Lifelong Learning Mississauga

Arguably Steven Spielberg has had a bigger impact on contemporary filmmaking than any other living director and yet his work remains the subject of heated debate. Is he an artist or merely a prodigious entertainer? Gain a deeper understanding of the filmmaking process and glean useful insights about how to tell more compelling stories in virtually every genre by studying his singular approach to lighting, composition, camera movement and editing. Ten key works will illustrate Spielberg’s evolution from wunderkind showman and inventor of the modern blockbuster to popular artist seeking to examine his own experiences more nakedly.

Learning Objectives

1. Introduce classical Hollywood storytelling, the practices employed by writers and directors within the studio system and how Spielberg has both embraced and subverted these practices. Topics discussed will include story development, three-act screenplay structure, camera movement, camera blocking and how to direct actors.
2. Provide insights into the role of a movie director in shaping the overall pace and tone of a film while noting how Spielberg has actively disputed the “auteur theory” throughout his 50-year career. Remarkably, despite his success, he has generously shared the credit for his films with his collaborators, pointedly advocating for their contributions and insisting that he is not the sole author of his films. His films are therefore instructive in demonstrating the value added by key crew members such as the cinematographer, editor, composer, costume designer, production designer and VFX supervisor.
3. Generate a deeper understanding of how “reputation” influences the critical and popular reception of an artist’s work – often in direct opposition to the artist’s stated intention. In the case of Spielberg, his astronomical early success has branded him and shaped (often negatively) the response to his more mature and ambiguous films from The Color Purple onward.