TV Series Director Alan Taylor

-
 
D.O.B - 1959
Spouse - Nicki Ledermann
Children - Ginger Taylor, Jem Taylor and Willa Taylor
Best Known for - Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, Game of Thrones, Broadwalk Empire and Mad Men
Info: mostly works on HBO series, he is also movie director (e.g. Thor: The Dark World and Terminator Genisys)


Awards he won:
Won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series in 2007
Won a DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series in 2007
Won a Audience Award for Best International Feature Film in 2002
Won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2012
Won a OFTA Television Award for Best Direction in a Drama Series in 2013
Won a Audience Award in 1997


Series which I liked of his: 


9.5 IMDB
Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister
Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen
Kit Harington as Jon Snow
Sophia Turner as Sansa Stark
Synopsis of movie: 
Civil Wars break out between different families, leaving the children to rule and rise attempt to rise to power. Meanwhile there is a forgotten race of evil that is has returned after thousands of years and wants to destroy all kingdoms.




8.7 IMDB
Jon Hamm as Don Draper
Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson
Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell
January Jones as Betty Francis
Synopsis of Series: 
About New Yorks most prestigious ad agencies in the 1960s and focuses on the life of the most mysterious and talented ad executive, Donald Draper.




9.2 IMDB
James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano
Lorraine Bracco as Dr. jennifer Melfi
Edie Falco as Carmela Soprano
Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti
Synopsis of series:
Mafia man, Tony Soprano, has to deal with issues within his family and his work life.
Truth: haven't watched this series yet, but it is on my must watch list!



6.9 IMDB
Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw 
Kim Cattrall as Samntha Jones 
Kristin Davis as Charlotte York 
Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes
Synopsis of series: 
Four women in New York discuss their sex lives and what it is like to be a woman in the 1990s 


What inspires me of Alan Taylors work:

Below you will find one of the episodes (out of 6) that Taylor directed on Game of Thrones: 

           

When looking at this episode we can see that it is very dark (even in Emilia Clarkes character who is usually outside in the sunshine; she is seen dark). Taylor has made me think carefully about lighting (as in some of the scenes, like Jon Snows; it is too dark. Like me, mostly the faces of the characters are highlighted.
One of the amazing things about Game of Thrones is the fact that it has different colour pallets for each different family, meaning:

     

 Daenerys Targaryen -                      Stark Family (close to my               Jon Snow (white looking 
- Bright                                            colour scheme) -  brown colours,    colours) - everything is bright
- Outdoors mostly                            face is mostly lightened while        except when indoors = 
- Sunshine                                        body is darker                                 everything is extremely dark
- natural light                                                                                           you can just about see the face   


Seeing as to how much thought has been put into the lighting set up, it has really made me thing how I will layout all my lights and what I want the audience to focus on.

One of Taylors most amazing scenes has to be the ending of Season 6 Episode 5 of The Sopranos - he sound (music which really makes the scene shocking) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBcbc8eWz6U

"No more buchie, no more of this" - this was the last line of the episode = creates suspense (someone is going to die)

Taylor then cleverly matches  the song to the scene; as soon as it fades to black to go to the credits the lyrics go as:

'The bloody view bloody vile for bloody mile and bloody miles bloody babies bloody cry bloody flowers bloody die"

REVENGE!! DEATH!

This is something which I would like to do; as Elena switched off her humanity, find a song that fits exactly that moment

Moreover, The Sopranos also has a similar colour theme to Game of Thrones:

The brown/yellow (warm colours = drama)

           

BUT, doesnt have very dark scene which only highlights the faces (like I want to do for my scene).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Now or Never (2011) - A short film about family relationships

-
Image
Vivandy Productions  Director: Vivandy and F.C Rabbath  Written and Produced: F.C. Rabbath Synopsis: Its about 3 generations of women; the grandmother, mother and daughter. The same story is being repeated between grandmother and mother as well as mother and daughter. Each mother is trying to reconnect with her daughter; both being unsuccessful. What intrigued me:  Showing the mother getting prepared (I'm planning on doing something like that for my video)  portrayal of family drifting (arguing about being too busy for each other)  when she opens the bathroom cupboard when she's young and closes it when she's old (i like the technique it uses to show time passing)  having the same conversation with her daughter as she did with her mother  the way we are shown that there is an issue (phone call from doctor)  VO flashback to the same line she said her mother 'You're being selfish' = realisation the ending:
Read more

Evaluation

-
Writing the final versions of the script was fun, exciting but also a long process. Having a clear idea of what directions my episodes where going I wrote skeleton drafts to begin with and worked like that. With each new draft,  added new jokes, stories lines. With guidance from Simon and his suggestions for certain characters I did make a few changes to some story lines and slightly changed my characters personality. In the first few drafts of each episode Hara was becoming somewhat annoying and lacked a lot of humour. Therefore I decided to make her into a bit of a spiritual person who gives herself a pep talk in each episode but also one of those people who believes in positive thinking and constantly carries a positive thinking book with her, sage and incense.  Kotchy, didn't have much of a story, if you got rid of him you wouldn't even notice. Therefore I made him so that each time his family does something humiliating he captures it on camera or Sebastian does and he
Read more

Greek Cypriot Culture

-
Image
Family: Family is very important in Greek society; either by blood or even marriage - when a relative marries someone that person becomes your koumbaro (for men) or koumbara (for women). Also, businesses are usually family run.  Food:  One of the most important things in Greek culture; famous Mediterranean food. Greek love to use fresh ingredients such as garlic, onions, fennel, zucchini, grapes, dates, figs and herbs (dill, mint and oregano). Meat is also a very important part of their diet; every Sunday families gather together for Souvla (basically a barbecue)  Food in tavernas are usually meze based meaning a variety of small portions of different types of food is served (usually over 20 different dishes) or there is also the famous Ouzeri where you are brought typically light food such as greek sasuges (pastourma) and halloumi to eat as you drink Ouzo.  Typical Greek Cypriot food:  tzantziki octopus dolmades (which is grape leaves filled with rice and beef
Read more