quote:
Originally posted by Vasic
Another thought on the subject of 'auteurs'.Decades ago, I had friends studying directing at the College for Dramatic Arts in Belgrade (Serbia). On a few occasions, I went to the screenings of their class exercises. These were 3rd year students (it was a 4-year programme), directing major. The assignment was the same for everyone (7 of them): shoot six pages of script on Super 16 in colour, with sound. They all worked with the same crew (DP, production designer, sound, etc -- all fellow students) and equipment. Each chose his own cast, though (from among acting major students). It was extremely surprising to see the vast differences between the end results of these guys. Same text, same team, different actors and directors. Films were edited by the students themselves (actual film splicing; no Final Cut Pro back then).
Based on that experience, I am convinced that the director is truly an author of a film, if he does his job even remotely correctly.
Again, it IS the Director's job to get everyone on the same page so they are making the same movie, but the Director still isn't doing it all him/herself. He/she is still taking suggestions and relying on the skills and creative talents of everyone else on the crew and in the cast. Even book authors tend to do research for their stories...research that was done by others... and the book is edited by someone else and then published and marketed by someone else.
There are rarely true "auteurs" who are as independent and "responsible for it all" as the theory suggests. It just doesn't happen in reality.
Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com
Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com
quote:
Originally posted by bjdzyak
?quote?Originally posted by Vasic
Another thought on the subject of 'auteurs'.Again, it IS the Director's job to get everyone on the same page so they are making the same movie, but the Director still isn't doing it all him/herself. He/she is still taking suggestions and relying on the skills and creative talents of everyone else on the crew and in the cast. Even book authors tend to do research for their stories...research that was done by others... and the book is edited by someone else and then published and marketed by someone else.
There are rarely true "auteurs" who are as independent and "responsible for it all" as the theory suggests. It just doesn't happen in reality.
Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com
Do you not think the director should be recognised as the author then. That is what the theory is saying. As you said writers of books do not write with no help or influence what so ever. They however are officially recognised as the author, should the same not apply to a director?
Rob - UK
Rob - UK
quote:
Originally posted by robmanu7
quote:
Originally posted by bjdzyak
?quote?Originally posted by Vasic
Another thought on the subject of 'auteurs'.Again, it IS the Director's job to get everyone on the same page so they are making the same movie, but the Director still isn't doing it all him/herself. He/she is still taking suggestions and relying on the skills and creative talents of everyone else on the crew and in the cast. Even book authors tend to do research for their stories...research that was done by others... and the book is edited by someone else and then published and marketed by someone else.
There are rarely true "auteurs" who are as independent and "responsible for it all" as the theory suggests. It just doesn't happen in reality.
Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.comDo you not think the director should be recognised as the author then. That is what the theory is saying. As you said writers of books do not write with no help or influence what so ever. They however are officially recognised as the author, should the same not apply to a director?
Rob - UK
In retrospect, I didn't use a great analogy. 🙂 Research isn't exactly analogous to the hands-on creative and technical work that a cast and crew does WITH the Director of a movie. To properly use the book-author analogy, we'd have to have a hypothetical Director who merely researched how to do everything and then set out to do it all him/herself with absolutely no hands-on work provided by anyone else at all.
As I alluded to previously, perhaps the only situation I can imagine that such a thing might be possible would be in animation, provided that this "auteur" Director writes the script, voices the characters, and draws (or builds clay models) the characters and animates them doing the camera work himself, then edits the picture and sound and performs any music and foley himself. We'd be hard-pressed to find any way for a Director to do all of those things by himself for a live-action movie without any help at all from anyone at any time.
It's fair to call a film Director an author only if everyone else on the movie gets to share in the credit with co-author titles as well.
Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com
Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com
I can absolutely understand your point, coming from an angle of a person who often is one of the critical members of the creative team (camera).
I'll refer back to my conductor - orchestra analogy. Conductor is the only person that actually does NOT play any instrument during a performance. However, in the field of classical music, nobody would ever argue that the orchestra's performance of a work is defined by the musicians in the ensemble. If you listen to the recording of the same piece, by the same orchestra, with a different conductor, you will clearly and distinctly hear very DIFFERENT performances, and this is music, which is a highly abstract art form. This is why it is ALWAYS announced 'John Doe, conducting the Orchestra of so-and-so'. In the business of classical music, there are many great orchestras of the world, but the conductors are mega-stars, above them all.
I genuinely believe there is a good reason we have 'A film By...' in the opening credits.
I would agree with what you both say. like most things it isn't black or white but if you have to give someone credit as the author it would be the director. However you can't overlook the contribution of anyone who works on a film.
Rob - UK
Rob - UK
Are you a director yourself Vasic?
Rob - UK
Rob - UK
My professional field of work is music. I did get to work on several (moderately) professional film projects in that capacity (and wrote a score for an indy film). As a filmmaker, I am strictly an amateur (nobody is willing to seriously pay me for it yet, and what little I do get paid (on rare occasions) is nowhere near enough to support a living). I have spent enough time around professionals to know a ting or two about the process, though.
