Steven Spielberg is considered one of the most influential film directors in history. He got his start directing television in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Spielberg rose to fame upon the release of Jaws (1975), the first summer blockbuster. Some of his most well known films include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones franchise, E.T., Jurassic Park, and Saving Private Ryan. Throughout his career, Spielberg has demonstrated a knack for directing both critically acclaimed dramas and hugely popular blockbuster films. He is credited with pioneering a style of filmmaking that focuses on human emotion and reaction shots.

1. Director Research
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2. Who was Steven Spielberg?
Steven Allan Spielberg born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is
considered one of the founding pioneers of the new Hollywood era and one of the most popular directors and
producers in film history. Spielberg started in Hollywood directing television and several minor theatrical releases. He
became a household name as the director of jaws (1975), which was critically and commercially successful and is
considered the first summer blockbuster. His subsequent releases focused typically on science fiction/adventure films
such as close encounters of the third kind (1977), Raiders of lost arc (1981) and its later sequels as part of the Indiana
jones franchise, which became archetypes of modern Hollywood escapist filmmaking.

3. Steven Spielberg’s career
No director is as well known, nor has had as much success in Hollywood as Steven Spielberg. He invented a style of filmmaking that
audiences ate up in the 1980’s, single-handedly invented the modern blockbuster, and was influential in helping George Lucas
make Star Wars. From a young age, Spielberg was fascinated by theater and film. In his teens, he used an 8mm camera to film movies
with his friends. Later, he became an intern at Universal Studios, and the rest is history. Spielberg’s career started small. First he
directed segments of TV shows, and then later entire episodes. His success convinced the studios to give him a chance at directing a
full film. Duel was his first feature-length film, made for TV, and was an immediate success showing his technical competency, as well
as, his ability to make entertaining cinema. His feature-length debut was The Sugarland Express (1974), and his breakthrough
followed in 1975 (Jaws). He turned down the opportunity to direct a sequel to make another hit, 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, which gave him his first Best Director Oscar nomination. The hits kept coming, with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981 and E.T. in
1982. He finished the 80’s producing a number of big hits while directing two more Indiana Jones films, and the critically acclaimed The
Color Purple (1985) along with Empire of the Sun (1987). In the 90’s he continued his proficiency at directing both entertaining
blockbusters (Hook, Jurassic Park 1 + 2), and critically acclaimed dramas (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan). In 2001, he
directed a film as homage to Stanley Kubrick (A.I.), then created two entertaining films in 2002 that resonated well with audiences
(Minority Report, Catch Me if You Can). War of the Worlds (2005) was his next big hit, before he returned to the Indiana Jones
franchise (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008). His first animated film was 2008’s The Adventures of Tintin. His latest films were a
pair of dramas. War Horse in 2011, and the award-winning Lincoln in 2012.

4. “The Spielberg Face”
When a film technique has an unofficial name based on the director who first made it famous, you know it is a big deal.
“The Spielberg Face” was first used to great effect in Jaws. The idea is simple, zoom in on a character as they are looking
at something. Most of the time, this character is amazed, and their face is full of surprise, and the thing that they are
looking at is not revealed to the audience until after the character shows their expression. To contemporary audiences
today, this technique might not seem that special. Lots of other directors and filmmakers have since used something
similar in their movies. Spielberg, though, was the first to show how effective it could be. By focusing on characters’
faces first, rather than filming from an angle behind them, Spielberg’s films could create a better human connection. He
was showing that, although special effects have their place, his films were about people above all. “The Spielberg Face”
is present in almost all of Spielberg’s films, including the dinosaur reveal scene in Jurassic Park, frequently in Close
Encounters, and even in The Color Purple.