The Theory of Films

The Importance of The Director 

The director of a film is one of the most essential parts of the movie-making process. In modern cinema, the director usually has the most input on the films tone, pacing and overall themes. If the director has either adapted their own property into film (Quentin Tarantino: Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction/ Edgar Wright: Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) or have based their material on other existing properties, but have adapted them enough to be classified as a product of their own (Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Heart's of Darkness, Apocalypse Now/ Brian De Palma's 1983 remake of Scarface), these directors can be referred to as 'Auteur Directors', as they are considered the authors of the story they have put into film. 

Many auteur directors have their own method and style to film making. While Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception) focuses on telling his narratives through a realistic and believable world, similar to our own, other auteur directors may stick to creating surreal and uncanny worlds to base their narratives in, such as Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Life Aquatic). Each of these methods can create the required tone and effect of the movie which the director strives for, the themes and tone of Nolan's Inception would jarringly juxtapose the lighthearted world created in the majority of Anderson films. 

Edgar Wright's Method of Film making: Baby Driver

British auteur director Edgar Wright is synonymous for his anthology series of films, The Cornetto Trilogy. As the title of this trilogy may suggest, Wright usually adopts a comedic and somewhat lighthearted approach to his films tone, however they usually deal with some heavy issues within the narrative. Wright's latest feature length film, Baby Driver, follows his unconventional style to film making. While the films setting might take place in a realistic depiction of a twenty-first century American city, Wright's use of post and mid production editing makes the city a much more surreal environment. For example in the first act, main character 'Baby' is sent to get some coffee for the rest of the group (a bank robbery group) and as he dances down the street to the dietetic music from his headphones, a number of things in the background match the lyrics he is listening to. This is to emphasise Baby's joyous and upbeat mood at the time, as though the world around him is moving to the beat of the song.

Wright's Use Of Editing To Create a Surrealist World
Edgar Wright uses large amounts of visible editing to give his films a visceral, surreal tone as well as give the film a fast pace. This is particularly evident in Baby Driver, as the films narrative lends itself to fast paced, visceral editing within in action sequences. For example, the first car chase scene has multiple shots from the inside of the car, then swiftly cuts to long shots from outside the car. This creates a blend of authentic realism as the audience is placed in the back seat of the car, while also supplying a sense of intensity as the long shots add to the tension and drama of what is unfolding on screen.
While some may argue that fast cuts can create a rather uneven pacing to a film, Wright uses them sparingly to avoid slow moments which could potentially cause boredom in the audience.  For example, every tasks such as making coffee or doing laundry is sped up to keep the pacing of the film at a constant speed while also showing the characters going through their daily routines of life.

The Use Of Unordinary Characters
In order to achieve a surreal feeling to the world in the film, Wright makes the characters far more stranger than people in the ordinary world, with the most relatable characters being main character Baby and Debra. Since these are the films main characters, it is important that the audience feel a connection to them in order to be invested in their narrative. Other characters, such as Jamie Fox's Bats, are far more bizarre than the ordinary person, this allows the audience to further connect to the most grounded people in the film and clearly distinguish the antagonist's from the protagonist's. However, making the line between the good and bad characters so clear often results in a predictable and cliched narrative, which is why Wright switches the main antagonist from Jamie Fox's Bats to John Ham's, former friend of Baby, Buddy. The switch of villain not only works as a way to create a plot twist to shock the audience, but also adds layers to the films characters and avoids the common Hollywood trope of predictable villains.

Mis En Scen In Baby Driver
The mis-en-scen refers to the background, props and clothing utilised in the film. In this instance, Edgar Wright uses an array of colours in the background to give the film a vibrant and dynamic feel to ease the heavy tone of its narrative, in order to give the audience a feeling of adventure rather than pressure and to emphasise the mood of certain scenes. For example, the scene in the laundromat where Baby and Debra are connecting and bonding, every single washing machine in the background is filled with red materials. With the colour red having many connotations to love, this is to emphasise their growing bond and relationship beginning to bloom. While in other, more serious, films this may pull on the audiences suspension of disbelief, it works here as the film does not bring attention to it, rather it is a subtle detail in the backdrop of the film. Though the films narrative may deal with heavy handed topics, as previously mentioned, the film is told through a surreal world and therefore allows itself to more creativity with its mis-en-scen (other films which also do this include Danny Boyle's Trainspotting and Edgar Wright's own Hot Fuzz)

Christopher Nolan's Method of Film Making: The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan has a vastly different approach to his method of film making, resulting in a very different type of auteur directing. Nolan puts far more focus on realism in his films than surrealism (with the exception of this rule being Inception). This is most evident in, perhaps his most praised pice of film, The Dark Knight, where he took one of the most popular fictitious characters in modern media and adapted them to be as close to real life as the source material would allow. By adapting the mythos of Batman, Nolan had to create a grounded and gritty setting while also making a narrative which deals with questions of ideology and morality. 

