These are the directors which has influenced my style of film making for my upcoming short, Preparations.

1. Inspiration/Directors
By Matt Hawes

3. The inspiration behind Preparations comes from many directors.
However, only a short few have been direct influences over the tone
and style I am hoping for. The first being David Fincher. Fincher has
directed many of my favourite movies to date; Se7en, Fight Club,
Zodiac and The Game. All these movies share the same attributes, dark
lighting, a sense of dread and an ominous atmosphere. There are more
attributes to Fincher’s style of direction however, he spends a lot of
time expositing scenes, which is generally avoided by most directors.
Here is a related video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPAloq5MCUA

5. Quentin Tarantino’s directing style has been emulated to death. Many
directors believe they can pull off the same breathtakingly beautiful
shots of grotesque violence as easily as Tarantino can, however this is
not the case. For me, Tarantino is an unmatchable director. No matter
how hard I, or anyone tries, there will be no one quite like Quentin. His
razor-sharp dialogue and witty plot lines move at such a fast pace that
every one of his films is a thrill ride. For this reason, and many others, I
have decided to limit influence from Tarantino to a minimum because I
believe his style is too hard to replicate.
Here is a video describing ways to create a Tarantino-esque movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRodrZNAZYs

7. Martin McDonagh has a very unique style of direction. He somehow
manages to blend visceral, dark and bloody violence with dark humour
that creates the perfect match. Film such as In Bruges or Seven
Psychopaths are great examples of this. Also, his short film Six Shooter,
which won the best short film Oscar, encapsulates this blend perfectly.
In my short film I am aiming to replicate the dark tones whilst leaving
the humour to a minimum. My original idea was to emulate the whole
style, however it is extremely hard to write comedy and I just couldn’t
make the script funny. Which is a testament to the genius that is Mr
McDonagh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEzZQ-7J7IU