One of the most successful directors of all time, edged out by Steven Spielberg perhaps. Avatar and Titanic are two of the highest grossing films of all time. Firstly Titanic, as it became known as an epic love story, a modern times Romeo and Juliette and then Avatar, a film that revolutionised visual effects and 3D.
Let's find out a little more about him by looking at interviews, articles and anything I can find.
What makes James Cameron such a good storyteller?
Right off that bat in this interview, we get a pretty good idea of what makes up James Cameron as a film-maker.
“It’s all driven by curiosity and the desire to be
personally challenged.”
Cameron is a man who has achieved a great deal of things in his life. He made the highest grossing film of all time (Titanic) and then smashed that to pieces with Avatar. Cameron has said himself that he is not just a film-maker, he likes deep sea diving as well. He is a man who likes being challenged.
Cameron is a hard man to real in that he doesn't talk a lot about his process, instead he always talks about technology and what he did instead of any thought processes.
It was difficult to find quotes from him because of his obsession with technology but in this video, he says:
“There’s this sort of sense out there that you have to
choose. You have to choose: are you a humanistic filmmaker? Or are you a
technical visualist? I’ll do both, thank you very much.”
As we know from above, Cameron is a man who loves a challenge so combine these together we see why he;'s so successful. While he doesn't seem to hold a passion for the art of storytelling openly, he knows that being technology and technique savvy as well as telling a humanistic story is the recepie for a great film. he challenges himself to make incredible movies that people love. That challenge is his process, not the film itself. While he has stories to tell and an imagination broad enough to keep them all in, it is the striving for greatness and lust for challenge is what makes him such a good storyteller.
Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, From Duck Till Dawn, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol.1, Kill Bill Vol.2, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight.
Notable directing credits:-
Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol.1, Kill Bill Vol.2, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight and special guest director on Sin City.
Quentin Tarantino is one of those men who is a film-maker who pushes the boundaries of cinema in that he will challenge societies perception of what is right and what we think about. He likes telling stories that we haven't seen very much before. The purpose of Django was to give Black people a real hero from the slave era, a sort of figure of defiance, done in an entertaining and cool way. Like with Kill Bill, the purpose was to give woman a heroine warrior who didn't need a man, she is beautiful and deadly and she wants revenge.
Let's find out a little more about him by looking at interviews, articles and anything I can find.
What makes Quentin Tarantino such a good storyteller?
Here we see a young Tarantino sporting the long hair talking about Reservoir Dogs. When talking about violence, we start too see what makes his mind work and how he sees things:
“Violence is a purely aesthetic thing. It has nothing
political, there’s no morality involved; it’s purely aesthetic.”
This is something I agree very strongly with. Tarantino likes to make films that are similar to films he likes to watch himself. He is a movie nut who like making films he would like to see. To Tarantino, content of a film such as violence are a tool or stroke such as a particular brush on a canvas painting of using pastas instead of oil paints.
In this video interview/radio interview, Tarantino talks about Django and filming slavery. He says something profound (which someone else said to him during production), that:
“you can’t make your movie if you’re afraid of it.”
This is so true. Not so much in the literal sense in that you would be so scared of your film you would stop making it or hide under your bed covers, but in the sense that you can't be afraid of expressing yourself or being true to your vision because you're frightened how people will receive it. Tarantino understands that to make a film, truly make a film, you have to commit 100% to it and pour in every ounce of yourself into creating it. Your vision must be uncompromised, you must achieve your goal and the purpose of the film without worrying about anything other than getting the film made how you want it.
Here in this wonderful video on making movies, He is talking about the craft of directing when he says:
“Your job is explaining your vision. Your job is articulating
to them what you want on the screen.”
Tarantino is a man who knows exactly what he wants from his films and I think that is his single greatest strength. He knows how he wants them to look, he knows how he wants you to feel, he knows what he wants it to say to you and he knows how the film will be presented. He has a strong vision and while he has been accused of simply stealing bits and piece s from different films, isn't that what most films do?
