Directions Unit: Research - My directing style

This isn't anything to go towards my director's statement; this is simply to help give an idea of how I style a film and how I envision the scenes.

I like dark films, not necessarily in terms of it's genre like horror but in terms of it's visual style and it themes and messages inside the film, along with the emotions it gives out. Examples of what I would class as a 'dark film' are:
Watchmen (also my favourite film)
The Dark Knight Trilogy
The Green Mile
Sin City

I love sound, I like to focus on the sounds of a film, going for the rawness of what we see and emphasising them, instead of just adding typical sound effects. I like to try and link those sounds in with the current mood of the film, even if they're an unlikely grouping. The best example I can give is the street-shootout scene in the movie Heat (which is my favourite scene in a film ever):

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

Another aspect of sound I love is ambience: complete silence in terms of dialogue with the main sounds (if any) coming from background sources e.g. birds, or distant traffic. I like to play with the idea that you can create a powerful scene without any dialogue (we were shown the opening few minutes of There Will Be Blood which shows exactly what I mean). One of my favourite musical artists is Brian Eno who is known for his ambient music, mainly his 1983 song (and my all-time favourite song) 'An Ending (Ascent)'. The music can essentially work with anything, which is why I love it so much: because it can interpreted into many ways and really emphasise a particular scene. There are other ambient songs by other artists too which I shall link below.

An Ending (Ascent) - Brian Eno
Drift - Brian Eno
Ekki mukk (Moving Art) - Sigur Ros
The Oh of Pleasure - Ray Lynch

Moving on now to the actual shooting of the scenes. I purposely try to avoid convention in terms of cinematography as much as possible. For example, where you would have a shot-reverse shot set up for a conversation between two characters; I would try to do it in as little edits as possible or as one take or even just position the camera in a different place than usual. I have a love for continuous shots also, they feel more natural when watching as there are no edits to distract your immersion. I am quite fond of the director Alfonso Cuaron as he is known for having long takes, particularly in his 2006 film Children of Men which features several along with his 2013 film Gravity. A couple more examples of great continuous shots are in Oldboy (2003 version) and The Protector (2005).

The Protector Restaurant Scene
Oldboy Hallway Fight Scene