Arteur Theory


Arteur theory is the idea of filmmaking that holds that a film reflects the directors personal creative vision.Auteur theory was first established in the late 1940s after the Andre Bazin and Alexandre Astruc was outgrown. The Auteur theory focuses on:
1- Indivudual stylistic features
2- How texts are determined by artists creativity
3- How texts emerge as part of an artists body of work


Some of the most well know for  using of developing the Autuer theory are Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma  and FrancoisTruffaut. All three had an influence on thetheory.


Alfred Hitchcock was often acknowledged for his skill, some elements of Hitchcock's style consists of:

• The cool platinum blonde
• An innocent man accused
• Restricting the action to a single setting to increase tension
• Climax plot twist
• The presence of a domineering mother in her childs life
• Characters who switch sides and/or cannot be trusted.

Brian De Palma has directed many films including Carrie and The Untouchables. He sparked alot of controversy within the film industry with film critics and the public because he did many psychological films which had graphic violence. As well has his that he was also highly regarded my film critics for his obscure camera angles and compositions. Most well known would include the split screen technique, showing to seperate events at one time, another would be framing the characer using a canted angle against the background.


Francois Trufaut contributed to the origins of the theory and stated that directors should use the mise-en-scene to leave a mark on their work. He still remains an icon of the French film industry because of his long career and amount of films he worked on, acounting to 25 films. Trafaut wrote an article called 'une certaine Tendance du Cinema Francais', translated to 'A certain trend of French cinema'. This article was very controversial, because of the way traffaut talked about the state of French films and certain screenwriters and producers, not always talking about them positively.This was when the Auteur theory was born which simply said that the director was the 'author' of his work.

The Smiling Man


We were set the task to find a short film each, as my one I brought in the smiling man , a short film where a little girl at home finds herself face to face with an evil character.


'The Smiling Man'is a great example of a perfect short horror. In a short horror film , you have to keep the narrative relatively simple that creates a creepy impression. The main story line is that the little girl is at home with what she thought was with her mum,however we ater discover she is all alone. The little girl is lead downstairs by a series of balloons leading her down We dont ever see the evil character we just see their hands. The little girl finds herself in the kitchen where the smiling man is waiting. The contrats between the innocence in the little girl and the evilness in the man create a disturbing atmosphere.The smiling man brings the little girl round the corner of the kitchen unit. This is were we unexpectedly discover her mum lying in a pool of her own blood. This shocks us ,to make us feel even more uncofortable the man then starts scooping up the womans blood in his hands and rubbing it all over is face. 


What will I take from this?  
I liked the fact we didnt seet he evil character until the ver last section,we only saw glimpses of the man. I liked how we thought we knew what was going on but there was a massive plot twist at the end where we saw the little girls mum lying there. The unexpected plot twist left us thinking what he was going to do to the little girl.Another thing that interested me was the contrast between innocence and evil, this put you on edge and helped you connect with th little girl and sympathise with her. It also made the evil man look even more evil.
Apart from narrative I also like the camera work involved especially the birds eye view one in the kitchen. We can see exactly what the girl is walking into.
In my film I will do a birds eye shot because it really engages the audience and makes you feel on edge, its one of those moents where you shout at the scream " No don't go that way!!".