Guillermo del Toro

Auteurs are important to the film industry because they encourage because they encourage audiences to continue to see films by these filmmakers. When a film is released that is attached to a big name director, the advertisement team will put it in the trailers in order to encourage the audience to see it, since the directors other films have previously been successes. “...a movie directed by a given filmmaker will have recognizable, recurring themes and visual queues that inform the audience who the director is and shows a consistent artistic identity throughout that director’s filmography” (indiefilmhustle.com). Audiences like it when they can see something that has a consistent style and theme as other films, this is an important part of being considered an auteur.

One of the biggest auteurs of the current age of film industry is Guillermo del Toro. del Toro is one of the most popular filmmakers of the 2000’s. Many of his films have been critically acclaimed and he has gone on to win many Academy Awards, including Best Picture for his film The Shape of Water. del Toro has continued to surprise audiences with all of his unconventional story ideas while also dazzling them with the special effects and intricate costuming of the creatures.

del Toro can be considered an auteur for many different reasons. His strong use of colors, themes, effects and fantasy creatures are some of these ways that del Toro has become a well known auteur within the film industry. One of del Toro’s strong points is the use of colors in his films. del Toro uses color in his films in order to identify which film is which and to give the audience a specific idea of how they are supposed to feel. Crimson Peak was a film that was surrounded by red. The color red normally means lust, blood and murder. All of these things were represented in the film. The red was worn by almost every character and there was a lot of blood shown throughout the film, whether it was in a vision or during a scene where another character died. Red was a prominent part of this film. The color green in The Shape of Water was another important aspect that del Toro relied on. The green that the film is centered around is shown in almost every single scene. The lab that the Elsa works in has a green tint to it, the ocean water that the whole film is centered around is green and even Elsa’s home is decorated in different shades of green. The green is made to represent the ocean that most of the film is centered around, and trying to tell the audience that the creature is not from a freshwater lake, but rather from the ocean.

Many of the creatures that del Toro centers his films around are made to be misunderstood. He wants the audience to feel sympathy for these creatures and he does this by making them seem helpless, he wants the audience to understand that these creatures normally mean humans no harm, but most of the time, humans mean the creatures harm simply because they are not like them and they cannot understand them. He wants the audience to think twice the next time they are scared by something they do not understand, he wants the audience to look at the creatures more with an open mind rather than as a scary monster who must immediately be destroyed. del Toro accomplishes this task in The Shape of Water by allowing the audience to see a romantic relationship bloom between the creature, also known as the Amphibian Man, and Elsa. By showing the audience this relationship, he is trying to make them understand the creature better. He wants the audience to have an open mind when approaching things that are unfamiliar to them, he believes that if he can show them this in films, it will give them a more open mind in the real world.

Many of del Toro’s themes in his films are also very similar. The plot of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water are very similar. Both are stories of female characters who have been thrown into lives that do not appreciate them for who they are. They are tossed around and spit on like they are worth nothing. Eventually in these films, the female character discovers a creature who they become friends with. The plot differs somewhat from here, as in The Shape of Water the creature and Elsa fall in love and in Pan’s Labyrinth, the creature tells Ofelia that she is the daughter of a king and that she is the lost princess that they have been searching for for all of these years. Both of these stories consist of these female characters trying to break out of the life they once knew and are trying to move on to something bigger. There is a similar ending to both of these films, spoiler alert if you have yet to watch them. In both films, the female character is shot in the stomach. It is assumed that both of these characters have died, however Ofelia goes on to live in her storybook world, and Elsa is shown being saved by the Amphibian Man and she sprout gills, meaning that she is now able to live underwater with her love and there would not be any consequences for what she has done.

Guillermo del Toro continues to be able to bring large audiences to the movie theaters to see his films, because of this he has become a successful director over the course of his career. He has earned the title of auteur in his filmmaking career by using techniques that are well known to critics who have studied what exactly being an auteur means. All of the techniques that he has used has allowed him to become well known to the public, including his themes for films. del Toro continues to think outside of the conventional standards when creating films and this has allowed him to rise to one of the best known directors of the current time.

