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Danny
06-May-2006, 03:03 AM
i think this topic goes out to all the amatuer/ full time directors, writers, producers (snigger) ,and whatever who are or whant to get into the film industry, hollywood OR indie, so heres the topic.
what are the films that you think changed the way you wrote completely or inspired you to becmoe a director or simply made you notice certain cinematic techniques in new ways?.
to start off heres mine.

1:dawn of the dead, one of my all time favourite films, its got plenty of social commentary from the time period and one catchy electro soundtrack,lol. dont know why but when the cameraman at the start says "were not needed anymore" it really stuck with me and i dont know why...:shifty:

2:reservoir dogs, not tarantinos best film (english mother****er, do you speak it?) but i first saw this when i began to actually get into filming rather than just writeing and it really got me into the whole film studenty thing of trying to read the "symbolism and connotations" in everything, regardless if there was meaning or not.

3:haggard, little to no budget but still as funny as any hollywood teen grossout comedy l.a chruns out each summer.

4:the lord of the rings the fellowship of the ring, easily my favourite of the trilogy and one of the only times i have seen cgi implemented in a tasteful way not just to "wow" the audience, and im a really 'anti-cg' kind of guy.

5:jurassic park, the first film i ever saw so naturally its gonna stick with me but i remember watching it and thinking "i want steven speilburgs job" that was years ago but i remember it like it was yesterday.....a blurry yesterday granted, but yesterday none-the-less.

6:vampires vs zombies, the first and only time ive said with geniune honesty "jesus christ i could do better than that", in fact i doubt anyone on this ofurm couldnt, if this were zombie nation however thatd be a different story:lol: .

7:peeping tom, the first film i saw in film studies that was something id NEVER watch in my social time but i thought it was allright and learnt some interesting stuff during the few lessons on it.

8:jackass the movie, i was told time and again by freinds and family that i was "livin' in a bloody fairyworld" for wanting to be a director,this film inspired me though made with hardly any cash and it did what i wanted my films to do, be entertaining not money makers ,cus one thing about british and aussie directors, we aint in it for the money man!,and so here i am a year on with three short films ,one horror two comedy, under my belt (being so poor i had to write direct and star in em kevin smith style:cool: ) and the freinds that laughed at me for following a dream now work at comet. funkers.

9: hellboy, rekindled my love of comic books and even the shortest of my films has been in an almost completely different style to my earlier works, cheers mr del toro.

10:finally we have the matrix, the first film i saw that really left me going "...huh?" ,and i can guess what happens in each film i see during i see it for the first time ,so this was a rare thing and i think its stuck with me and influenced the way i write as well as direct.

11: the wicker man, trust me when people call it good you think its artsy student ****....it is but it still rocks though and christopher ..... whatever his sruname is was great as lord summerisle.

12:cky- landspeed, just makes you wanna run out with your mini-dv and grab a shopping cart.

13:evil dead , purely because i know tend to add the word "groovy" at least once in a ny films i do with combat and comedy in them.

14:transformers the movie , everyone has a flick they watched as a kid so much there parents hid the tape or destroyed it this was mine....sniff...whyd you hafta die optimus......

15:trailer park boys, its just something a little out of the ordinary and the way it plays out is damn funny and cheap to film, very cool.

16: the blair witch project, the holy grail of an indie director cheap to make, entertaining and highly sucessful, though with a sequel worse than jedi to menace. *shudders*.

17: just thought id add "the conversation" cant believe none else said it meself...

livingdeadboy
06-May-2006, 11:38 AM
Jaws: As always been, and will always be the movie that has inspired me the most above all.

Videodrome:I'm a canadian, and watching fellow canuk David Cronenberg do his magic on the big screen is always inspiring to some degree.

Reservoir Dogs:In my opinion, its the best of Tarantinos movies, it's got such an awesome raw nature to it.

Day of the dead: It was the first zombie flick I saw when I was in Grade 4 ten years ago , so needless to say, it planted that seed.

MinionZombie
06-May-2006, 11:43 AM
I've got something like that up on my site, wrote it quite a while ago now, but it was director based.

Inspirations (http://www.geocities.com/deadshedproductions/inspirations.html)

Some of them are kinda reaching a bit, and some I'd probably take down now as they don't inspire me anymore. I remember when I was filming "my NIGHTMARE", coming up on two years ago now (blimey, how the time flies), I was all about referencing The Evil Dead, hehe. By the time I got to Trapped I'd moved away from referencing, although on a short film I'm planning at the moment I've got one reference I want to put in, a kind of jokey, pokey funny atty typy thingy. :D

But I think The Evil Dead films are the ones I've referenced most in my time, most notably on a short clip for Uni Video 5 called "floaters", haha.

Danny
06-May-2006, 11:47 AM
aye same here in one short i did these guys are in a village hall, which was convieniently 20 yards from my house:D and they are surrounded by poorley done up zombies, they decide to make a run for it one picks up a shovel in a dramatic way and says "groovy" then the high tension music stops the other two blokes and the girl look at him ,he goes "what?" and they go "i cant believe you just said that", and he goes "seemed like the right place for it", then the straight faced part of the scene continues.

