Research on Directors

I carried out research on 8 big directors to gain an insight into what I need to do to make my teaser trailer successful.
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985), best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work—despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. Welles’s long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios. Many of his films were heavily edited and others left unreleased. He has been praised as a major creative force and as “the ultimate auteur.”
In 2002, he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two separate British Film Institute polls among directors and critics, and a wide survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the most acclaimed director of all time. Well known for his baritone voice, Welles was also an extremely well regarded actor and was voted number 16 in AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Stars list of the greatest American film actors of all time. He was also a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor and an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety shows in the war years.
Here are just some of the films he directed:
1955 Confidential Report
1955 Moby Dick Rehearsed (TV movie)
1952 Othello
1950 The Miracle of St. Anne (short)
1949 Black Magic (uncredited)
1948 Macbeth
1947 The Lady from Shanghai (uncredited)
1946 The Stranger
1943 Journey Into Fear (uncredited)
1942 The Magnificent Ambersons
1941 Citizen Kane
1938 Too Much Johnson (short)
1934 The Hearts of Age (short)
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career. 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, and his reclusiveness about his films and personal life. He maintained almost complete artistic control, making movies according to his own whims and time constraints, but with the rare advantage of big-studio financial support for all his endeavors.
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 that eschews structured linear narrative. His films are repeatedly described as slow and methodical, and are often perceived as a reflection of his obsessive and perfectionist nature. A recurring theme in his films is man’s inhumanity to man. While often viewed as expressing an ironic pessimism, a few critics feel his films contain a cautious optimism when viewed more carefully.
The film that first brought him attention to many critics was Paths of Glory, the first of three films of his about the dehumanizing effects of war. Many of his films at first got a lukewarm reception, only to be years later acclaimed as masterpieces that had a seminal influence on many later generations of film-makers. All of Kubrick’s films from the mid-1950s to his death except for The Shining were nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes, or BAFTAs. Although he was nominated for an Academy Award as a screenwriter and director on several occasions, his only personal win was for the special effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Even though all of his films, apart from the first two, were adapted from novels or short stories, his works have been described by Jason Ankeny and others as “original and visionary”. Although some critics frequently disparaged Kubrick’s work, Ankeny describes Kubrick as one of the most “universally acclaimed and influential directors of the postwar era” with a “standing unique among the filmmakers of his day.”
Here are some of the films he directed:
1999 Eyes Wide Shut
1987 Full Metal Jacket
1980 The Shining
1975 Barry Lyndon
1971 A Clockwork Orange
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
1964 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
1962 Lolita
1960 Spartacus
1957 Paths of Glory
1956 The Killing
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Knight Grand Cross (Italian pronunciation: [fedɛˈriːko fɛlˈliːni]; January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993), was an Italian film director and script writer. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century.
Written and directed
• Luci del varietà (1950) (co-credited with Alberto Lattuada)
• Lo sceicco bianco (1952)
• I vitelloni (1953)
• L’amore in città (1953) (segment Un’agenzia matrimoniale)
• La strada (1954)
• Il bidone (1955)
• Le notti di Cabiria (1957)
• La dolce vita (1960)
• Boccaccio ’70 (1962) (segment Le tentazioni del Dottor Antonio)
• 8½ (1963)
• Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
• Histoires extraordinaires (1968) (segment Toby Dammit, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “Never Bet the Devil Your Head”)
• Fellini: A Director’s Notebook (1969)
• Satyricon (1969)
• I clowns (1970)
• Roma (1972)
• Amarcord (1973)
• Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (1976)
• Prova d’orchestra (1978)
• La città delle donne (1980)
• E la nave va (1983)
• Ginger and Fred (1986)
• Intervista (1987)
• La voce della luna (1990)
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.
Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognizable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person’s gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximize anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside “icy blonde” female characters. Many of Hitchcock’s films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or “MacGuffins” meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the extremely complex psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock’s films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon.
Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, which said: “Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else.” The magazine MovieMaker has described him as the most influential filmmaker of all-time, and he is widely regarded as one of cinema’s most significant artists.
Directed:
1976 Family Plot
1972 Frenzy
1969 Topaz
1966 Torn Curtain
1964 Marnie
1963 The Birds
1940 Rebecca
1939 Jamaica Inn
1930 Murder!
1931 Mary
1931 The Skin Game
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн Sergej Mihajlovič Ejzenštejn; January 23, 1898 – February 11, 1948) was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the “Father of Montage.” He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike (1924), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1927), as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1944, 1958). His work profoundly influenced early filmmakers owing to his innovative use of and writings about montage.
