OUAN502 - Film Making Methods Pt.2 - Akira Kurasawa, Quentin Tarantino, Chan-wook Park

I wanted to look at other directors, some more modern and also from other countries. An obvious director to look at is Akira Kurisawa. Kurasawa has produced some of the most hight rated films in the history of cinema, from the likes of, Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo (1961), Rashomon (1950) and Ran (1985). I thought I would look at some of the points mentioned in the Every Frame a Painting episode where his methods are discussed and some of his most notable directorial features are mentioned. Firstly, his choice and approach to movement as a director. It is unusual for a scene in a Kurasawa film to lack movement of any sort and it is more often the case that scenes will contain some form of movement whether from people or the effects of weather for example. Weather in itself is another key feature of Kurasawa's work and the use of win, fire, snow, rain and fog are all used to covey the underlying implications of a scene. For example, there is a scene in Seven Samurai where a 'bad' character looks menacing, and in the background flames are shown engulfing a building as if the characters in the scene and the elements are one in the same. I really like this use of elements in collaboration with feelings and it does have a huge impact on the audience when it is used in this way. Finally, one of Kurasawa's hallmarks is his ability to use fluid camera movements and his implementation of it. As well as this, his hand held shots often have a distinct 'beginning, middle and end' point, so as the audience you have an intuitive feeling of when a shot will end.


Seven Samurai (1954)

Chan-wook Park has been one of the directors at the forefront of South Korean cinema during its boom since the late 1990s's. He is most widely known for his work on the vengeance trilogy and potentially his most famous film: Oldboy (2003). As well as this, he may be one of the first Korean directors to work on a film in the west and subsequently direct a Hollywood film, in this case the 2013 thriller, Stoker. I find Park's style, like most of the director's styles I've talked about quite distinct and relatively uniform across all of his films. In general he infuses a mixture of black comedy, thriller and mystery genres in order to manifest interesting and unpredictable stories. The Vengeance Trilogy, Oldboy and Stoker all have these genres within them and after watching them all despite the small differences, it is clear that they are the work of the same person. They all have (in some form) a coming of age story, depict some 'perverted' themes. This is to say that he makes the effort to include characters with these tendencies and thus falling into situations within the plot that fall under this category. This is also evident in his film: Thirst.


Thirst (2009)

Quentin Tarantino is another film maker I looked at, mostly because of his distinct style when directing and something which I find particularly interesting in his work - the incorporation of homages. When listening to Tarantino in interviews it is easy to see from his comments and the way he talks that he adores cinema. It is no surprise that the director often places in to his work as many homages and references as possible. These types of references come in all forms, and sometimes don't necessarily fit the context of the film but somehow work quite well. These homages are things like, western references, the use of black and white, cameos and often more subtle references or a nod to other classic films in cinema such as Citizen Kane or Fist Of Fury. In terms of his choice of camera movement, it is quite common to see longer takes, or tracking shots, often meaning that the audience spends long amounts of time looking at onscreen characters or analysing smaller details. One shot that comes to mind is in his most recent film; The Hateful Eight where at the beginning of the film there is a very slow (2.5 minute) shot pulling out from a close up of a statue. With this types of daring shots there is a real beauty and craft to them that makes them feel cinematic. Another technique that is profoundly apparent across Tarantino's work is the use of objects of violence as not just main themes, but metaphors. He takes this to such a level that often the object in question seems to take on a character of its own and possess a certain on screen presence. Tarantino uses objects in this way to build the story around, and it seems to give the film a greater purpose because of it. Examples of this are the samurai sword in Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 and the car in Death Proof.


Deathproof (2007)