MinionZombie
06-May-2006, 01:18 PM
Now that's the sort of reference I like :)

Danny
06-May-2006, 02:35 PM
well i do a bit of stand up comedy so i dont think ive ever written a punless script, i just can'ne do it i don' ave the power!:cool:

Pistolero Films
31-May-2006, 06:09 PM
Well besides the obvious ones like NOTLD and DOTD I would say:

1. The Good The Bad & The Ugly - masterpeice on cheapo budget.
2. Tombstone - great storytelling using historical facts.
3. 28 Days Later - Shot on a Canon xl1, with no extras for some scenes...
4. The Breakfast Club - one location, focus on characters.
5. The LOTR series - something that "couldnt be done" was done.
6. Finding Nemo - characters and story.
7 Panic in the Year Zero - Awesome 50s apocalyptic movie focus on characters again.
8. Apocalypse Now - All I can say is wow.

That's about it...I got lots of favs, but those are the ones I take most from.

zombie04
31-May-2006, 10:24 PM
I stopped making stuff with my friends since we all went off the college, but I like to keep writing and throw ideas around in my head. Never know if I might get back into filmmaking. But for me it's

Reservoir Dogs-rough dialogue, gritty feeling about it, considering what they're doing in the movie I love how casual they are

Once Upon a Time in the West-One of the best movies ever, plus they wrote the script around the music which I thought was interesting

Pulp Fiction-Well, I've seen this movie literally over 300 times so that should sum it up for you, but when i was writing a script while watching this movie every night, I noticed I put a lot of f words in the script by accident

Rear Window-One location, tastefully done

Breakfast Club-character development

Naked Gun-my kind of humor

Last but not least...
Star Wars Episodes IV, V, VI-I just love the sense of adventure these movies had when I watched them when I was like 3. They've stuck with me and I still love watching them.

bassman
31-May-2006, 11:02 PM
Last but not least...
Star Wars Episodes IV, V, VI-I just love the sense of adventure these movies had when I watched them when I was like 3. They've stuck with me and I still love watching them.

Ditto....

Those and the "Raiders" films. Ultimate adventure...

Danny
01-Jun-2006, 02:42 AM
[QUOTE=Pistolero Films]
3. 28 Days Later - Shot on a Canon xl1, with no extras for some scenes...
4. The Breakfast Club - one location, focus on characters.
QUOTE]

yeah 28 dyas doesnt get the recognition it deserves, but the breakfast club?, bad pistolero, boo-hiss-boo!:D

zombie04
01-Jun-2006, 03:03 AM
yeah 28 dyas doesnt get the recognition it deserves, but the breakfast club?, bad pistolero, boo-hiss-boo!:D

the Breakfast Club isn't that bad. Of all the teen movies from the 80s its the one that can be called the best. It didn't rely on cheap sex jokes that were repeated in every other movie of the time. It stood out as being different, even though there were a few cheesy parts in it. Far from perfect, but great for what it was meant to be.

Danny
01-Jun-2006, 03:21 AM
okay ,good point, that i cna accept but if anyone says 16 candles or whatever it was called were going down, DOWNTOWN!:lol:

zombie04
01-Jun-2006, 03:31 AM
okay ,good point, that i cna accept but if anyone says 16 candles or whatever it was called were going down, DOWNTOWN!:lol:

All the way to Chinatown....And Chinatown was a damn good movie too, unfortunately I can't say the same for the Two Jakes.

DjfunkmasterG
01-Jun-2006, 01:16 PM
This is a tough question. It really is.

ok as far as the zombie aspect I used all zombie films I have seen and enjoyed. (DAWN 78, DAWN 04, DAY, NIGHT, ROTLD 1 & 2)

Dialogue - for military type scenes I had heavy influence from films like Air Force One, The Hunt For Red October, and Full Metal Jacket

Dialogue - Civillian - Buddy scenes - I reference Lethal Weapon quite bit. Some Breakfast Club.

Overall feel - I like how George set the mood on DAWN 1978. I wanted that exact same mood present through most of the picture, but I also wanted to tap into Brain Dead a little bit as well.

Zombie Characteristics - ROTLD/DAWN04 - DAWN 78/DAY 85

It is hard for me to answer a question like this out of the blue, but if someone asked me what I am aiming for to fill out a scene on set I would say... Ok remember in such and such film when so & so went up to this person etc etc. I can let that roll off my lips like that. When an actor isn't hitting the mark I want or the performance I need I try to tell them exactly what they are missing. (You're too smiley, remember you just ran away from etc etc:) if their expression is too hokey or they aren't carrying the emotion I will say something right away.

I would love to use all my favorite films as a reference, but alas I cannot and I end up cutting it down to the essentials I need to tell the story.

Adrenochrome
01-Jun-2006, 01:29 PM
Night of the Living Dead
Day of the Dead
Eraserhead
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
The Good The Bad & The Ugly
Blazing Saddles
Bladerunner
THX 1138
Duel
Brazil

DjfunkmasterG
01-Jun-2006, 02:05 PM
Night of the Living Dead
Day of the Dead
Eraserhead
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
The Good The Bad & The Ugly
Blazing Saddles
Bladerunner
THX 1138
Duel
Brazil

That is a good list. I like it


BTW< your animated gif in your signature is really creeping me out man! :D

Danny
03-Jun-2006, 06:47 AM
I've got something like that up on my site, wrote it quite a while ago now, but it was director based.

Inspirations (http://www.geocities.com/deadshedproductions/inspirations.html)



well ive checked out some of your vids and there pretty damn cool, trapped was pretty much what i expected but i was surprised that i liked digital and manhunt did it more than smack addicts and deadshed.