When choosing a director to study for this project, I had a hard time picking between Wes Anderson, Baz Lurhmann and Richard Curtis. As I chose Richard Curtis as my main focus for the project, I have now chosen to do a bit of research into Wes Anderson, his key works and his directorial style as he is one of my favourite directors.
Wesley Wales Anderson
- Wes Anderson was born on 1st May 1969 in Texas.
- He went to Westchester High School and St John's prep school, the latter provided Wes with inspiration for his film Rushmore (1998).
- Later, he studied Philosophy at the University of Texas where he met Owen Wilson. They began making short films together, one of their short films Bottle Rocket (1994) was screened at Sundance Film Festival and proved to be a success.
- Bottle Rocket received funding to turn it into a feature length film, this was not as successfully received but did gain fans including Martin Scorsese.
Wes Anderson has a very distinct style that is prevalent across all of his works, you can always tell when you're watching one of his pieces.
His style can be seen developing throughout the years in his first 8 films. It is apparent through these stills that Wes Anderson's style is constantly evolving into an more stylised as intricate art form.
- Bottle Rocket (1996) - we can see Wes' style start to emerge from his very first feature length film. The first thing to note is the presence of a colour scheme. The is a large amount of blue, green, red and yellow in the shots in this film. Wes Anderson's use of red and yellow in his films has been widely recognised, but I think it's also important to realise he also has another colour palette running throughout each of his films. This colour palette helps Wes' films achieve that stylised look. There is also great usage of wide angle shots, a shot type Wes has repeatedly used throughout his films.
- Rushmore (1998) - Again we can see Wes Anderson has developed a muted colour palette for this film, featuring colours such as dark green, browns and of course red and yellow. We can also start to see Wes' use of a centred image start to emerge more prominently.
- The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - Wes Anderson's love for the colours red and yellow really show through in this film with these vibrant colours being widely used. Wes' centred camera position is even more apparent in this film. We also begin to see the use of overhead shots more in this film.
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) - Again Wes' use of red and yellow is prevalent within this film. There is also greater use of centred and overhead shots. This shows Wes' directorial style in full action.
- The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - Throughout Wes' later films it becomes increasingly apparent that he follows the same techniques but applies them in different ways to suit the storyline. This film is riddled with centred, overhead and tracking shots. The great use of yellow in this film is very evident from the stills pictured above.
- Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) - I find this film fascinating as it shows Wes Anderson's true talent as a director. He was able to transfer his directorial style to a stop motion animated film, something not many directors would have as much success in doing. It is also very interesting that Wes Anderson didn't have the actors record the voices in studios. They went out to natural locations like forests and underground in order to get the most spontaneous recordings. Wes Anderson is notorious for his use of long tracking shots, stating that he likes the use of them as it gives a sense of 'tension and excitement'[1], he managed to carry this across into an animated film in his own way by making the voice actors record their pieces spontaneously in natural settings.
- Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - Wes Anderson again uses a lot of centred shots in this piece, especially on close up shots of people's faces. Again, there is a very notable colour palette in this film, there is a great use of red, yellow, green and blue. The green and blue helps to depict the naturalist environment the film is set in, whilst the red and yellow helps to give the film Wes Anderson's signature style. The use of letter is also a very prominent part of this film. The way Wes shows the letter is very stylised, and this style can be seen across his films whenever any sort of letter or newspaper is shown.
- The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - As Wes' latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel depicts his style in full glory. The vibrant colour palette of mainly reds with some yellows and blues scattered here and there make the piece striking and eye catching. There is also great usage of centred, overhead and tracking shots, making the film easily identifiable as one of his works. This film is so intricate and really shows Wes Anderson's talent as a director.
Wes Anderson's Directorial Style:
Colour Palettes:
As previously mentioned, Wes Anderson typically forms a colour palette for each of his films. The colour palette will usually include some form of red and yellow, along with some other muted colours which compliment each other throughout the film.
Bottle Rocket
As Wes Anderson's first feature length film, Bottle Rocket arguably has the widest colour palette. The film still includes one of the most stylistically 'Andersonian' colours - red. The other colours are quite muted, a theme that is notable in all Wes Anderson's work.
Rushmore
Rushmore has a very muted colour palette. Even the light colours in the spectrum have a dark, dusty look to them. As with each of Anderson's films, red is again a prominent colour.
