Ridley Scott Auteur Case Study

1. RIDLEY
SCOTT
Director & Auteur
By,
Rhys Painter

2. What is an
Auteur?
• An auteur is someone who dominates the film-making
process to the extent that it is appropriate to call the
director the auteur and or author of the motion picture.
• The theory also states that the director will also project his
or her own personal style onto the film, this would be due
to the fact that they are the primary person responsible
for the creation of the film. However, an additional
important aspect would be the aspect of this theory would
be that it is commonality of theme which is seen in each of
the films in which that particular director makes.
• The Auteur theory was developed through the work of
FrançoisTruffaut and Andrew Sarris.Which originally
began in the early 1950s and was developed through into
the 60s.

3. Ridley Scott About:
• Ridley Scott was in 1937 in Durnham, England.
• He actively set out on his goal of being involved within
a film career since he was a child.
• He started out as a set designer for the BBC, which
reflects quite heavily onto his work.
Education/ early career:
• He went onto studying at the Royal College of Art,
where he helped establishing a film department, and
made his first short there which was titled Boy and
Bicycle.
• With his brothers known as Franky andTony which
were referred to as ‘Ridley Scott Associates’, where he
made his first film which was called ‘The Duelists’.

4. What
makes
Ridley Scott
an auteur?• Ridley has directed in some of the most recognisable and
acclaimed sci-fi movies, while also directing many other
movies of varying settings which include; Alien, Blade
Runner, Gladiator,Thelma and Louise & American Gangster.

5. Awards • Ridley Scott has been nominated for many Best
Director Oscars, but never won. However, he did have
Gladiator win best picture.
• http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/gladiator-wins-
oscars-tiger-traffic-close/story?id=107781

6. Themes • Almost 100% of this films carry
this ”blank vs blank”, someone
vs someone theme, for example
in alien, the scientific
advancement of humans vs
their survival, and is greatly
focusing on that survival point.
• Blade Runner is all what makes
them human and the focus on
the soul and what the overall
difference is between us and
the androids.
• Gladiator is all about the feeling
of one man vs the power of
many other men, with the
protagonist desperately seeking
some sort of revenge against
those who have wronged him.

7. Blade Runner
Storyboard &
Movie
• When Ridley was building his ideas, he first of all built
storyboards for then, as you can see in the film “Blade
Runner” there are scenes in which where set an exact
replica or somewhat similar to the movie in terms of
how his made his storyboard so alike his film…

8. Style • Ridley Scott I feel has a more subtle style over other
directors, like QuentinTarintino, but is very unique
nonetheless.
• Ridley makes excellent use of the score to set the tone
and pacing, an example of this would be in blade runner
where with a change in music depending on whose
perspective the movie is set as. He also uses this to create
that dramatic tension/ effect when the aliens are about to
strike in the film ‘Alien’.Throughout Ridley Scott’s films he
tends to use different music, artistsn
• He often likes to use shots for characters from the waist
up, as they often are working on something else, for
example when people are either reading or eating in the
filmAlien, which in my opinion makes everything feel
more realistic.
• https://prezi.com/piwjnfd5xgeh/ridley-scott-auteur-
presentation/

9. Style Part 2 • Lighting is used greatly in all of Scott’s films, within
Gladiator using it so that to show when the character is
angry or even disturbed, it helps accentuate the pain or
overall feeling the character is feeling at that specific
moment.
• WithinAlien and Blade Runner, darkness is simply a
natural part of the worlds that are characters inhabit,
but using it vast ways. In Blade Runner, it is used when
the main character is represented as being in a darker,
trashier place within the city, it helps the audience to
gather and understand the dirty feel of the city.
However with Alien the darkness is there to fill some
sort of cloak for the creature with hunts the
protagonist.

10. Story
Direction
• In terms of Scott's movies they seem to all
head within the same direction for
example in his 3 most popular films they all
feature a hero who is left in a tough
situation as they have to fight a much
larger force, more powerful then
themselves. It tends to continue where the
hero is almost killed and done with, as the
characters progress and put into specific
moments where the force they are
fighting is unrelenting and on the verge of
destroying them. But initially the ending is
the same where the hero and “sidekicks” if
any succeed by destroying the very thing
which was there to destroy them.

11. Editors &
Cinematography
• In terms of the editor in Ridley Scotts films as I can see
he uses different editors per film for example; within
Blade Runner he used JoeWalker and inThe Grey he
used Roger Barton…
• From my research I can also see that Ridley Scott uses
different cinematographers as well as editors for
example within the film Blade Runner he uses Jordan
Cronenweth however with Robin Hood, Scott uses
John Mathieson.
• As for Ridley Scott himself, he makes his own
storyboards which suggests that he produces the film
ideas.

12. Film
Analysis:
(Blade
Runner)
• Throughout the scene, the main character is on a chase
with what seems a woman who has perhaps done
something.The darkness and the crowd shade the
woman until she runs into the main characters sight,
but for the main character he shoots the woman
without a second thought. Ridley Scott uses high and
low angles to show dominance etc.With the colouring
and the theme within this scene I feel it shares the
same context and surroundings similarly to
‘Promethius’ as in lighting and how the overall
atmosphere of the movie is looking itself.
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=4lj2ISTrfnE

13. Final
Thoughts
• To give the final reason in why I feel that Ridley Scott is
an Auteur is clearly the fact he expresses the skills
required by his lighting, coloration and overall set
detail to enhance how the viewer is receiving the film
at the end in the high quality it is and how they
interpret the movie and its story, this different style of
directing is something which isn’t seen much anymore
and it shares that thought of somewhat being fresh air
into a somewhat stale directing community.