Wednesday 28 November 2012

Aauteur: Steven spielberg



Steven Spielberg is an inspirational figure. His films are among the best ever made and the net gross of them speaks for themselves, he smashed records after records his films. From the big honors like Oscars, and Golden Globes, to small achievements awards.  
Even Mr. Spielberg himself seem to have gone off road in terms of his ideas as he became more established Director and the studios gave him more budget and freedom. He gave a great speech after presented by an award, and he talked about many things, including his early work and what got him into filmmaking.


Looking back at his early life of making small budget shorts and TV, he mentioned his first short he made for his boys scout he was in and the response he got “ They laughed both with and at the movie and I didn’t care, it was a response, and the response set me on fire”.  His obsession with the audience and how he loved getting feedback and looking into his target audience made him more interested in making more things. He enjoyed people’s reaction and that made him more interested in what other people thought. “ I never wanted to live without some kind of affirmation, some kinds of collective feedback” He mentions feedback which meant a lot to him and showing it to his boy scout meant that the feedback he got whether it was laughing or any response was genuine. That is why we all ask closest people to us for some feedback because it comes from within, Honesty comes from those who Love and care for you.



He carries on to talk about how his research towards his target audiences, “ maybe that’s why my early movies were all about you (the audience), making you my partners, thinking about you behind the camera, thinking what would turn you on, what would get you exited, what would make you laugh, scream and how can I create suspense”

I believe that says a lot about Directors and what happens to them later on. He mentions that his early work were all about us the audience; he researched into ways to play with people’s feelings and emotions through story telling. The fact that he mentions his early work was all about us, he acknowledges that he rather wondered off to doing what he thought was a dream job and hoping we like it. His early works were memorable and have been in the ‘classics’ lists and ‘masterpiece’. As he became better known and production value of his films grew, it became all about visuals and less ideas. His recent masterpiece was over ten years now, Catch me If You Can, and that was a period piece drama. It seems to have lost the touch in terms of the Sci-Fi genre, but he never lost his touch for drama.


In addition, that proves a point that budget does affect the story. The bigger the budget, directors happen to focus on making the film look good instead of what the message it about or what they trying to show us. Looking back at E.T, you get a pure hearted simple and sweet film, about kids having parental problems and having hard time trusting adults. Having heard his speech about his childhood life, his father being away a lot and having to figure out things himself, I believe the kids are representatives of himself as kid. E.T is masterpiece of animatronics (the alien) it moved and expressed itself as human being even though you knew there were people pulling the wires behind. “It turned me into an 11-year-old when I first saw them."


During the shoot of Real Steel (2011), the actor Hugh Jackman claimed Mr Spielberg contribution to CGI and Robots, is that they use a genuine Robot. Make an actual Robot to use in the film shoot. "[Steven] found with Jurassic Park that the more real elements you can have, the better it is,"

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