Famous Directors Trademarks

- To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script. Alfred Hitchcock

1.Suspence and Twist Endings
Psycho

Rear Window

Suspicion


2.He used to use as heroes, heroines, ordinary people who will unwittingly become entangled in the projects one or several times will be accused unjustly for something (these ideas were inspired by his childhood, has also he said)
Rope

Vertigo

Strangers On The Train


3.The actresses were mostly blondes
Grace Kelly

Kim Novac

Janet Leigh

Tippi Hedren


4.MacGuffin:
A device or plot element that catches the viewer's attention or drives the plot. It is generally something that every character is concerned with.' The McGuffin is essentially something that the entire story is built around and yet has no real relevance
Examples:
The 39 Steps (1935) – Mr. Memory memorized it, the plans for an airplane engine.

Rebecca (1940): the character of the first Mrs. De Winter - Rebecca

Shadow of a Doubt (1942) - 1. the newspaper 2. the ring

Rope (1948) –The rope used to strangle

Strangers on a Train (1951) – dog blocking stairway in Bruno’s home

Psycho -the $40,000 cash in an envelope

5.Cameo Appeareances

People ask what are my intentions with my films,my aims. It is a difficult and dangerous question, and I usually give an evasive answer: I try to tell the truth about the human condition, the truth as I see it.Ingmar Bergman

1.Close-ups of faces
Cries And Whispers


Winter Light


Wild Srawberries


2.Religious themes

The Seventh Seal


Through A Glass Darkly


The Silence


3.Use of shadows and darkness
Persona


The Magician


Through A Glass Darkly


4.Many of his films are around 90 minutes long
Examples:
The Seventh Seal-96 min
Wild Strawberries-91 min
Persona-85 min
Cries And Whispers-91 min
To Joy--98 min
Authumn Sonata-98 min

Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.Martin Scorsese

1.New York City as the main setting in his films
Taxi Driver

Mean Streets

The Age Of Innocence


2.Main character often falls in love and has a wife, and often has a turning point between the main character and the wife.
Raging Bull

Goodfellas

Casino


3.Corrupt Authority Figures
Gangs of New York

The Departed

The Aviator

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.Sidney Lumet

1.One Location
12 Angry Men

Murder On The Orient Express

Dog Day Afternoon


2.Insistence on the centrality of family life.
Dog Day Afternoon

Before Devil Knows You're Dead

A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.Stanley Kubrick

1.The Stare of Characters
A Clockwork Orange

Full Metal Jacket

The Shining


2.All the Movies have at least one Scene In or Just Outside A Bathroom
Examples
2001 A Space Odyssey

The Shining

Eyes Wide Shut

3.All THE films except 'Full Metal Jacket' used mostly pre-recorded classical music.

Barry Lyndon

A horse, a beautiful palomino mare, its golden flanks rippling under a light sweat, individual strands of white mane catching the late afternoon sun…Terrence Mallick

1.Nature Cinematography
The New World

Tree Of Life

Days Of Heaven


2.Multiple narrators,often unclear who exactly is narrating.

A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.Quentin Tarantino

1.Dance Scenes
Examples:
Reservoir Dogs

Pulp Fiction

Death Proof


2.Black and White Suits
Reservoir Dogs

Pulp Fiction

Jackie Brown


3.The Trunk & Hood POV Shot
Jackie Brown

Kill Bill vol.1

Death Proof

The best actors instinctively feel out what the other actors need, and they just accommodate it.
Christopher Nolan

1.The main conflict is either between two people who are dangerously alike on opposite sides,or between the main character's disjointed self.
EXAMPLES:
Memento

Insomnia

Inception


2.Death of Woman
Memento

The Prestige

The Dark Knight

Somewhere in talking and rehearsing, there is a magical moment where actors catch a current, they're on the right road. If they really catch it, then whatever they do from then on is correct and it all comes out of them from that point on.David Lynch

1.Dreams
Mulholland drive

Inland Empire

Twin Peaks


2.Split Personality? Two people play one person
Lost Highway

Mulholland Drive