How to Direct like Jj Abrams - Visual style breakdown

If you like this video share on social media and hit that subscribe button we are a new channel and helps out a lot Hey! The Film Guy here. My apologies as this video is late but hey! The Force Awakens is less than two weeks away. So today we are breaking down the directing style of JJ Abrams who is directing the film. The good, the bad and the in between. This is Director Genetics Until recently, if you would ask someone who JJ Abrams was they might have say, the guy who is directing the new Star Trek films or possibly say the guy who directed the TV show Lost. Fun fact, he actually only directed the pilot. But now he's known as the guy who is directing Star Wars Episode seven. JJ Abrams has become a bit of a household name over the last couple of years. Surprisingly he hasn't been around Hollywood directing films very long. His first major film was 2006's Mission Impossible 3. He was given the job because Tom Cruise was a big fan of the show Alias which JJ wasn't sure enough. Over the last couple weeks I've washed everything he has directed according to IMDB and listen to all valuable commentary. The first and foremost thing I've noticed is that everything he has done always has a fast pace, every scene is designed to go on top of the last. When there is a conversation that needs to take place other directors might take a minute to slow down and have been away from everything that's going on that way they make sure you understand the details of what's happening. But JJ more often than not, will put the dialogue in middle of a traveling or actions scene that way it only feels half as long and keeps the pace moving. JJ's also director who understands how to create contrast and Atmospheric color and light. Everything he shoots his extremely colorful. A lot of directors try to make the colors as dull and flat as possible. when it comes to editing the film they can tweak and change whatever they want, how they want it. But JJ likes to get as much in the camera as possible. He plans everything with the art department before anything is even shot. If it can look great practical, he'll do it practical he amazingly doesn't use CGI as a crutch which is one of the biggest things that promotes the new The Force Awakens film that unlike the prequels they're turning the old and using a lot of practical effects over CGI. You may also notice he uses a lot of flashing lights during action scenes, specially if they take place at night. this is to let you know that something is about to happen or something is happening that you need to be focusing on. JJ loves that movies are an escape and a fantasy so you often notice action set pieces in his films are bigger and larger than life covering the whole screen. and somewhat unrealistic. We're not talking Furious 7 unrealistic but he likes to show the action scenes in a way that you just grab your friend if you were a part of it. Bigger, larger than life, made so you look impressive and you hopefully make them say wow! There are several other things that have become iconic in JJ's films, besides the most obvious, the over use of lens flares. which he will attest to; I mean there's things I guess I do the obvious sort of joke is that I overused lens flares and that sort of what I'm known for... He also commonly uses camera techniques like Snap Zooms. You have definitely seen this kind of shoot before Directors like Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon often use it. Is even showing the new Star Wars trailer. The camera searches for a subject and zooms in once it finds it. Is meant to subconsciously show someone seeing the events taking place and focusing in on something inside the event. But a lot of people don't like this kind of shot because is often used as a stylistic approach to the same when knowing and reviewing take place, therefore it doesn't make technical sense. Whether or not you like it JJ has often chosen style over substance Take the scene from Mission Impossible Three In this scene Philip Seymour Hoffman's character is interrogating Tom Cruise. This is my favorite scene in the movie but that's because of the script and the acting, not the directing Notice that JJ has chosen to use a hand-held style shot for the entire interrogation. which is totally fine, but compare it to a similar scene from 7 which was directed by David Fincher Spoiler warning for this movie Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman's detective characters Mills and Somerset Have Kevin Spacey's serial killer character John captured But John is trying to make Mills kill him which would perfectly end his twisted game He tempts his reaction by murdering Mills' wife severing her head and then placing the head in a box in the middle of the field where they catch him If you look you'll notice that every shot of the detectives is hand-held. This is the shot where they are losing control of the situation and becoming more unstable. Specially Mills, his shots are a lot more shaky. But all shots of John are lockdown on the tripod and smooth. This shows that he has all the power in this situation All of this effect you in the subconscious level. It shows everything Fincher has done is with great purpose Now when you go back to the scene of Mission Impossible 3 you'll see that JJ was just trying to make the scene look more stylistic but didn't have much purpose behind the handheld I can tell the scene would look exactly the same if the shots were lock down in the tripod. Another area JJ's plot doesn't seem to take president is the action and fighting pieces by his own admission, he often doesn't plan them What I try to do is prep as little specifics as possible in terms of shots So I want to just go to the set and make things up some where along and sort of, you know, wing it He like to get on set and find the moments He rarely uses any storyboards He feels as if you works the scenes out on the day as it goes along they'll have more of the first energy in the film. This is why they don't often contain any camera shots of the action zone This way in the edit any shot could make it look like anyone is shooting anyone else This is a very strange technique and feels extremely amateur In my own personal opinion it makes everything a little bit hard to follow as you have no idea where anyone is or where they going. He even adds shaky cam to cover up that the actors haven't had much practice. Most directors plan out every scene in storyboard how they want every shot to look before they even start filming. Matthew Vaughn in Secret Service for example Take a list of own Colin Firth talking about their experiences making the film. I had to train and then you know mastering it up was part of the deal when he first spoke to me we hadn't even read the script yet, or finish the script yet and then he said we've got there also are you prepared to do this I love action in the movies they made back in the day it was cut cut cut 'cause it looked so bad that the only way to make them look interesting is just to cut it and shake the camera around and put sound effects on. I thought lets do it in a way where you just watch it and is perfectly mesmerizing Every single second, every pausing of the camera, the lens. I can surely, you know what we will put on the DVDs are... the videos we made beforehand you see the film I mean anything that's different is been now occasional surrounded by cardboard boxes you don't make that up on the day And the results speak for themselves The action scenes in Kingsman are gorgeous and intense. I think a lot of JJ's issues come from his TV directing background where they didn't often have a lot of time to storyboard. He is used to just go with the flow and not planning his shots until he is on set which often leads to weird cuts and him moving the camera just to try to make the scene look interesting. At times in conjunction with great stage blocking it really pays off and it looks like Spielberg Like this scene in Super 8 At other times it doesn't pay off and is almost like an accidental Michael Bay which is something that no director should ever be inspire to be Take a look at this scene from Star Trek in the darkness Most of the shots on the plot are moving shots but they seem to have little to no motivation close shot, wide shot, then back in pan down we'll go to a zoom out But why? Again I can tell JJ's often favorite style over substance. It's a bit of a bad habit and one he desperately needs to fix. Like most Directors for any emotional scene JJ tends to use a lot of close up shots showing the characters face and not much else this is often use because faces show far much more emotion than any other part of the body and if you can understand how a character is feeling you are more likely to empathize with them But in my own personal opinion he often goes a little bit too close cutting out the chin or the forehead or sometimes both It ends up looking really strange and I honestly don't need to look up a characters nose to see their emotional state But the things to remember about JJ it's he still is relatively new he definitely still learning But JJ takes risks and experiments which doesn't always pays off but when it does is great! Not enough directors out there are taking these risks So that is something to applaud. Anyways guys!!! That is my breakdown analysis of JJ Abrams Directing Style What do you guys think? Do you like that his directing styles? What director would you like me to analyze next? Let me know down below and lets have a conversation. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button Check out some of my other content and follow me on Twitter @therealfilmguy Also if you like my channel and want to help support us to make more videos check out my merch store and buy a t-shirt Anyways, see you again soon!