Filmmaking / Directing : Who are some of your favorite directors? by Kristin Holloway

Off the top of my head, I'd say Stanley Kubrick, Spielberg, Billy Wilder, Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Peter Jackson, Francis Ford Coppola, Scorsese of course, Frank Capra, Barry Jenkins, The Coen Brothers, Ernst Lubitsch, Kurosawa, Kathryn Bigelow, Orson Welles, etc.

Strangely enough, I can honestly say I've learned something from almost every film I've ever seen, even the bad ones.

I think James got most of my favorites as well. But some honorable mentions would include William Wyler, Andrei Tarkovsky, John Huston, Sidney Lumet, Fritz Lange, Peter Weir and David lean.

Tbh I get a lot of my inspiration from historical journals, short stories, newspapers, novels, documentaries and transcripts.

Frank Baruch John Huston! How could I forget him also, for Maltese Falcon and Treasure of the Sierra Madre alone?

All of them - good/bad/otherwise - have something to teach/show. Add John Sturges to your list.

James Welday Or my personal favorite, Key Largo. Man directed hit after hit.

Good call, Frank. Along with Billy Wilder, he was my favorite writer/director of the Studio Era.

Hi Kristin Holloway , I really like Jim Jarmusch (Down by Law, Patterson), Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Killing of a Sacred Deer), Tarsem Singh (The Fall) to name a couple. Jarmsuch has a simplistic but effective directing style. Yorgos has a great sense of humor, some unconventional angles and Tarsem's The Fall is one of the most beautiful films you will ever see and I think it took him four years to shoot. I use Jarmusch for simple set ups; try to think outside of the box like Yorgos and, if you can, make the film as visually stunning as possible--on paper and film like The Fall.

what all we have achived last year are very few due to covid , but this year we aree going to do many thing with help of online so 2022 will be our goal and unity work so do own project by team work

Top of the top for me right now is gotta be Denis Villeneuve!

I'm ashamed to admit I forgot one name from my list: Terrence Malick. His majestic use of imagery to tell a story is downright beautiful (if not always successful).

Quentin Tarantino is my all time. His use of dialog captivates me every time. Also, Denis Villeneuve is at the very top of his game lately!

Tarantino for sure but tbh John krasinski and the way he uses sound design in the quiet place franchise is such a throwback to simpler times. I love him for that.

Elia Kazan - for respecting the words and helping actors convey them

Tell us who yours are??? I love Todd Phillips, Robert Schwentke, Danny Boyle.

Ingmar Bergman, Agnes Varda, Michelangelo Antonioni and Billy Wilder.

George Lucas, Steven Spielberg James Cameron.

David Lynch, Barry Levinson, Tim Burton, Sam Mendes, David O. Russell, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Tom Hooper, and countless others!

Ridley Scott, James Cameron and Rob Cohen

Gordon Parks, Oscar Micheaux and Julian Jarrold

I got soft spots for Richard Linklater, Zack Snyder, Kevin Smith and David Fincher

Zack Snyder and Edgar Wright

Quentin Tarantino and M. Night Shyamalan

Oh...what a great question. I'm a huge Hitchcock fan.

Amanda, what’s your top Hitchcock film? I’m sure that’s a difficult question, being that he made so many amazing pictures.

Having been on set with Hitch (as an unpaid/uncredited PA - called goffers in those days) was a mentoring experience worth it weight in gold. I think Vertigo is a prime example.

John Badham

roman polaski stanly kubric alfred hithcock

In no particular order: Ridley Scott, Tot Scott (RIP), Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Jim Jarmush, Martin Scorcese, Antoine Fuqua, Quentin Tarantino, Danny Boyle, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, David Fincher, Tim Burton, Sam Mendes, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Jackson, Francis Ford Coppola, and I'm sure I forgot many...

Ridley Scott, is my fave. He's got a bunch of different little inter-related companies and different creative endeavors going on that he can find uses for people with a wide array of talents. He was gonna be the one I submitted my screenplay too. But with all that he's got going on, and several other films he's doing as well, my screenplay may not get produced for years. And i cannot wait that long. As a result i may have to find someone else big, with the kind of money I'm gonna need to fund this thing.

There are so many directors through the decades of cinema whose entire body of work has made them great, and many more great films whose directors created something brilliant at least once. Without going into too much detail, in my scriptwriting course I teach that there are essentially 8 distinct elements that a screenwriter or director has to work with to tell their story...for example, "environment", which is perhaps the least utilized, but so prominent in hands like David Lean or Peter Wier. That makes me tend to admire directors that can elevate any one of those 8 elements to tell a great story or create an extraordinary moment. That aside, I recently saw Blast of Silence on TCM directed by Allen Baron, which has one of the most original gangster slayings ever crafted on film. A relatively brief scene, but so compelling. Debra Granik whose direction on Winter's Bone is always on my personal great list. And I absolutely and unapologetically adore the new Cruella, which I have watched three times now, directed by Craig Gillespie.

Neal Howard I think my favorite example of a one-off director who has crafted something I've yet to see replicated by the industry is Charles Laughton's, The Night of the Hunter. He took such a dark subject matter and made it so ethereal, cerebral and unrelenting.

Not to mention having one of the best antagonists to grace the screen. Robert Mitchum took a lot of inspiration from personal experience with soapbox preachers to craft his performance.

I'm a big fan of Alfonso Cuarón and David Fincher, but there are so many great ones. Recently, Jane Campion's work on The Power of the Dog was pretty special and Guillermo del Toro never fails to impress.

Frank Baruch...Yes, indeed! A creepy, clever and chilling thriller directed by one of the all-time best actors, Charles Laughton (."Why was I not made of stone - like thee?"). Maybe Robert Mitchum's two best performances were as antagonists, The Night of the Hunter and the original Cape Fear.

Taika Waititi because I love his sense of silly. Ridley Scott for the atmosphere he creates in his films, and the Cohen Brothers for their clever black humour.