Top Ten List: A Discussion of Influence

To set the scene:

INT. BAR – NIGHT

A lone trumpet wails as crowds of the fashionably adorned clamor to have their picture snapped. Candles imbue the sprawling lounge with a warm glow, the glasses sparkle, the beer flows.

Huddled in a back corner, hiding from the giddy masses, two people lean in close, their words exchanged in a flurry of whispers. Ignoring their surroundings, they are waist deep in a conversation of immense importance. They are discussing the origin of an idea.

***

It’s a question that every writer gets. It doesn’t matter what stage of your career you are at; if you have written, somebody will be asking. And Monday night as I sat in LA’s Dresden, a lounge I occasionally frequent with friends in the vicinity of Hollywood Blvd and Vermont Ave, it was my turn to be asked. I just shot my first post-college short film and my crew and I were out celebrating our survival through the weekend of insanity. My DP, 1st AC, and I were discussing our complicated final shot, debating whether we had failed or succeeded in its execution (a question that will most likely not be answered until editing is complete, if even then).

My DP (Director of Photography) went off for another beer while the 1st AC (Assistant Camera) and I continued to talk. Until he stopped me.

“Okay, enough, this is a great chat but I want to talk about you. You’re incredibly interesting and I want inside your head.”

My first reaction is Oh great, is this a line? But it wasn’t and what followed was a detailed discussion of my influences and where exactly all of the ideas for my short came from. It’s not an easy straightforward list. My influences range from visual to narrative, they include film, music, even poetry. The evolution of an idea is not simple and its genesis is still a mystery. But that discussion made me think about it in a more thorough way than I had previously. And that thought led me to create this list I am about to present to you.

It’s a list of my influences. Not every single influence, but the top ten films that in some way led me to make the choices I made for this specific project. Some of these films have influenced me in a very general way and could be listed as an influence for anything I create. Or in one case, it was a single shot in a single scene that led my to a stylistic decision for half of my film. Either way. It’s a brief glimpse into my head that I’m writing as much for your entertainment as I am for my own desire to express myself.

With that I shall begin. Here now: My top ten most personally influential films of the moment. Presented in a rough order of what exactly their influence has been.

In The Mood For Love (2000) dir. Wong Kar Wai , cinematography Chris Doyle.
Set in Hong Kong, In The Mood For Love tells the story of a man and woman who engage in a hopeless love affair. Brought together by the affair that their spouses are having, trapped by the constraints of propriety, their great passion can never be consummated. Instead, they share save their secret to never be forgotten even as it can never be known by anyone other than themselves. For me this film is influential across the board, stylistically and narratively. The flowing cinematography, the color palette, the use of slow motion, the obscuring foreground, the use of soft focus, the framing of characters. More importantly it’s how all of these elements compliment the narrative, rather than just being used for the sake of looking pretty. From the narrative end, it’s how the story evolves, how the characters are developed, and most importantly how the love story is told.

2046 (2004) dir. Wong Kar Wai, cinematography Chris Doyle.
A rough sequel to 2000’s In The Mood For Love, 2046 continues the story of Chow Mo Wan and how he has dealt with his failed love. It follows his affairs with several female characters and explores a story he himself is writing. It has many of the same themes and stylistic choices as In The Mood For Love. For me specifically, the end of my film is a nod to a moment in this. It was also an influence in my choices for set design and helped form the color palette I ultimately chose with the help of my Production Designer.

The Bridges of Madison County (1995) dir. Clint Eastwood, cinematography Jack Green.
It’s a film I would only rate 3, maybe 3 1/2 stars on its own and as such I think it’s a great example of how even the smallest thing can be hugely important. It’s the love story between a normal farm wife and a wandering photographer. The frame story is problematic but Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood are great as always. The moment for me in this film is brief. As they dance in her kitchen, as they act on their desire, there is one shot in this one scene that caught my eye. The framing, and most importantly how the characters are lit, were the jumping off point for the lighting scheme my DP and I designed for our entire love scene.

