Auteur Theory

Auteur theory should reflect a directors personal vision, the famous french film director Truffaut argued '…a good director exerts such a distinctive style or promotes such a consistent that his/her influence is unmistakable in the body of his/her work.' This not only applies to film but to all directors works from commercials to music videos.

  A champion filmmaker like Alfred Hitchcock is also known as an Absolute Auteur. 

 There are some of the recurring themes, characteristics & patterns in his films are: 

• Cameo Appearances - it became almost like a game to the audience as it engaged them
• Female/Male Character Role - made them opposite of what the audience saw as stereotypical female and male roles
• Female - Dangerous blond willing to take risks
• Male - Loveable and caring when concerning there mothers, less risk taking then the female characters
• Sexual/Taboo areas assumed central or implicit places in his works
• Mystery & suspense heavily incorporated 
• Elaborate editing
• Visual expression of thought - close ups - allowing the audience to see the emotions of the persons face with clarity
• Soundtrack - building suspense
• Tension - built though suspense to the point where the audience enjoy seeing the characters in life threatening situations 

Scenes filled with no dialogue use POV Shots and Camera viewpoints. The camera takes on human qualities and is almost as if the camera is the audience and they are able to see what the character sees and therefore they feel as though they are uncovering the true story allowing them to interact and solve the mysterious within the story. 
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I decided to do some Auteur Theory on films as most Music Video directors hope to go on to direct Films and there is commonalities between them.

 Chris Cunningham 

He is a music/film director and has worked with artist like Madonna, Bjork and The Aphex Twins. His Auteur signature is based around horror which can be seen in some of his work like Aphex Twin - All is Full of Love & Madonna - Frozen. In both of these the audience is made to feel nervous and includes unexpected aspects which are a common element in horror films.

Cunningham also likes to use 'canted angles' to connote messages which could be love or fear etc. Fast paced editing and sharp cuts are used in most his videos, his editing style is in sync with the music and it's beat/speed. Some of his videos also include impressive technical feature which can be seen in the videos mentioned above, these sometimes include CGI editing. 

  Michel Gondry  

He is a French film, music videos and commercial director and is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise-en-scène. He was worked with artist like Kylie Minogue, Bjork and Paul McCartney. His auteur signature within his music videos are seen as repetitive and a clear example of this would be Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World. Gondry also uses technical elements in his music videos which catches the audiences attention. They are also shot in one single long take rather than short cuts and he also uses optical illusions to engage the audience. He is best known for using surrealism and making the video dream like, a prime example of this would be Everlong - Foo Fighters.

  Hype Williams  

He is best know for his work with numerous big selling R&B artists such as Notorious B.I.G, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott & Nicki Minaj along with many other. Within Hypes works he used lots of bright colours which can be seen throughout and is considered as part of his auteur signature. 

His signature also includes fish eye lens effect however this was more prominent in his earlier work. Hype's work is know for using a wide screen ration whilst a second shot is split and placed where usually there would be black bars above and below the video. Another one of his signature, which he continues to use through more of his recent works is the scene rapidly switching between shots so you are able to  see both at once.