KEY DIRECTORS (SPORT FILMS)A PRESENTATION LOOKING AT

DIFFERENT SPORT FILM DIRECTORS, OR PARTICULARLY GOOD

DIRECTING ON A SPECIFIC FILM.

John G. Avildsen John G. Avildsen directed films like Rocky and

Karate Kid, which are iconic films not only in the sport film industry, but in the film industry in general. Everyone has heard of at least one of those series of film, meaning that the films are bound to have some kind of worth to them. The films themselves are, in my professional opinion, extremely good as a whole. The directing therefore must be good, as it takes a great director to make a great film. For this reason, I think it’s essential to study his films for inspiration, as he is obviously going to be influential, after directing influential films. Also what is to be noted about Avildsen, is that he was awarded ‘Best Director’ and many of his films have Oscar nominations and even awards, with films like Rocky. However, he started out directing a film called ‘Joe’ which was extremely low-budget, yet still received great appraisal, showing us that even those that start off small can go on to achieve great things, providing not only a directing style to follow, but also quite inspirational. Although, inspirational does not add much to creating a film, Avildsen’s films are definitely something to follow and take inspiration from.

Ron Shelton Ron Shelton is another key sport director, yet

directing some slightly more unheard of films, such as Bull Durham (1988) and Tin Cup (1996). Shelton is regarded as being one of the most sport related directors there are. What perhaps makes him such a great director, is that in his early years, he was a decent minor league baseball player for about 4 years in Baltimore. It can be argued that a director who is directly involved in that which he directs films in, means that they have a great degree of background knowledge and so they can make better films, as they know the finer details. This is what I personally believe makes Ron Shelton such a great director. His knowledge and understanding of sport really rubs off onto his films and overall makes him a person to really look up to and admire. To create films as he does would be brilliant. Even though his films aren’t ‘big’ they have a certain degree of professionalism to them, which can only be obtained through great directing and for this reason, I hold his films as highly as more famous films.

Thomas Carter Thomas Carter is best known for his work

on the film ‘Coach Carter’, which was a film about basketball and under-privileged youths. The film itself was nominated for many awards, showing how it was held as a great film and as we’ve previously explored, to have a great film, you need a great director. Although, Carter also directed the television series ‘The White Shadow’, which is also about basketball. The recurring theme with this director is sport films, as he also does films about dancing, which although sport related, does tend to focus on more ‘romance’ rather than the actual sport. But, it’s sport nonetheless! Carter is a good director to follow, as he does films about Basketball and Youths, which is the area I want to go down, so ‘copying’ or ‘mimicking’ his directing style may be beneficial to my own directing!

To Conclude.

There’s a lot to take from the little bit of research into key directors, as I can see lots of different styles of directing and it gives us some insight into directors and their ways. This helps me, as I get to see some different ways people have done films, the only problem is that these are all American, so their films are made ‘Hollywood Style’ which isn’t really how I want my film to be made. As I want mine to be ‘British’ and ‘Edgy’ a director like Shane Meadows would be good to look at it, but for the sake of this, it’s still been insightful to look at sport directors, as that touch of sport in a more American way, may help to reach out to a mainstream audience, as many English audiences tend to associate with American films, especially mainstream audiences. So, this research has benefited me greatly and it will help with my film, as I now have a lot of inspiration and new ideas!