Have you heard of the expression ‘Steal like an artist’? Well it comes from the idea that nothing is truly original. What i mean by this is that we all have to get our ideas from somewhere, whether it be from our everyday life or other art we admire. How we transform the content is how we make something creative and new. Here a quick list to show what is stealing like an artist and what is just theif.
Now what i would like to show is how Director Edgar Wright uses this technique in his own work, by going through who inspires his work and how, then traveling even further time to see how far back we can go. The technique i would like to focus on is his montages, specifically close ups that a build up to a true action.
In the clip Wright mentions that his technique is a taken from other directors styles and used for his own creative purpose such as comedy build up scenes, and transforming mundane actions to make them super stylized.
A director he mentions is Robert Rodriguez for using this tool up technique. I found an example for the most common use for this is Gearing Up. As taken from a scene in Spy Kids (2001)skip to 1.08 – 1.26
Another Director who used this method back in 1985 was Mark L. Lester with Commando. A Gear up scene taking the action of putting on battle gear and making it stylized.
In 1966 a movie called The Good, The Bad and The Ugly came out. Sergio Leone Use of extreme close up montage created an intense scene where three characters eyes meet and a clip of a gun flashes in between.
Going back further in Metropolis (1927) i found a clip of the sci-fi flick that displayed some quick cut montage Directed by Fritz Lang
Charlie Chaplin‘s The Tramp 1915, charlie runs away from some policemen. The running cuts from location to location creating a montage effect.
Even though each director has their own unique style, in some shape or form they drew inspiration from somewhere and turned it into their own creation.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Jim Jarmusch
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour… Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”
After escaping prison the Guardians go to sell the orb to the collector named Tivan, during the exchange they discover that the orb could destroy the world. One of Tivan’s subordinates heard this and triggered it, destroying his place. As the Guardians escape with the orb they make a new plan to keep the orb safe. While this is happening Ronan appears and attempt to take back the orb.
Dominique's Interpreting Media 