The Hollow Pond
MAHD Productions
Iconic Thriller Director Case Study: Christopher Nolan
Director of Memento, The Prestige, Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Best known for his cerebral, often non-linear storytelling.
He usually starts his films with a flashback or a scene from the end of the movie.
His films usually revolve around characters that are afflicted with some kind of psychological disorder.
Always collaborates with composer Hans Zimmer due to the powerful and eerie scores he creates, matching the tone of his films.
The main characters in his films tend to be anti-heroes (far from perfect).
His endings have a recurring theme of justified dishonesty.
Nolan’s movies have been nominated for several awards, including BAFTA and Academy Award.
“It's definitely something that I have a fear of - not being in control of your own life”- Christopher Nolan
Iconic Thriller Director Case Study: David Fincher
Director of Alien3, Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Known for making films about mass murder (Zodiac, Se7en) and his films are often very detailed accounts of real events (Zodiac and Social Network); suicide also features heavily in his films.
The structure of his films tend to involve flashbacks to build tension, which supports the common structure of his films; they work like a puzzle as all the pieces always comes together in the end.
His movies often feature several single frames that flash on the screen in the middle of a scene (Fight Club).
He frequently has characters in the shadows where you cannot make out their face (Se7en and Fight Club).
His work has been nominated for numerous BAFTA and Academy Awards (he has directed four Oscar nominated performances) and he is seen as one of the most iconic directors of all time.
“I don't know how much movies should entertain. To me, I'm always interested in movies that scar. The thing I love about Jaws is the fact that I've never gone swimming in the ocean again”- David Fincher
Iconic Thriller Director Case Study: Alfred Hitchcock
Director of Psycho, The Birds, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, North By Northwest, Vertigo, The Wrong Man and many more.
Known as ‘The Master of Suspense’.
Often used the "wrong man" or "mistaken identity" theme in his movies.
In order to create suspense in his films, he would alternate between different shots to extend cinematic time.
There is a recurrent motif of lost or assumed identity.
Liked to use major stars in his films that the audience was familiar with, so he could dispense with character development and focus more on the plot.
Inspired the adjective "Hitchcockian" for suspense thrillers.
"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it"- Alfred Hitchcock
By analysing successful directors, we can see how they came to be successful and imitate them in our own work. The mentioned directors are all known thriller directors, so by incorparating some of their codes and conventions and trademarks, we'll verify the genre of our film as a thriller.
~Mark
*Hannah Lee*
