En 404 Influences Final Draft

Donald Ford EN 404 3/7/08 Influences Many things influence me, but at the core of my influences are films and music. These two things go hand in hand when it comes to creating a cinematic experience. There are certain film eras along with certain filmmakers that influence my own work. Some have more direct influences on my work than others. Films and filmmakers influence my work and my person. I tend to like to make movies in the same genres that I like to watch and study, which tend to be in the action adventure and western genera. Thanks to my Dad I grew up watching westerns and 60’s/70’s era action adventure films. Big filmmaker influences are Clint Eastwood, Sergio Leone, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann and Steve McQueen. These filmmakers influence my style and many of the themes I address. So many others influence me but I regularly study films by these. Probably my number one filmmaker influence is Mr. Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood influences my style but he also influences my person. He is a great actor and director but he never lets that go to his head. He is an amazingly humble person. I saw an interview with Robert Wagner about one of his experiences with Mr. Eastwood. Wagner was in the second Dirty Harry film “Magnum Force” and he played a small role in the film. Wagner was relatively unknown at the time and he was walking around the Warner lot a year after the film and happened to see Mr. Eastwood across the street. He never though that he would remember him because he had such a small part, but once Mr. Eastwood saw him he immediately crossed the street to speak with him and find out how

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his career was going. (The Original) Because of stories like that I hope that if I ever do become successful that I can retain the kind of humble character that someone like Clint Eastwood displays. I feel that Hollywood is full of people with heads filled with helium. Mr. Eastwood is the opposite he makes everyone feel important and he trust’s and listens to people. He brings people in to collaborate with him, not boss them around. I have adopted that way of thinking for my thesis project and it works. Because I am genuinely excited about my project, my actors are. I ask for their suggestions and feedback and that makes them feel invested in it and a part of it. Clint Eastwood’s ideas about pessimism also influence me. He say’s, “I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.” (Wildsound) I think this is a smart way to think. Life is too short to get caught up on negatives. Complaining gets you know where and pushing ahead is pushing forward. I think Mr. Eastwood’s quote is powerful from a filmmaking perspective but also a life perspective. Mr. Eastwood also influences the style of work I do. He explores masculinity in his films and I do in mine. I’ve done dramatic films dealing with it, but my favorite example is a humorous parody of masculinity I did my Junior year, titled “Fat Ass”. It is about a macho Bounty Hunter who meets his match in the form of a man with a shotgun in one hand and an egg sandwich in the other. I made fun of some filmmaking techniques that are used in action films like the slow motion walk sequence. I mocked those sequences by using excessive slow motion in a humorous way. That short movie was more of a general commentary on the action film genera, but my character was very much based on a Clint Eastwood type character, like Harry Callahan from the “Dirty Harry” films. I also brought a version of that character to another parody called “Utopia

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By Fire”. “Utopia By Fire” made fun of the idea of a Utopian vision by contradicting it. The parody action trailer shows all the characters engaged in gunfights and car chases all fighting to “repair a lost Utopia”. In the end they end up destroying everything. My second biggest filmmaking influence has to be Sergio Leone. I do not know as much about the man himself like I do about Mr. Eastwood, but I know his style very well. I love Sergio Leone’s style. He took the romantic west of American films of the 1930’ s and 1950’s and made them gritty and stylish in his 1960’s Italian visions of frontier America. He found actors with ugly faces and crude sets to place them in. These things gave his films a realistic look. They where in some ways as romantic as the American films they just reversed the themes and morality of the characters. Sergio Leone’s style is best known for his panoramic compositions juxtaposed to extreme close ups of eyes, scars, boots, hands and guns. I often try to incorporate some of these techniques in my own work. I just recently completed a short called “A Fistful of Dollar” which is directly influenced by Sergio Leone. It is a silent comedy short that incorporated Sergio Leone close ups and compositions for humorous effect. The story is about two street dwellers that end up in a stand off over a dollar bill. I described it as Charlie Chaplin meets Sergio Leone on the plot synopsis. I also plan to have a stand off situation in my thesis film. My thesis film is a cop film about morality, corruption and redemption. It is a cop film but I want to emphasis the influences and themes that are similar to westerns. Sergio Leone’s influence will be present in my film. Similar to Sergio Leone is the way Michael Mann influences me. He too has a unique style. He often uses very modern buildings and structures in his films. His shots often are very symmetrical. An example is in his 1995 crime drama “Heat”. There is a