Directed:
• 1923 Дневник Глумова (Glumov’s Diary) (short)
• 1924 Стачка (Strike)
• 1925 Броненосец Потёмкин (The Battleship Potemkin)
• 1927 Октябрь «Десять дней, которые потрясли мир» (October: Ten Days That Shook the World)
• 1929 Старое и новое «Генеральная линия» (The General Line aka “Old And New”)
• 1930 : Romance sentimentale (France)
• 1931 Да здравствует Мексика! (¡Qué viva México! released in 1979)
• 1935 Бежин луг (Bezhin Meadow until 1937)
• 1938 Александр Невский (Alexander Nevsky)
• 1944 Иван Грозный 1-я серия (Ivan The Terrible, Part I)
• 1945 Иван Грозный 2-я серия (Ivan The Terrible, Part II)
• 1946 Иван Грозный 3-я серия (Ivan The Terrible, Part III)
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɪŋmar ˈbærɪman]; 14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as “probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera”, he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and influential film directors of all time.
He directed over sixty films and documentaries for cinematic release and for television, most of which he also wrote, and directed over one hundred and seventy plays. Among his company of actors were Liv Ullmann, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. Most of his films were set in the landscape of Sweden. His major subjects were death, illness, faith, betrayal, and insanity.
Bergman was active for more than six decades. In 1976 his career was seriously threatened as the result of a botched criminal investigation for alleged income tax evasion. Outraged, Bergman suspended a number of pending productions, closed his studios, and went into self-imposed exile in Germany for eight years.
Directed:
2003 Saraband (TV movie)
2000 The Image Makers (TV movie)
1997 In the Presence of a Clown (TV movie)
1995 The Last Gasp (TV movie)
1993 Backanterna (TV movie)
1992 Madame de Sade (TV movie)
1986 De två saliga (TV movie)
1986 The Making of Fanny and Alexander (documentary)
1985 Dom Juan (TV movie)
1984 After the Rehearsal (TV movie)
1984 Karin’s Face (documentary short)
1983 Hustruskolan (TV movie)
1982 Fanny and Alexander
1980 Fårö-dokument 1979 (TV documentary)
1980 From the Life of the Marionettes (TV movie)
1978 Autumn Sonata
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), The Misfits (1961), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975). During his 46-year career, Huston received 15 Oscar nominations, winning twice, and directed both his father, Walter Huston, and daughter, Anjelica Huston to Oscar wins in different films.
Huston was known to direct with the vision of an artist, having studied and worked as a fine art painter in Paris in his early years. He continued to explore the visual aspects of his films throughout his career: sketching each scene on paper beforehand, then carefully framing his characters during the shooting. In addition, while most directors rely on post-production editing to shape their final work, Huston instead created his films while they were being shot, making his films both more economical and more cerebral, with little editing needed.
Most of Huston’s films were adaptations of important novels, often depicting a “heroic quest,” as in Moby Dick, or The Red Badge of Courage. In many films, different groups of people, while struggling toward a common goal, would become doomed or “destructive alliances,” giving the films a dramatic and visual tension. Many of his themes also involved some of the “grand narratives” of the twentieth century, such as religion, meaning, truth, freedom, psychology, colonialism and war.
Before becoming a Hollywood filmmaker, he had been an amateur boxer, reporter, short-story writer, portrait artist in Paris, a cavalry rider in Mexico, and a documentary filmmaker during World War II. Huston has been referred to as “a titan,” “a rebel” and a “renaissance man,” in the Hollywood film industry. Author Ian Freer describes him as “cinema’s Ernest Hemingway,” — a filmmaker who was “never afraid to tackle tough issues head on.”
Directed:
1987 The Dead
1985 Prizzi’s Honor
1984 Under the Volcano
1982 Annie
1981 Escape to Victory
1980 Phobia
1979 Wise Blood (as Jhon Huston)
1979 Love and Bullets (uncredited)
1976 Independence (short)
1975 The Man Who Would Be King
1973 The MacKintosh Man
1972 The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
1972 Fat City
1971 The Last Run (uncredited)
1970 The Kremlin Letter
1969 A Walk with Love and Death
William Wyler
William Wyler (July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.
Notable works included Ben-Hur (1959), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Mrs. Miniver (1942), all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture. He earned his first Oscar nomination for directing Dodsworth in 1936, starring Walter Huston and Mary Astor, “sparking a 20-year run of almost unbroken greatness.”
Film historian Ian Freer calls Wyler a “bona fide perfectionist,” whose penchant for retakes and an attempt to hone every last nuance, “became the stuff of legend.”[1] His ability to direct a string of classic literary adaptations into huge box-office and critical successes made him one of “Hollywood’s most bankable moviemakers” during the 1930s and 1940s.
Directed:
1970 The Liberation of L.B. Jones
1968 Funny Girl
1966 How to Steal a Million
1965 The Collector
1961 The Loudest Whisper
1959 Ben-Hur
1958 The Big Country
1956 Friendly Persuasion
1956 Producers’ Showcase (TV series)
1955 The Desperate Hours
1953 Roman Holiday
1952 Carrie
1951 Detective Story
1949 The Heiress
1947 Thunderbolt (documentary short) (as Lt Col William Wyler)
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives
1944 The Fighting Lady (documentary) (uncredited)
1944 The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (documentary)
1942 Mrs. Miniver
1941 The Little Foxes