dramatic over-the-shoulder shot makes the protagonist in the foreground very big therefore showing a sense of power of empowerment.
A good camera shot to take a look at would be the dramatic over the shoulder shot. Spielberg uses this particular shot over the shoulder of the protagonist to convey a feeling of dominance as the shoulder in the foreground is very big.
The dramatic over-the-shoulder shot makes the protagonist in the foreground very big therefore showing a sense of power of empowerment.
In war of the worlds there is an over-the-shoulder shot towards the start of the film which isn’t to show dominance or to film a protagonist, but it is still used as a dramatic start for the rest of the film. The particular shot and scene I am talking about is this one on the right. You can see in this he is picking up a piece of rubble from the striking ground in which the lighting from the storm struck.
Spielberg used this shot because it is dramatic and because it puts you right up close to the action.
Spielberg used this shot because it is dramatic and because it puts you right up close to the action.
The over-the-shoulder shot is used in Jurassic park and is shown here as an example. Here you can see the camera overlooking the shoulder of the character John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) as he tends to a hatching Velociraptor egg.
One scene-one shot: One of my favourite shot used by Spielberg in his films would be the “One scene-One shot”. Out of all of the One-shots used by Spielberg, my favourite has to be that used in his 2005 remake of H.G Wells’ War of the Worlds.
The shot follows Ray, Robbie and Rachel as they drive down a crowded motorway. The camera swiftly goes from being inside the car to far away and then swooping back inside the car. This particular one shot has a few close-ups in it too. This shot lasts for around 2 Minutes 30 seconds which is very well executed.
The shot follows Ray, Robbie and Rachel as they drive down a crowded motorway. The camera swiftly goes from being inside the car to far away and then swooping back inside the car. This particular one shot has a few close-ups in it too. This shot lasts for around 2 Minutes 30 seconds which is very well executed.
Steven Spielberg has most definitely become one of the best directors of all time and most definitely an Auteur director. He really does have sheer control of his films.