Our Influences : Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer.Kubrick was noted for the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, his slow method of working, the variety of genres he worked in, his technical perfectionism, his reluctance to talk about his films, and his reclusiveness. He maintained almost complete artistic control, making movies according to his own whims and time constraints, but with the rare advantage of studio financial support for all of his projects.




Kubrick's films are characterized by a formal visual style and meticulous attention to detail. His later films often have elements of surrealism and expressionism and often lack structured linear narrative. His films are frequently described as slow and methodical, and are often perceived as a reflection of his obsessive and perfectionist nature. He worked in a wide variety of genres, however, there are recurring themes in all his works notably man's inhumanity to man.

It is this idea of man's inhumanity which has strongly influenced our work. In our music video idea, the main protagonist repeatedly asks strangers for help but is ignored. Through our video we are attempting to portray society's selfishness and unwillingness to help others.

In his review of Full Metal Jacket, Roger Ebert noted that many Kubrick films have a facial closeup of an unraveling character in which the character's head is tilted down and his eyes are tilted up, although Ebert does not think there is any deep meaning to these shots. Lobrutto's biography of Kubrick notes that his director of photography, Doug Milsome, coined the phrase the "Kubrick crazy stare". The connection of this stare with psychoanalysis is often made through the concept of "The Gaze" and its implications in visual culture. Kubrick also extensively employed wide angle shots, character tracking shots, zoom shots, and shots down tall parallel walls.

These are techniques which we would like to incorporate within our own work, we plan to use several wide angle and tracking shots. Kubrick's films also contain extensive character point of view footage which is another technique we would like to imitate

Alex