How To Be A Legendary Filmmaker

The legends of cinema create well-crafted works of art that transcend genres and ages.  Becoming a legendary filmmaker requires studying the all-time greats and through viewing their methods bettering the innovation of your own films.

Stephen Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola are perfect examples of directors that one can emulate in order to be a legendary filmmaker. The flicks created by these artists will stand the test of time and continue to be studied long after their makers have passed on.

Looking to create the incredible?  Pay attention to these five prescribed methods on How To Be A Legendary Filmmaker.

1. Dialogue is the necessary element to making any successful film, let alone a legendary flick.  The greats combine realistic dialogue that fits and sculpts the characters, and they also add unique twists to the words that are uttered.  A legendary filmmaker has legendary lines!  Quentin Tarantino is one of the best at this:  “Are you gonna bark all day little doggy, or are you gonna bite?” ("Reservoir Dogs").
2. The visual. Camera angles and framing the scene perfectly is vital to making memorable movies.  Sometimes great backgrounds do it and sometimes they are not needed, though a unique way of using the camera to capture dramatic acts is essential to being a legend.  Hitchcock was famous for popularizing the suspenseful dolly zoom effect method for shooting, which changed the size of the background behind the characters.  His movie "Vertigo"  is a classic and is almost unsettling in the vast suspense that is achieved using this effect.
3. Be Epic.  No one defines legend and epic like Stephen Spielberg, the director of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (the first appearance of Indiana Jones. and "Jurassic Park".  His legend lies in taking huge action packed story arcs and infusing enough realism to make the viewer feel as though they are going along for a real ride through thrilling fiction.  Thinking big, or epic, is a sure way to become a legendary filmmaker if enough realism is applied to even the most unrealistic settings.
4. Characters make the movie.  Period.  There are numerous times where words are not needed, but great characters are an absolute necessity.  A perfect example is R2-D2 in George Lucas’s "Star Wars".  The droid is quite the fan favorite, as R2 only bleeps and yet invokes more feeling from an audience, in humor and sadness (as he is blasted), than any science fiction robot since.
5. Innovation is the greatest trick to becoming a legendary filmmaker.  A completely unique story to apply to the big screen is truly a rarity.  Many use others stories, or pieces of them, to base their works off of.  The greats, like Coppola, create their own stand-alone vision.  There is nothing that has ever appealed to the Italian family aspects, along with gangster aspects, in a dramatic and realistic manner like "the Godfather" films.  Francis Ford Coppola worked with author Mario Puzo and introduced to the world a story that has never been done and can never be repeated.