Christopher Nolans Focus On Realism

While Edgar Wright focuses on creating a surrealist world with subtle differences, Nolan puts far more passion into creating the most realistic setting he possibly can. By using a blend of real life filming locations and a multitude of life-like studio sets, Nolan creates a realistic feeling Gotham City without bordering on overly gothic much like older adaptations. This works for the film as it creates a relatable feel to the city, putting further tension onto each dramatic threat the city faces throughout the film. For example, the hospital scene where The Joker explodes an entire hospital is much more hard hitting and devastating to the audience as detail is put into the hospital and its patients/staff to make it seem as authentic as possible. From a GCPD officer announcing they have a young relative in the hospital to the botched first attempt at detention, these details help make the situation seem dire to the audience. 

The Use Of Extraordinary Characters In The Dark Knight

Since Christopher Nolan is adapting a pre-existing piece of fiction, he has to remain faithful to parts of the source material. Therefore the most abnormal parts of the narrative come from the main characters themselves. Bruce Wayne's ongoing vigilantism is told in a mature way, with hints at Bruce suffering with long lasting P.T.S.D. While Wright's main semi realistic main characters were used to give the film a more realistic tone in a slightly surreal and stylised world, it is the setting itself that is the most realistic aspect of The Dark Knight, which in turn helps to ground the strange characters in the narrative. 

Nolan's most extraordinary character in The Dark Knight, The Joker, has become known as one of the most iconic villains in movie history. This is largely due to the method performance by Heath Ledger, where he studied the character and his mindset intensively. Everything from the costume design of his purple and green suit,  the makeup design of his pale clownish face, to the way he walks nonchalantly through the chaos he creates shows that he is by far the most out of place character in the whole film. This plays with the idea that people are afraid of what they do not understand, since he clearly does not belong in such a place. It also adds to the running themes in the movie; how sustainable is justice? Can chaos triumph over order? Nolan uses The Joker as a way to portray these themes to the audience through his many monologues, for example the hospital scene where he talks to Harvey Dent about order and chaos.
`Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying'
Here the themes of order, chaos and justice are shown explicitly through Ledger's dialogue, is there real justice if people are willing to do horrific acts just to keep the established order? How far can one go to keep order until it turns into a crime in itself (particularly shown when Bruce makes the listening device linked to every civilians phone)?

Visible vs Invisible Editing

Visible and invisible editing are both very effective ways in making a film more appealing to the audience, however they both achieve this in very different ways. For example, invisible editing is used to stitch scenes together in ways where the audience is unaware that a cut or transition has happened. This allows for more focus to be on the narrative and character interactions and often to make the film feel more realistic. For this reason, Nolan uses only invisible editing in The Dark Knight to keep the audience interest on the story without compromising the realitic tone of the film. 

On the other hand, visible editing can give the film a much more stylish look and feel which can help set the tone and pacing of the film. In this instance, visible editing allowed Wright to add more flair to the film while also giving the impression of a fast pace when needed and a slow pace could be achieved by using slower fade transitions, slow pans or fewer cuts in scenes. 

Visible editing allows the auteur to change the tone or atmosphere of a scene in a subtle manner, while making the scene itself more dramatic. Invisible editing on the other hand, is meant to go unnoticed and therefore cannot achieve the same effect, but allows for more focus on the narrative and therefore these changes in tone can be portrayed through other means, such as the music.

Use of Music and Cinematic Scores

Music can also be used to increase the tone and feel of a scene. Nolan goes for the more traditional use of a cinematic score to add to the intensity of a scene through original, purely instrumental scores by Hans Zimmer (who also worked with Christopher Nolan on Interstellar and Inception). This can be useful as the director can cooperate with the composer to create music which fits almost perfectly into a scene. However, in Baby Driver, Wright decided to use a soundtrack made up of almost entirely pre-existing music. This works in a number of different ways, as he uses this music in a non-diegetic way as it plays through the main characters headphones. This brings the audience both closer to the protagonist as well as create a more personal experience which engages the audience. For example, the getaway scene where Ansel Elgort's character (Baby), in the spur of the moment, slams the car into a truck, causing Bat's death. His headphones are playing 'Intermission' by Blur, the slow buildup from a soft piano medley to loud and chaotic rock is meant to both symbolise and be a minor addition to his confusion result in his 'spur of the moment action'. 

Conclusion

While both directors are considered 'auteur', their work varies immensely. This goes to show how auteur directors are able to take on different artistic styles and tones while making interesting and entertaining films.