2. DAMIEN CHAZELLE
Director of Whiplash (2014) and La La Land (2016)
The most notable way that Chazelle has influenced us is
through his use of colour in La La Land, seen below.
3. DAMIEN CHAZELLE
As you can see, his shots are very coloured as opposed to using
more naturalistic lighting, and we took this approach as well.
Chazelle uses the extravagant lighting to specifically create a
fantastical, unrealistic effect, as when this lighting is used it
accurately depicts the mental state of the characters at the time.
With us the lighting represents the same, as although it matches the
aesthetic of the band, the deep pinks and purples create a mawkish,
pensive state that’s representative of the character’s uneasiness and
loss, and then we
change to a more
deep red which shows
the damage he’s
doing to himself.
4. DAMIEN CHAZELLE
Chazelle is also a primarily musical director, with La La Land
being a direct musical while Whiplash is a film dealing with the
musical process. Both films feature long musical sequences
as a result of this, and Chazelle consistently edits in time with
the music so that the visuals build momentum alongside the
audio. This means that the intercutting of shots along with the
music propels the narrative being what would traditionally be
shown, and we aimed to do the same thing in our video,
wherein essentially the style becomes the substance and
through cutting and synchronising with music it further
conveys narrative information.
5. PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON
With PTA our line of influence is more direct, as Anderson is
well known for the long, extended tracking shots he would
regularly use early in his career, such as in the openings of
Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999). None of our
tracking shots are as long as the ones he uses, but
regardless the influence is still there as we open
our video with multiple tracking shots.
6. MARTIN SCORSESE
Scorsese is also known for his use of long takes, but really the
main influence he had is with the shot of our character taking
cocaine. The drug itself is seen in many of Scorsese’s movies
(Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1999), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013))
but the action of the rapid zoom in as the character takes the
drug in time with the music is the exact type of energy and style
Scorsese would inject into one of these shots.
7. JEFF NICHOLS
Our influence from Nichols concerns the narrative more than
technique. In his 2011 film Take Shelter, Nichols portrays a
man dealing with serious mental health issues, which cause
him to be plagued with apocalyptic visions of an upcoming
storm. These visions are the thematic literalisations of the
character’s mental state.
We took a similar approach with our video, with the colours
and religious imagery being representative of the
deteriorating mental state of the lead character.
8. WES ANDERSON
A lot of our shots feature great symmetry, with the character
being positioned in the direct middle of the frame, or we have
shots that closely mirror each other. These are the types of
things Wes Anderson typically use, as he is a director noted
for his very unique style, some of which can be seen below.
9. NICOLAS WINDING REFN
Director of Drive (2011), Only God Forgives (2013), The Neon
Demon (2016)
Our main influence from Refn was again from his use of
colours. His films are very neon infused, with stark,
contrasting and bright colours being used to develop tone
and atmosphere, which is what we tried to do as well. Some
of Refn’s cinematography can be seen below.
10. GIA COPPOLA
Director of Palo Alto (2014)
Coppola has only directed one film, but it still is influential to
us aesthetic wise. Similarly to the other directors we’ve used
here, Coppola uses colours to demonstrate the thoughts and
feelings of her characters, which we have done as well, and
her general way of framing shots feels very similar to ours.
11. ZACK SNYDER
Though he’s not exactly in the same league as the other
directors we have featured here, we realised that we have
taken some subconscious influence from Zack Snyder. A
technique Snyder regularly uses is speed-ramping, which is
when the film changes from regular motion to slow motion
but doesn’t do so with a sudden cut, instead the speed either
gradually or jarringly slowing or speeding. We used
this technique on the title reveal shot where we pan
up to the roof of the church, with the speed of the
shot changing as it pans, because we needed to
extend this footage so that it took up all the time we
needed.
12. ZACK SNYDER
Snyder also regularly uses religious imagery, specifically in
the films Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn
of Justice (2016). He uses imagery to liken the character of
superman to Christ, and although we don’t use imagery in
the same way our video is still imbued with plenty of
religious imagery because it is intrinsically linked to the
concept. Before we had even came up with the concept for
this video, Jonathan had commented on the religious
imagery of BvS: DoJ and how much he liked it, so it is likely
that it ended up having some influence on our video whether
we realised it or not.
