2. Manoj Night Shyamalan was born and raised in Puducherry, India. He was born
in August, 1970. Shyamalan grew to become a well known director, producer,
screenwriter and actor. He began his successful career in America whilst
studying at the university of New York; he won his merit scholarship in 1988.
He had an early desire to be a filmmaker when he was given a Super-8 camera
at a young age. However his father wanted him to follow in the family practice
of medicine but his mother encouraged him to follow his passion. By the time
he was seventeen he had made forty-five movies
Shyamalan is known as an Indian-American
screenwriter, making movies with contemporary
supernatural plots including The Sixth Sense (199)
Unbreakable (2000) The Happening (2008) and
many other box-office sell out supernatural
horrors. Shyamalan is known for filming his movies
in and around his birth place; Philadelphia.
However, Shyamalans first film was a drama
named Praying With Anger which he made whilst
studying at NYU. Furthermore, Walt Disney Studios
Touchscreen and Hollywood, co-produced most of
Shyamalans films.
Shyamlan’s all time idol has is Steven Spielberg.
3. Awards:
• Empire Award for best director
• Nebula award for best Script/Bradbury award (1999 with ‘The sixth sense’)
• Golden Raspberry award for worst director (2006 with lady in the water and 2010 with (‘The
Last Airbender’)
• Satellite award for best original screenplay (1999)
Shyamalans personal quotes:
• “I play for a living...Success is tied to a feeling of magic, which I can protect”
• “The idea is to always go for the thing that's risky. I want to be courageous and original. And
original means, you don't know what 'colour' movie you just saw”
• “Movie making is not like other artforms, like painting, or writing a novel, because that can be
disgested or interpreted... It takes two years to make each one of these, and it's always judged
on money”
• “All of my movies have made money, and that's important for me - it's my job to make money
for the studio...”
• “When you say fear of the unknown, that is the definition of fear; fear is the unknown, fear is
what you do not know, and it's genetically within us so that we feel safe. We feel scared of the
woods because we're not familiar with it, and that keeps you safe”
4. • “I have this whole picture of the film in my head and then I put it all down on paper and
storyboard it; showing the movie shot by shot. I like to feel that I have thought of everything
before the camera starts rolling but I think that's probably my asset and weakness as a film
maker. I am giving my cast a target that I have in my mind and they are trying to hit it. It's
positive because I know exactly what I want to get out of my actors and the scene. But the
negative is that I might not catch the lightning in the bottle, I may not get that unexpected
improvised brilliance.”
• I think I take what you might call a B-movie story, deal with B-movie subjects, and I treat it as
if it's an A-movie in terms of my approach, my crew, my actors, my ethics and so on. I guess
that's my trademark or one of them anyway!
• "It's human nature. Twenty-six people love the movie, and the 27th person hates it, and the
only thing you can think about is the 27th person." (on critics)
• I am fully aware of the giant risk I'm taking. Being as eccentric as my mind will let me and
then hearing people's responses. This requires an incredible amount of pain. Everyone
around me, 98%, at some point doubted.
• If you're not betting on me, then nobody should get money. I've made profit a mathematical
certainty. I'm the safest bet you got.
• Except for Pixar, I have made the four most successful original movies in a row of all time.
5. To find out the answers from M Night Shyamalan please watch his 10
question interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WY-kjcSgug&safe=active
6. M. Night Shyamalans influence on my project:
I feel that M Night Shyamalan inspired me to produce a Supernatural Horror film that emphasises the
unknown, where unexpected happenings occur and cause terror. However, I want a plot that does
not stray from reality.
M. Night Shyamalan openly explains how he storyboards his movies shot by shot. I also storyboarded
my ideas when planning the trailer of my supernatural horror film, that I was going to produce. I
believe that storyboarding my ideas aided me and encouraged my creative ideas to develop further
with my own personal annotations and use of colour.
My favourite film directed by M. Night Shyamalan is
‘Unbreakable’. The reason being that the film is based
around the character of David Dunn who learns
something extraordinary about himself after a devastating
accident. David has no recollection of the accident
therefore how is he to know who to believe, about what
really happened? The film strongly plays on the
Supernatural sub-genre and leaves us as audience feeling
inquisitive as to what will happen next as the storyline
develops.
The trailer for ‘Unbreakable’ is very giving the audience a
clear indication to what genre of film it is a from and a
satisfying insight into the films unprecedented plot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_f1uCWKZQs
7. M. Night Shyamalans influence on my project:
I feel that M Night Shyamalan inspired me to produce a Supernatural Horror film that emphasises the
unknown, where unexpected happenings occur and cause terror. However, I want a plot that does
not stray from reality.
M. Night Shyamalan openly explains how he storyboards his movies shot by shot. I also storyboarded
my ideas when planning the trailer of my supernatural horror film, that I was going to produce. I
believe that storyboarding my ideas aided me and encouraged my creative ideas to develop further
with my own personal annotations and use of colour.
My favourite film directed by M. Night Shyamalan is
‘Unbreakable’. The reason being that the film is based
around the character of David Dunn who learns
something extraordinary about himself after a devastating
accident. David has no recollection of the accident
therefore how is he to know who to believe, about what
really happened? The film strongly plays on the
Supernatural sub-genre and leaves us as audience feeling
inquisitive as to what will happen next as the storyline
develops.
The trailer for ‘Unbreakable’ is very giving the audience a
clear indication to what genre of film it is a from and a
satisfying insight into the films unprecedented plot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_f1uCWKZQs
