Who do you think has "style"?

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I have done a number of documentary films and I think my approach is pretty good. I research, organize, write out good questions, shoot and edit my projects and I think I tell a good story.

However, I feel that I don't really have a "style" when it comes to making my films visually interesting. I think that most of us have seen at least one Ken Burns documentary, we've probably seen a Michael Moore documentary so we know what those look like. I just recently watched Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam Twenty and just loved the look and style of his film. (lamenting all the way how Cameron Crowe has my life :lol:)

I don't just want to talk about documentary films. There are movies and television shows with amazing style in terms of the way it was edited. If you remember Twin Peaks or Homicide: Life on the Street, or movies like Man on Fire. Homicide certainly pioneered the 'hand-held' camera look and did some of the most interesting things when it came to editing.

I could use some films to look at with "style" in its editing. I don't want to copy anyone, but in order to think in that way, maybe I need to check out some films that have an interesting way of presenting their stories. What film/tv show/music video would you suggest I take a look at?


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Any Scorsese film with editing by Thelma Schoonmaker has some great editing style. Really when I am thinking of style when it comes to editing my mind goes right to her.
 
I think the TV show side is really interesting. Shows like Dexter, True Blood, Breaking Bad all have a very consistent style from episode to episode. Even though each episode might have a completely new writer and/or director.

I guess it goes to show how much creative control the producer has in TV.
 
I've always liked David Fincher and his rather unique style. He has a way of creating mood and atmosphere that really stands out for me.
 
I've been watching a lot of recent Dutch, Danish and German films lately... Apparently, there's a kind of editing revolution going on. The fashion is: To break all the no-no's in editing in order to use it to convey emotion and a little bit of shock...
And they succeeded. I love it.
 
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For TV, I strongly recommend Detroit 1-8-7. Detroit falls under the category of narrative fiction trying to create a documentary "feel," much on the level of the Bourne movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgONgogXNN0 (they used to have a much better trailer for this show, but it seems to have been taken down for some reason).

On a different note, Werner Herzog has some crazy documentaries (Grizzly Man) and other narrative pieces in much of the same style (Rescue Dawn).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001348/


I also think you should have a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otIU6Py4K_A

...It isn't a documentary per say (more of a video-journal), but I really like the style of it (and that may be just my opinion, but I thought it was worth sharing). The video and narration are just off-kilter enough to make the viewer intrigued and wonder if it's all real.
 
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kinglis said:
I've been watching a lot of resent Dutch, Danish and German films lately... Apparently, there's a kind of editing revolution going on. The fashion is: To break all the no-no's in editing in order to use it to convey emotion and a little bit of shock...
And they succeeded. I love it.
Click to expand...

If jou like dutch movies, watch ober....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTAPXZ7zYN4

It's about a ober that is sick of the way his story is written.....so he asks the movie writer if he can rewrite his script.
 
kinglis said:
I've been watching a lot of resent Dutch, Danish and German films lately... Apparently, there's a kind of editing revolution going on. The fashion is: To break all the no-no's in editing in order to use it to convey emotion and a little bit of shock...
And they succeeded. I love it.
Click to expand...
Do you have some examples? As I do not like most of the bigger German productions, it would be interesting to see what people from other countrys like.
 
I'm definitely going to take a look at the links provided. One of the films I thought was edited in an interesting way was Oxide Pang's "The Tesseract". Here's the trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374273/

I think that the trailer doesn't really give much of an idea of what he did in the film, but anyway....

I'm a fan on Fincher as well, loved "Fight Club". I am also a fan of "Traffic" by Soderberg. You don't really see color used the way he did in that film outside Asian films.

Hmm... still thinking....

-- spinner :cool:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V46hFOCWM60

Fincher stands out for me in terms of 'clever' editing. Social Network, Fight Club, Panic Room, Seven...etc all have an editing rhythm that forces the viewer to go along with the story in the way that the director wants. It means that he can hold back, give forth, speed up, slow down...etc, in a way that a lot of films struggle to do.
 
Haven't seen "The Tesseract" yet, but I loved "The Eye" and "Re-Cycle". Great stuff!

As far as style, I think you can always recognize Lynch and Gilliam. Another vote for Herzog; as diverse as his films are, you can always immediately tell it's him. Another director that stands out in my mind is Tarsem, but since he's only done two films (The Cell and The Fall, both of which I love), it's hard to tell if his style will be evident throughout his career. Looking forward to his next (Immortals)!
 
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