Osaka Elegy (1936) dir. Kenji Mizoguchi, cinematography Minoru Miki.
When A Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) dir. Mikio Naruse, cinematography Masao Tamai.
I’m listing these both together because they are both influential in the same narrative way. The films both tell stories of women struggling with life in a world controlled by men. While melodramas, I find them more subdued than their American counterparts. They explore “women’s issues” and explore themes similar to the ones I included in my own story. Love vs. duty, freedom, independence, hope, despair, and the choices that these women must ultimately make.

Children of Men (2006) dir. Alfonso Cuaron, cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki.
This could possibly be the most influential film for film students for the next few years. For me it actually wasn’t a huge, huge influence. My DP and I discussed it while we were talking about how we wanted to go about shooting the film in general. What it led us to was a couple of long takes and a slightly wandering camera. Both things that complimented my original ideas very nicely.

The Gleaners and I (2000) dir. Agnes Varda.
Along with Gimme Shelter, The Gleaners and I is one of my favorite documentaries. In both films the camera not only records the story being told, it gets inside of it, becomes a part of it. The Gleaners and I is a stylistic influence for me, the use of close-ups of different objects, and the personal exploration the Varda engages in. It’s as much about her own personal journey as it is about her subject. It’s a great general influence and has greatly informed my use of the close-up shot.

Umberto D. (1954) dir. Vittorio De Sica, cinematography G.R. Aldo.
One of the best (and my favorite) examples of Italian Neo-Realism, Umberto D. tells the story of an aging government worker and his small dog Flick. It’s a painful exploration of a man falling through the cracks of society. It’s sad and beautiful and moving. It influenced the writing of my dialogue, or rather, the not writing of my dialogue and leaving a good bit of room for improv with my actors. I allowed them to take their characters and make them a part of themselves. While my film is certainly not a neo-realist work, I did aim to create something rooted in something real.

Unforgiven (1992) dir. Clint Eastwood, cinematography Jack Green.
There isn’t really a specific moment of influence in this film. Rather, it’s the general look and atmosphere, the moments of quiet, how the characters develop. While Osaka Elegy and When a Women are both very definitely “women’s films”, Unforgiven is very definitely a “man’s film”. I guess having more of a male centered perspective prevented me from making my film entirely melodramatic. Mostly this influence is vague at best, a feeling rather than a specific example.

These last two films are general influences rather than specific. For me, they would go on any list anywhere about where I draw my inspiration from. In fact, when asked what my favorite film is, the last entry to this list is my answer.

L’Avventura (1960) dir. Michelangelo Antonio, cinematography Aldo Scavarda.
While it’s exact merits are often debated and questioned, some people love it while others hate it, I have been hugely affected by this film ever since my first viewing as a freshman in college. In general, it’s the way that Antonio uses his visuals to tell more of the story than any narrative device. Film is a powerful medium and I think the importance of the image is sometimes forgotten. Speaking more specifically, what it’s really about for me in this case is how the story is told. It’s all of the missing bits. Sometimes the things that are most important exist between the lines; it’s the silences that are more telling the verbal exchanges. It’s as much what is unsaid as it is what is said. I hate over telling a story and I like to have a little faith that the audience is intelligent enough to read into the parts in between.

Jaws (1975) dir. Steven Spielberg, cinematography Bill Butler.
And this is it. My answer to that questions every filmmaker gets, the question that has no easy answer. Of course I always qualify by first explaining that there are so many films, so many things I love, that it’s impossible to name just one. But if I had to pick, this movie is it. It’s narrative perfection, every element comes together to tell the story. Every moment is used, not a second is wasted. It’s the movie that made me love movies. And when I was first exploring filmmaking, first trying my hand at it, Jaws was what was there with me, encouraging me, pushing me to go just a little bit further. So while you may not be able to pick out a specific moment in my work that shows its influence, the fact that my work exists at all is evidence enough.

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And there it is. A look inside my head. I hope you liked it! I think my 1st AC did.