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums sticks with Wes Anderson's theme of muted colours, with the exception of reds and yellows. There is a great usage of red and yellow throughout this film, making it notably a Wes Anderson film.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou uses a red / orange as a prevalent colour throughout the film. Although the colours in this film are still quite muted, the blues do come across more vibrant than he features his other colours in his other films.
The Darjeeling Limited
The Darjeeling Limited again features a very specific colour palette. The outside scenery uses a lot of muted colours and light colours with pastel hues. Whereas the colours used on the inside of settings is often very vibrant.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr Fox features a very vibrant colour palette which focuses around the colour yellow. Many of the colours featured in this film are variations of the colour yellow, with browns and oranges also being frequently used.
Moonrise Kingdom
Moonrise Kingdom uses a lot of muted, desaturated colours to give the film a vintage feel and evoke a sense of nostalgia and warmth. Wes Anderson wanted to convey "a very powerful experience of childhood romance"[2] in the film, therefore I feel the sense of nostalgia created by the colour scheme helps the audience to think back to their childhood and perhaps any 'romances' they had.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Grand Budapest Hotel features two very distinct colour palettes. The colour palette for the settings and outfits within the hotel setting is a lot deeper and darker than the colour palette used for the outside of the hotel and for settings such as the above where they are surrounded by Mendl's packaging. The colour palette within the hotel consists of mainly reds and purples, connoting the lavish nature of the establishment. The colours, along with the different aspect ratios used within the film also help to define the different time periods within the film (1930s, 1960s and 1980s).
Shot types:
Wes Anderson makes great use of centred shot types. He has defined this as his sort of 'handwriting' as a director, it is his way of making his films unique and identifiable. By shooting in this manner, Anderson openly breaks the 'rule of thirds' but does so effectively, this creates a beautiful and striking look to his films. Although critics have argued that his overuse of this centred shot type makes it lose its power, I think its admirable that he sticks to his conventions as it enhances his signature style. I also feel this helps to separate the audience from the film. This centred shot type is somewhat unnatural, keeping the audience from getting too involved in the film. Instead, the audience is left on the outside and left to appreciate the story and the visual aspect of the film in all its glory.
Another common shot type used by Wes Anderson is the shot from above. This transports the audience into the perspective of the character, however the staged nature of the shot keeps the unnatural feel. This shot type is very striking and helps to convey the story in a visually pleasing manner.
Whenever a character uses a mode of transport within a film, a POV shot from the vehicle is typically used. POV shots are typically used to immerse the audience in the action, however, like the above shots, there is an unnatural feel to these shots due to the way they are staged, therefore they are rarely used to immerse the audience within the action (perhaps with the exception of the sledge in The Grand Budapest Hotel. This shot really works to involve the audience in the chase).
These shot types all help to make Wes Anderson's films distinguishable from other directors' works. Wes goes above and beyond to separate his work from the rest (such as the unique idea of using different aspect ratios for the shots in The Grand Budapest Hotel to define the different time periods).
Sound design:
Wes Anderson has generally worked with the same music supervisor, Randall Poster, for his films. This again helps to separate Anderson's films from other directors as he has a high level of consistency in his films (consistent shot types, colour palettes, sound design etc). This all combines together to give him his signature style.
How has this inspired my work?
I've always admired the way Wes Anderson uses colour within his films, but I could never quite figure out what made his films so striking. I have now realised that I need to pick a colour palette that I want to use for my piece and stick with it throughout the piece. This will give my piece a level of consistency. I have also always admired the way Wes Anderson is able to almost force his audience to appreciate the visual beauty of his work. He does this by keeping them mainly outside of the action, therefore the audience are left to look at the story and see it unfold, they almost have no other choice but to appreciate the aesthetic he creates.
In my piece I want to use colour as one of my main focuses. One of the main colours I want to use is red but what I have learnt from this research is that I need to choose other colours to compliment this and keep them consistent throughout the piece. I also wanted to focus on the visual aspect of the story telling, Wes' style of directing has definitely given me a lot to think about in terms of different shot types to try out and experiment with and see what effect they produce.
[1] Way Too Indie (2014) Mise En Scène & The Visual Themes of Wes Anderson [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wTcFeSYQ18 [Accessed on: 06/02/2017]
[2] Roger Ebert (2014) The Wes Anderson Collection Chapter 7: Moonrise Kingdom [online] Available at: https://vimeo.com/77749860 [Accessed on: 06/02/2017]
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