DEVELOPING UR STYLE

I have found that the easiest way to develop your voice and style is to dissect all the things that you like. 9X out of 10, what you like is what you want to do or achieve. You have to critically figure out the most minute detail that appeals to you, figure out why you like it and develop it into you oeuvre. To figure out the things I like I made a list (its always good to make lists) of all my favorite films at that moment or in general. Then you figure out what all these films have in common. Even if you don't think they do... THEY DO! You may not see it at first, and it may take you weeks or months to figure it out, but there is something in common with all the things you like, once you figure it out, you are on your way.

When I was 16 I made a list of all my favorite films at the time. They included. Menace II Society, Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, and Goodfellas. Outside of the fact that all these films were extremely violent and dealt with gangsters, what I was really attracted to was they all had ensemble casts. I like films that have tons of characters, who had great dialogue. Now you can say these films all deal with violence, gangsters, and subcultures. If you were looking at this list that may be the 1st thing that jumps out at you, but it was the cast for me, so don't accept the answers that pop out at you until it FEELS RIGHT, trust me you'll know. Just don't lie to yourself, I want to emphazie that, b/c alot of times when things seem difficult you may look for the easy way out and that will only hinder your craft in the end, you have to be relentless in your pursuit, no matter how stupid you may feel. I'll give you an example.

Back when I couldn't afford to go to the movies or have cable, I watched music videos to get my fill of cinema. I would come up with entire music videos in my head, edits and all. I would tape music videos and watch them over and over, memorizing the shots and trying to figure out how they did it behind the scenes. I loved Hype Williams the most and the video for Nas' Street Dreams was a parody of the film Casino. This had the best colors and cinematography I had ever seen, but the best shot in the video to me was the one that wasn't intended to be that cool. Look below it's at 00:36-00:40 it was just as Nas walks to his car before it blows up. The shot is of his feet walking and he walks from the fore ground and gets in the car.



I kept saying "this is the best shot in the video" but I couldn't figure out why, and I became obsessed with it. I watched it over and over, seriously, I watched this 4 second shot for an hour straight trying to figure out why I like it so much. I watched it on fast forward and rewind, slo-motion, frame by frame, and slo-motion rewinding... every way! I'm completely serious I watched it close up, and sitting far back, I watched it laying on my side and laying upside down with my head hanging off the couch, I just couldn't get it. Then I watched it at slo-mo at 1/8, then 1/4, and finally 1/2 speed. THEN I SAW IT! The cam. is at ground level and it glides to the right. At the bottom of the frame are the rocks, in the middle ground is the car, and in the background is the house. All 3 of these things are moving at a different speed as the camera moves and that's what made me love the shot so much. Then I remembered where I had also seen it, it was Michael Bay movies. It was in the chase scene in Bad Boys and The Rock, and more recently in Hot Fuzz. look at 04:59



It was the movement of the different depths of field at once that I loved. So I started thinking how can I use that and take it to the next level. I came up with putting a body cam on a person, then putting that person on a dolly cam like the floating shots that Spike Lee does all the time. Haven't personally done it yet, but I can guarantee the results will be extremely visceral and unlike anything you've ever seen.

I just use this as a case in point to say don't deny what you like, b/c at first I told myself it was stupid to think Nas walking to his car was the best shot, especially after seeing the entire video. So you have to decode why you like the things that you like, and apply them to what you want to do. Another quick example is Davinci's Last Supper. I always thought the pic was extremely weird and had a weird vibe to it in the way everybody was placed. It wasn't until the DaVinci Code came out that I discovered "mirroring" and that the painting could be superimposed on top of itself to create more meaning. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate that into cinema.