ASSIGNMENT 1 - AUTEUR STUDY GUIDELINES
FIRST SUBMISSIONS
**** FINAL SUBMISSION DATE: 16th May, Thursday 16.30 ****
VIA MOODLE - RESUB/LATE submission 26.1 Auteur Study
Make sure you HIGHLIGHT any amendments. You are expected to respond to feedback in your
independent study time. Not class times.
STEP 1
Pick ONE director that is considered to be an AUTEUR -
"Auteur Theory is a way of looking at films that state that the director is the “author”
of a film. The Auteur theory argues that a film is a reflection of the director’s artistic
vision; so, a movie directed by a given filmmaker will have recognisable, recurring
themes and visual queues that inform the audience who the director is
(think a Hitchcock or Tarantino film) and shows a consistent artistic identity throughout
that director’s filmography."
Taken from: https://indiefilmhustle.com/auteur-theroy/
David Fincher
Stanley Kubrick
Oliver Stone
Steve McQueen
Alan Parker
Alfred Hitchcock
David Lynch
Tim Burton
Michael Bay
Woody Allen
Martin Scorsese
STEP 2
Pick TWO films from the director. (You could pick the same you used for the Narrative
Task)
STEP 3
You should focus on the following information about your chosen director see www.imdb.com :
- Filmography and any relevant background or biographical Information
- Casting & Crew e.g. use of same actors/characters
- Genre they are associated (use of Iconography). Subject Matter(s) & Theme(s) or use of Intertextuality
- Film techniques : MESC.FX
a. M - Mise-en-scene: use of colour and lighting,
b. E - editing techniques,: flashbacks, slow motion
c. S - music and sound: instruments, music genre
d. C - use of camera - movements, angles or signature shots link to visual cues
e. FX - special effects
5. Details about their creative influences (other directors, artists etc.)
6. Why are they considered an auteur? summarise above points
STEP 4
Detailed genre and narrative analysis of both films (see notes from class)
ASSIGNMENT 1 - Grade descriptions
Merit example:
In discussing codes and conventions in a genre analysis a learner might note, ‘The knife is part of the iconography of the horror movie and is often the means by which the victim is killed. In 12 of the 15 movies I studied for my content analysis a knife was used for at least one of the murders and in five it was used for all of them. The other two common means of killing were strangulation with a rope and with the bare hands. Knives have connotations of slashing movements and gushing blood. The most famous example of this must be the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho. Being knifed to death is particularly frightening because you can see the person killing you. It’s not like shooting, which is done at a distance and is a much more cold-blooded way of killing. This is why the gun is the conventional weapon in gangster movies like Scarface.’
ASSIGNMENT 1 - Grade descriptions
Distinction example:
In discussing codes and conventions in a genre analysis a learner might note, ‘The knife is part of the iconography of the horror movie and is often the means by which the victim is killed. In 12 of the 15 movies I studied for my content analysis a knife was used for at least one of the murders and in five it was used for all of them. The other two common means of killing were strangulation with a rope and with the bare hands. What these methods all have in common is that they involve close bodily contact between the victim and the killer, which makes the murder more frightening, unlike shooting which is done at a distance and is a much more cold-blooded way of killing. This is why the gun is the conventional weapon in gangster movies like Scarface or war movies like Platoon, where the killing of Elias by Barnes shows how far apart they are morally as well as physically and Barnes’s act seems even more calculating because it is so careful and deliberate. Knives have developed connotations through intertextuality that are specific to horror movies, such as slashing movements and gushing blood. In the most famous example of this – the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho – we never actually see the murderer, but we do see the movement of the knife repeated over and over again, and the blood swirling down the shower outlet as though it is just water.’