Love, Simon

In the 2018 film, Love, Simon, there is a very specific embodiment of the romantic comedy genre. The film is centered around a gay teenager who is outed to the entire school all while he is communicating over email with another teen boy who is still in the closet. The film revolves around Simon’s senior year of high school, friends and trying to figure out who his first love is. The film is made to pull on the heartstrings of the audience while trying to keep them laughing through some of it.

The film relies heavily on being a romantic comedy that is trying to show off a different perspective of romantic. Many films that are in the romantic comedy genre are reliant on heterosexual couples. This film breaks the boundaries of this idea and allows other sexualities to be shown on the big screen. This is important because before this film, it had never really been done before by a big name film studio, most of the films that showcased this were independent films where they do not get much, if at all, screen time in chain theaters and are not shown nationwide. Since the film had a wide release, they were able to get the story more readily available to bigger audiences.

The genre of the film had a big impact on why it did so well. Romantic comedies are known for bringing in a lot of revenue to film companies if they are done well and do not make the audience cringe the whole time. This film was created and written in such a way that many people were able to view it without thinking about how the couple that were on screen were not heterosexual, but instead they were a gay couple. The film helped get the idea across that not everybody falls in love with the same type of people and that is okay, we just have to become more open minded as a society.

Film Imagery in Jaws

In the 1975 film, Jaws, there is a heavy use of film imagery and colors in order to make it more interesting to the audience. Jaws was directed by Steven Spielberg who uses film imagery to his advantage while creating his films in order to get his points across in different ways. Since most of the film is focused on water, most of the coloring in the film is blue. There are also uses of red and white in order to complement the color. Red is mostly used to symbolize the idea of blood and how when the shark bites or kills someone, they instantly start bleeding and a patch of red is seen on the blue ocean. Red is on many of the characters clothing throughout the film.

Many of the shots that Spielberg places in this film are intentional. For example, there is one scene in the film when a character is looking out of the window of the boat. The shot is filmed from the outside of the ship so the audience is looking in through the window. On the window we can see the reflection of the water on the glass. Eventually the audience sees the shark coming up out of the water. This shot is done intentionally because it allows the audience to see what is happening outside of the boat while also showing the characters immediate reaction to the event without having to cut the shot. By doing this, the audience gets the initial reaction of the character and also experiences the same horror and fear that the character is feeling, creating more intense emotion from shot. Spielberg is known to use techniques like this throughout many of his film as it allows the audience to feel stronger emotions while they are experiencing a film for the first time.

Deadpool Editing

In the 2016 film, Deadpool, a lot of the editing is focused on continuity editing, especially in the fight scenes. Continuity editing is important in action films because it allows the viewer to watch everything that is happening in the scene without making them confused or feel as if they are moving too fast.

Continuity editing is an important part of the editing process. It allows the viewer to feel as if they are in the film and allowed to look around at the scene that is currently playing. This is important in action films, especially during fight scenes. It is important for the audience to be able to see everything that is happening in the scene. If the hero grabs a weapon from the floor and throws it at the opponent, the audience should be able to watch every single one of these shots.

In Deadpool, many of the fight scenes rely on continuity editing to keep the audience involved and entertained. In the first car fight scene on the bridge, the audience is shown exactly what is happening throughout the scene. Every time Deadpool moves to dodge the bullets coming at him, the camera cuts to a close up of him doing each and every single one of these tasks. Continuity editing is also used in this scene when the bullets are flying toward the villains. The bullets are shown in slow motion with different numbers on them in order to dictate the fact that he only has a certain amount of bullets in his weapon.

Another important editing technique is the eyeline match. This is used throughout many of the scenes when the characters are talking to each other. This is important because it allows the character to seem as if they are looking directly at each. This is another technique that allows the audience to feel more involved in the characters lives. It does not feel as if they are looking at them through a screen, but rather through their own eyes.