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scene with a car sitting under a bridge. The shot perfectly lines up the car under the bridge. All the pillars are lined up and the shot is almost perfectly symmetrical. He does it in other scenes as well. His films also often combine techno or electronic music to the soundtrack. It gives his films a very modern contemporary feel. I enjoy the symmetry in his shots. I find myself composing similar compositions when it comes to large structures like bridges or tunnels. I often scout to find structures that I can use to create symmetry in shots. I have rural and urban environments in my thesis film. I will be contrasting the urban environments with the rural ones. I will use wide panoramic shots of the snowy cornfields and then have very symmetrical shots of buildings and streets in the city. In a way I will be contrasting the styles of Leone and Mann. Sergio Leone painted pictures of the wide-open American west, while Michael Mann paints detailed pictures of contemporary urban America. These styles will be colliding in my film. Those are the more specific influences on my work and I. Broader ones are certain genres and film eras. Many films from the 1960’s and 70’s influence me. They are the films my Dad watched. I grew up with films like “Dirty Harry”, “Bullitt”, “The French Connection”, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” and “Taxi Driver”. I think in general the low budget style of 1970’s filmmaking influences me. It was an experimental time in cinema. Directors had more control of their visions and the studio system was gone. Directors like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg where spawned from that era and they brought new and innovative visions to the screen like “Jaws” and “Star Wars”. The filmmaking styles where more organic and collaborations with actors allowed more improvisation. These are the ways I make my films. They are low budget because I don’t have any money, but I think I would continue to stretch the dollar even with a budget. I

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like lower budget thinking. It forces you to have to be more innovative in your techniques. You learn to make things work rather than force things to work. I also include everyone in the process. I like improvisation and welcome the actors to steal the performance away from my directing. I like it when I only have to teak a performance and that performance belongs to the actor. A big part of filmmaking is sound. A big part of that is music. I listen to music constantly. I listen to music while driving, sitting at home and usually when I am writing a paper like this one. I listen to film scores because they take me back to moments in a film. I also listen to Blues, Rock and Jazz. Most of the music I listen to is from the 1930’s through the 1970’s. I like R&B and post-war big band. Older music takes me back. It’s much like the films I watch. I love period pieces for the same reason. Music often influences my mood. It’s also a good way to inspire me. There’s nothing like listening to an inspiring soundtrack like the one from “Rocky” or the “NFL Films” soundtrack. Music gets me ready to go. I often listen to music when I edit my movies. It doesn’t have to be what I’m going to use in the film but I’ll usually find a piece that sets the mood. When I’m editing I want the visuals to have a rhythm. Many times the music influences that rhythm. Music can also conjure up ideas. I find the lyrics in music can do that. I listen to a lot of blues music and the songs are usually story-based. I can create characters based on some of the lyrics. I believe the filmmaker saying is that music is 51 percent of the cinematic experience. It is if it’s used wisely. I know a lot of times music is used in contemporary films because it’s popular. I like to use music because it fits. Sometimes I find music I

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don’t personally like to listen too on it’s own, but it has the right effect and creates the right mood for the imagery. Influences are hard to nail down. I have a lot of them but the main ones are directly involved with the type of art I make. Often times my work homage’s or parodies my influences. Films and music are integral parts of filmmaking and these are at the core of my influences.

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Donald Ford EN 404 3/7/08 Bibliography

“Dirty Harry: The Original” Robert Wagner. Warner Bros 2000 “Famous Filmmaker Quotes” Wildsound.com. April 15, 2008 www.wildsound.com

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