Greatness inspires more greatness so it makes sense that great films influence other film-makers to replicate something from that film they liked. His films might appear to be a mash-up of existing elements from other movies but that's part of his vision. He loves movies and loves to make things he likes. I think Tarantino fans understand this even if it's subconsciously. He pushes the envelope on films that challenge perception. He likes to ask questions and he likes to pose potential answers. What makes him a great story-teller is that he knows exactly what story he is telling, pushes the boundaries of that subject and loves every minute of it.
300, Suckerpunch, Batman Vs Superman, Justice League Pt 2, 300: Rise of an Empire.
Notable directing credits:-
Dawn of the Dead (2004), 300, Suckerpunch, Legend of theGuardians, Man of Steel, Justice League Pt1, Justice League Pt2, Batman Vs Superman, Watchmen.
Zack Snyder caught my attention before I even knew who he was. I'm not sure why, but the Dawn of the Dead for me, was an absolute gem of a film. I adore that film as one of my favourite, if not the favourite zombie film. I looked him up when I saw 300 and Suckerpunch and have been constantly impressed with his work through every film.
Let's find out a little more about him by looking at some interviews,
articles and anything I can find. What makes Zack Snyder such a
good storyteller?
This is a great interview where Zack talks about Man of Steel and the decisions about how to approach the character of superman. A line he says here hit home a very good point about character relatability:
“You wanna make a
superman that you want to be, not Superman that you’re just sort of observing.”
This comes down to one of the most fundamental principles of art from theatre, movies or TV shows. Include the audience in the experience. As an audience, we want to relate to characters, we want to like them, we want to feel apart of the dramatic tension, mystery or character progression in that we come out of the film feeling like we made a long distance friend, an enemy or a crush.
We revel in characters being like us, we enjoy powerful people displaying emotional instability and contradictions or problems that are similar to ours. It somehow validates who we are as humans to feel that way.
Zack Snyder says something pretty similar to the point above. Superman is a supreme being in that he is stronger, faster, smarter and more talented than men with the bonus of being virtually indestructible. He says:
“The
way to think about it is that we’re taking a human point of view which makes it
more relevant and emotional”
This is very true in the way he directed the film. Superman is a unique man in that his only real weakness is that he is vulnerable to Kryptonite and he is a very morally guided hero in that he is less concerned about himself than everyone else around him. That on top of the fact that he doesn't kill. Making this character weak isn't an easy task, making him flawed just isn't really possible.
The thing that Zack Snyder does is focus on his lack of an identity, his not knowing his real parents and him being singled out from society. He was bullied as a kid and is forced to restrain his powers. That approach humanises his character and makes him more relatable.
300 - King Leonidas
In this article interview with Zack Snyder about Man of Steel:
He is talking about characters once again. He says:
“When
I was young and felt like I didn’t fit in or that I didn’t know what my place
in the world was, you know I didn’t have super powers but I definitely could
have, understand the way he was feeling.”
Showing us once again, that Zack is very character based. He makes films with good stories that make sense most of the time, discounting the 300 scenes with mutant goat men but they can be explained by one means or another. He has a very good idea of how to tell a good story because the characters in it are all extensively thought out.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
In summary, I think I understand what makes Zack Snyder such a good film-maker, director and storyteller. I believe it is because he bring the human element to the characters in the films. In 300, Leonidas is a man bound by honour who commands the respect of his men and goes against the law to defend his land, Superman was bullied as a child and is an alien walking the earth in search of who is he, the heroine in Suckerpunch is a frightened yet brave young girl who is coping with the horrifying process of having a lobotomy by imagining a fantasy world full of challenges and trials.
They aren't a movies about a king killing armies, a super alien fighting aliens or a girl in a fantasy land fighting dragons and robots. They are films about real people who have real problems and their stories are told in a way that we can relate to them and therefore, empathise, route for and adore them. Zack Snyder is such a great director because he brings his total honesty and deepest understanding of human truth to his work.
