How Zack Snyder uses different and similar techniques to direct his films

How Zack Snyder uses different and similar techniques to direct his films

3 focus films:• Sucker Punch• Watchmen• 300 Zack Snyder montage

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Zack Snyder

Dawn Of The Dead

“A kinetic, violent and surprisingly worthy remake of George Romero’s horror classic that pays homage to the original while working on its own terms.” – Rotten Tomatoes.

IMDb.com rating – 7.4Box Office - £58.9M

This is Sparta clip

300 ‘kicked’ its way to the top of the box office

“A simple-minded but visually exciting experience, full of blood, violence, and ready-made movie quotes.” – Rotten Tomatoes

IMDb.com rating – 7.8Box Office - £210.6M

Watchmen

“Gritty and visually striking, Watchmen is a faithful adaption of Alan Moore’s graphic novel, but its complex narrative structure may make it difficult for it to appeal to viewers not already familiar with the source material.” – Rotten Tomatoes

IMDb.com rating – 7.7Box Office - £107.5M

Sucker Punch… a sucker to watch.

“It’s technically impressive and loaded with eye-catching images, but without characters or a plot to support them, all of Sucker Punch’s visual and thrills are naught” – Rotten Tomatoes

IMDb.com rating – 6.2Box Office - £36.4M

Critical Reactions• These are two critical reactions that stood out for me: “Sucker Punch is not one of the worst movies of the year, it’s three of the worst slapped together on a singe reel.” – Josh Tyler, Cinema Blend

“…A barrage of green-screen effects and comic-book portentousness from 300 and Watchmen director Zack Snyder, is hands-down the most nightmarishly awful film of the year.” – Steven Rea, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Zack Snyder’s interview for Sucker Punch• How did the title of the film come about? Zack Snyder: The

title for me was always about not having a title, because I couldn’t think of a title for the film (laughs). The film is so real, symbolic and all over the place, it has all these different conceptual things running through it that ‘Sucker Punch’ to me was a thing in the end – it was, but it wasn’t. It perfectly personifies its name, but in no way can you hold it down to a specific idea.

• What were some of your influences for the film and that world? Zack Snyder: I was a big fan of a magazine called ‘Heavy Metal’ when I was growing up. This movie is in a lot of ways a homage to that magazine. It shaped my aesthetic in a lot of weird ways. My Mum got me a subscription to that magazine when I was about twelve years old – which is for adults only. It’s an adult illustrated fantasy magazine so it had sex and violence in it (laughs). She didn’t know, she thought it was just a comic book, she never looked at it, and I never showed it to her. I think then normal comic books lost their lustre from me a little bit, because there was no sex or dying in it, when you’re fourteen you just wanna see the good stuff (laughs). I guess as your aesthetic evolves, you go to art school, you start getting exposed to so called bigger ideas, ‘Heavy Metal’ was always in my influences, there’s a lot of amazing artists who contribute to that magazine. That was the keystone for my aesthetic. With ‘Sucker Punch’ I basically tried to speak to that world.

• I know they had to do months of intensive training for the film, how did you know they could handle it? Zack Snyder: We talked a lot in the casting process about this physical training and that I’d want them to do the stunts themselves. I feel like they all looked at it like it’s a mountain to climb, and I don’t want anyone to say it couldn’t be done, I feel like they all came with that intensity to their roles. I think it also pays off with the drama in the movie in a sense that they had suffered together in the gym, then when they go into these scenes when they’re meant to a be cohesive group of girls who have known each other and seen each other suffer, that’s real, they went through that in the gym. Once we had them cast all the girls were involved in physical training and stunt training for the fighting in the film. Months of training. I think the really interesting thing that happened was because the girls had spent so much time suffering together, and trying to know what the movie was going to be about, by the time we got to Vancouver, and the time we got to actually talk about what the film was, they had already bonded with each other in a way that was consistent with what the movie was going to be. For me, even before the first rehearsal, I was amazed by how much they bonded and were those people.

Trademark• Dark special effects• Long action sequences • Slow motion shots• Speed-ups and slow down shots• Highly saturated colour schemes and

visual effects• Mainly uses a flamboyant visual style

Comparing fight scenes

300 fight scene Watchmen fight scene

Zack Snyder’s Golden rules

1. There are No Rules2. The Will to Suffer3. Your Point of View4. Storyboard5. Movies are Pictures6. Respect7. Throw things8. Still Shoot Film9. Passion10. Shoot Every Shot

Conclusion