Unless a writer, producer or director does not want to adhere to any specific “style” and just wants to reflect the reality as the camera “sees” it (which already in some respects is a style by itself), a very special attention to many creative tools is necessary – ahead of any production planning.

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 The Classic Approach: Mis-en-scene

 The creator may use many writing, directing and technical tools in order to achieve the style he wants. The classic way to do is to use the “mis-en-scene” (what appears on the screen) technique. Here are some of the most important measures influencing the style:

1. 1. Topic
   2. Writing style
   3. Time
   4. Language
   5. Acting style
   6. Costumes
   7. Camera expressions
   8. Camera movements
   9. Lighting
   10. Scenery
   11. Backgrounds
   12. Props
   13. Sounds
   14. Music
   15. Art styles

Most famous directors have their own specific style. Some of their “style techniques” are very apparent for the viewer and often typical for a director. Interesting also are style trends used by groups of filmmakers – or used during specific times of the movie history. Group styles can be found in German expressionism, Italian neo-realism and other eras.

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 The Director Makes All Decisions

 According to film theoreticians Bordwell and Thompson, you are able to analyze film style of a director through four steps:

1. Determine the organizational structure.
2. Find their stylistic techniques.
3. See how the patterns of their techniques correlate to each other
4. Analyze the specific style function of each technique.

Important to remember: Only the director determines what appears on the screen (and what not) – and how. Occasionally, avant-garde directors violate the common rules of filmmaking dramatically in order to bring our attention to their techniques.

Sometimes they are very successful, sometimes they are absolutely not. Be careful! Just breaking the rules in order to get attention for the sake of “attention” doesn’t advance your cause. You must be creative, know what you are doing – and doing it right.

Good is What Works

“Right” does not mean to be “conventional”, doesn’t mean to bravely adhere to all or most “unwritten rules” of the filmmaking. It just has to make “sense”, artistically, esthetically – or just as a pure visual experience. Dare to compare!

Don’t be afraid of trying something new. Don’t be hesitant to search for your own style. Of course, it does not happen by accident or overnight, and you can’t force it with either. Your style must “grow” the way your visual expressions grow.

 Scared of Experimenting?

Experimenting is the best way to go for it. Video, as cheap as it footage-wise is, is a perfect medium to play with your ideas, to try new things, to find the visual expression you like.  It’s not like me decades ago, experimenting with the still relatively expensive 16-mm film on a shoestring budget. After many weeks of experimenting, I made it against all odds and won my first International short film festival award.

Don’t be afraid to show the projects you are working on to your friends, colleagues or others and get some feedback. You will be surprised how valuable feedback sometimes is. You can’t avoid taking advantage of the feedback.

We’ve learned more from my audience feedbacks than they probably learned from us. Invaluable! They discovered aspects directors never saw in their work. They sensed expressions the director never thought to be able to create at that time. They taught us how they see our work, and since we always want to produce our films for the satisfaction of our audience, this is extremely important to us. Another words: We must not feed our ego. We want our work to serve the only purpose – to satisfy our audience.

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Polishing Until Fully Satisfied

On the other side, don’t hurry to show your video to the worldwide public, until you are comfortable with the (at least preliminary) result and really know what you are doing. Follow your heart, and if you’ve got talent and enough applicable education, the result is going to be at least “interesting”.  Unless you are a genius, not every piece you are trying to produce is going to be the “movie of the year”.