Contextual Research for FMP

1. FMP CONTEXT
RESEARCH
Charlie Atkin

2. An AmericanWerewolf in London
■ This film is one of Edgar’s inspirations that inspired him to pursue a career in film making.This is
■ This film is the first film to earn the Academy Award for Best Make-up, the category was created in
1981, the year of release for the film.The film also won the Saturn Award for Best Horror.
■ The film has since become a cult classic of the horror genre along with films such asTheThing,Child’s
Play, Halloween andThe Exorcist.

3. Shaun ofThe Dead
Shaun of the Dead is a lovingly crafted homage to George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, one of the main
things that GeorgeA Romero’ major things about his movies is the fact that his movies weren’t about the
zombie, the films were more about how society breaks down and probably the best film to show this
theme was Shaun ofThe Dead and to help illustrate this was the tagline for the film which was “A
RomanticComedy with Zombies”. And whenGeorge A Romero watched the film he was impressed with
the work of EdgarWright and Simon Pegg that he offered them to cameo in Land OfThe Dead where
they were zombies in a photo booth.[1]
Shaun of the Dead is EdgarWright’s first feature length movie and is an extension of EdgarWright’s
creative prowess.You can see a very early version of Shaun ofThe Dead in “Spaced”, theTV Series
directed by EdgarWright and written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, who star in Shaun ofThe
Dead as the titular Shaun andYvonne.The very early version of the film is from Season 1 Episode 3 of the
show, the main character in the showTim, stays up extremely late playing Resident Evil (a zombie
survival game).Tim then starts to freak out and starts to see everyone as zombies because of a mix of
booze, speed,Twiglets (which make him angry) and the lack of sleep.[4]

4. QuentinTarantino
Tarantino often in his movies has scenes that include one long, unbroken take where a
character is followed around somewhere, you can see a lot of information from the long
takes and there are often hidden details. His films also often subvert clichés of certain
genres such as in Reservoir Dogs which is a heist film were the actual heist is never seen[3].
Both of these stylistic camera shots and/or movie tropes can be seen in EdgarWrights
films, the long unbroken shot is seen in Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver and
the subversion of clichés can be seen in Baby Driver primarily as the film about a heisting
group but the main focus of the film is the driver for the group with the driver going as far
as to drive out of the way of the violence and the heists.
His influences:Apocalypse Now,The Bad News Bears, Carrie, Dazed and Confused,The
Great Escape, His Girl Friday, Jaws, Pretty Maids All in a Row, RollingThunder, Sorcerer,
Taxi Driver andThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly.And in 2009 he named Kinji Fukasaku’s
Battle Royale as his favourite films since he became a director in 1992.[2]

5. QuentinTarantino Films

6. QuentinTarantino Films Continued
On the surface level of all of QuentinTarantino films, they are seen as just really gory action films that
can sometimes be confusing. But a lot of the films have a lot of hidden details in the films that
sometimes can’t be seen on a first viewing.
Tarantino’s outlook on filmmaking, when interviewed by the NewYorkTimes he was asked about the
amount of films he had made and why he had only made 8 at the time instead of some directors who
would have made two or three times more in the same time. He was asked if this was a choice instead of
not being able to find work.Tarantino talked about how in the 20 years that directors could have made
twice the movies but they couldn’t have made twice of his filmography. He said that his filmography is
the thing that is the most important to him as his artistic statement.[7]

7. Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg is one
of the most easily
recognizable directors
just by his work alone
with films such as the
Jurassic Park films, the
Indiana Jones films,
Jaws, E.TThe Extra-
Terrestrial and his more
recent film Ready Player
One which has received
a 72% rating on Rotten
Tomatoes which is no
easy feat.

8. Drew Struzan
■ Drew Struzan is the artistic genius behind the posters of films such asTheThing and some of the
posters from films such as Indiana Jones, Back to the Future and StarWars. He then did some smaller
work on other projects like comics and other films before retiring in the later half of 2008.

9. Bibliography
1. Karl Smallwood. (2017). George Romero Didn’t Have a Plan for a Zombie Apocalypse.Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iNrFFPht68&t=281s. Last accessed 21st Jan 2019.
2. Wikipedia. (N/A). QuentinTarantino. Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Tarantino#Influences_and_style_of_filmmaking. Last accessed 21st
Jan 2019.
3. IMDb. (N/A). QuentinTarantino.Available:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/bio?ref_=nm_dyk_qt_sm#quotes. Last accessed 21st Jan 2019.
4. IMDb. (N/A). Spaced "Art". Available: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0706382/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl.
Last accessed 21st Jan 2019.
5. Wikipedia. (N/A). An AmericanWerewolf in London.Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Werewolf_in_London. Last accessed 21st Jan 2019.
6. IMDb. (N/A). An AmericanWerewolf In London.Available:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082010/?ref_=nv_sr_1. Last accessed 21st Jan 2019.
7. Charles McGrath. (2012). Quentin’sWorld. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/movies/how-
quentin-tarantino-concocted-a-genre-of-his-own.html. Last accessed 23rd Jan 2019.