Highlights from my 210 films of research

Earlier this week I reached my 400th film rating on Flixster; mainly as a result of all the film research I did for my graduation project over the past year (I've watched 210 films in 365 days)...
To mark this random milestone, and to counter all the negative reviews I tend to write, I thought I'd list some of the films that I can either critique positively or that were not great films but which still influenced my graduation project.
I've arranged some of the films by director (at the top of the list), and the rest are arranged by year of release.

Quentin Tarantino:
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Kill Bill v1 (2003)

Jean-Luc Godard:
A bout de Souffle / Breathless (1959)
Une Femme Est Une Femme / A Woman Is A Woman (1961)
Bande a Part (1964)
Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
Weekend (1967)

Alfred Hitchcock:
Rebecca (1940)
Rope (1948)
Strangers On A Train (1951)
Vertigo (1958)
Psycho (1960)

Tim Burton:
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Big Fish (2003)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005)

James Bond films:
Dr No (1962) Directed by Terence Young
Live And Let Die (1973) Directed by Guy Hamilton
Moonraker (1979) Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Octopussy (1983) Directed by John Glen
Casino Royale (2006) Directed by Martin Campbell

David Lynch:
Eraserhead (1977)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Mulholland Drive (2001)

Other films:
Bringing Up Baby (1938) Directed by Howard Hawks
The Spiral Staircase (1945) Directed by Robert Siodmak
Singin' In The Rain (1952) Directed by Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly
House On Haunted Hill (1959) Directed by William Castle
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Directed by John Ford
Bonnie & Clyde (1967) Directed by Arthur Penn
The Amityville Horror (1979) Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Cape Fear (1991) Directed by Martin Scorsese
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Directed by Frank Darabont
Lola Rennt / Run Lola Run (1998) Directed by Tom Tykwer
Saving Private Ryan (1998) Directed by Steven Spielberg
American Beauty (1999) Directed by Sam Mendes
Memento (2000) Directed by Christopher Nolan
Vanilla Sky (2001) Directed by Cameron Crowe
Final Destination 2 (2003) Directed by David R. Ellis
Lost In Translation (2003) Directed by Sofia Coppola
Monster (2003) Directed by Patty Jenkins
Million Dollar Baby (2004) Directed by Clint Eastwood
13 Tzameti (2005) Directed by Géla Babluani
Lords of Dogtown (2005) Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
Saw 2 (2005) Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Final Destination 3 (2006) Directed by James Wong
The Departed (2006) Directed by Martin Scorsese
El Orfanato / The Orphanage (2007) Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona
This Is England (2007) Directed by Shane Meadows
Planet Terror (2007) Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Influences part 17: poster design

Last week I received a box full of over 500 identical postcards from the printers so that I can promote my graduation film, and as I'm not doing anything else right now (1:30am), this seems like as good a time as any to document some of the film posters that influenced the design decisions behind the aesthetics of my film poster/postcards...
In case you haven't already seen it, below is the poster design for my graduation film: Pigment of Imagination

I had always planned on making my film poster from a drawing or painting that illustrates 'something' about my film, rather than just creating a layout around an existing piece of my film footage... I suppose the original influence for this design decision may have come from Erica's hand-drawn poster for The Gardener, which both I and many others greatly admired.

I have always enjoyed painting, so I wanted to incorporate that into the aesthetics of my poster; and this also linked nicely with my favourite style of film poster - the vintage film posters of the 1940s & 50s, that were painted by hand. Some of my favourite posters in this style include those for The 400 Blows, Vivre Sa Vie, Jules et Jim, and Casablanca:

The third major influence on the design of my poster was the layout of the posters for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho; but The Trouble With Harry and many other designs from the 50s/60s also greatly influence me.


Other notable influences include the artwork of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec...

And various Eastern European/Russian prints.

Sound design (graduation film update)

I've been working with my sound designer (Chris Bathgate) all week, getting my film ready for the Filmhouse premiere on June 15th. The film is now very nearly complete, and with all the sound added it has come together much better than I originally anticipated back in January, which is nice.

Today I got to record foley sounds; play with a synth; and create a suspenseful little piece of violin music with a computer!

It has been a fun day despite all the not-so-good stuff that happened, but this blog post is gonna remain positive... For example, my friend and classmate, Ewan Green, got a 1st Class grade for his degree today and also started his first day of work at Django Films today, meaning that he gets to do his best Forrest Gump impression as a runner for the animation company of Sylvain Chomet (Belleville Rondezvous)... And apparently after hearing my violin composition, I've been asked by Dreamworks to conduct their next animated feature....
Did someone say It's Zimmer Time?

Sketchbook images

(Last updated: 17 July 2009).

Here's a few images from my sketchbook.