Stanley Kubrick: early life

By Isabelle smith

 Stanley Kubrick was a award winning producer, director, writer and photographer of films. His films which were most known and critically acclaimed films included  Path of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, Space Odyssey. A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket.

Early life:

On the 6th of July 1928 Stanley Kubrick was born at the Lying in hospital in Manhattan. As a child he had a fairly normal upbringing, his parents were Jewish and his Father was a doctor. Kubrick was deemed intelligent as a boy but he he wasn't doing particularly well at school. When he was 13, Stanley's father bought him a  Graflex camera, which triggered a life long fascination with photography and film.

His Father became very concerned with his sons falling grades and eventually decided to send Stanley away in 1940 to live with his uncle who lived in Chicago. Stanley's father hoped the hoped that the change of scene would help motivate his son and hopefully improve his grades. When he graduated in 1945 Stanley found it very difficult to get into a good University as he had poor grades and many of them would not accept him. He didn't get admission into any good Universitys  and so he began attending evening classes at the City College of New York in 1946. 

Stanley s passion for photography grew when he was in his late teens, he began taking many trips to New York to take lots of photographs which he would then take back home and develop in his friend’s darkroom.

When Kubrick was just 17 years old he  managed to get himself a job as a staff photographer at “Look” magazine and spent the next few years travelling throughout the United States working on photographic assignments he'd been given by the company.

THE CLOCK TOWER SCENE
(alternative filming for the scene shot at the cricket Pavilion)

preliminary task story board

Stanley Kubrick Bio - Matthew Stone

Stanley Kubrick

Years Active: 1951-99

Date of Birth: 26^th July 1926

Date of Death: 7^th March 1999

Kubrick was born in Bronx, New York in 1928. He was a first born child with a sister born in 1934. People who lived in the same area described him and his family as “such regular people”. When Kubrick was 12 his father taught him how to play chess. This started a lifelong obsession with chess and according to Kubrick, was very valuable to his career. He said chess “helps you develop patience and discipline in choosing between alternatives when an impulsive decision seems very attractive.” This explains Kubrick’s perfectionism when making films as it required him to be very patient. For example the blood pouring out of the elevator scene in The Shining took nine days to set up and took three takes for Kubrick to be happy with how it looked, stating in the previous two takes that “It doesn't look like blood”. This shot took over a year to get right. When Kubrick was thirteen he was given a Graflex camera, starting a fascination with photography. In high school Kubrick often skipped school to watch double-feature films resulting in poor grades. A year after he graduated from high school he attempted to get jobs as a freelance photographer whilst attending evening classes at the City College of New York. By graduation he had already sold a series of photographs to Look magazine and would soon become a full-time staff photographer for the magazine.

Alfred Hitchcock Bio - Matthew Stone

Alfred Hitchcock 

Years Active: 1921-76 

Date of Birth: 13th August 1899 

Date of Death: 29th April 1980 

Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13th of August 1899 in Leystone. Hitchcock described his childhood as lonely and sheltered worsened by his obesity. This may have been because of events such as his father sending him to the local police station with a note asking an officer to lock him away for five minutes as a punishment for misbehaving. This caused a lifelong phobia of policemen and may have been the reason for the frequency of harsh treatment and wrongful accusations in his films. This also could have been the reason he refused to learn to drive. Another theme in his films that may have stemmed from his childhood is characters with bad relationships with their mothers. This may have been caused by his mother (according to legend) forcing Hitchcock to stand at the foot of her bed for hours and describe his actions as a punishment whenever he misbehaved. This theme is shown in such films as “Notorious” and more famously “Psycho” where the villain has an unusual relationship with his mother.

Biography of Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock(Josh Jeffs)

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928 in the Bronx, New York he was the son of Jacob Kubrick and Sadie Gertrude. He also had a sister named Barbara Mary Kubrick.
He had a ordinary upbringing but struggled at school due to the fact that he wasn't interested in many things, but he did become interested in chess ( which is shown in many of his films) and photography which he became very good at leading to him becoming the school's official photographer and sold a photographic series to 'Look' magazine.
in 1946 he became an apprentice photographer for 'Look' magazine and later a full-time staff photographer.
he married Toba Metz in may 1948 and lived in Greenwich village, during his time there he began frequenting film screenings at the museum of modern arts and the cinemas of New York. He was inspired by the fluid camera work of Max Ophuls which later influenced Kubrick visual styles.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was born in 1899 in Leytonstone, His father was William Hitchcock and had Two brothers, His mother was Emma Jane Hitchcock.
He had a harsh upbringing which he described as 'lonely' and was worsened by his obesity. At around five years old he was sent to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for 5 minutes as punishment for behaving badly.This harsh treatment and wrongful accusations are frequently found throughout all his films.
When he was 15 his father died and he moved schools to study engineering and navigation, this then lead his to join Henleys, a cable company.
During the first world war Hitchcock was rejected for military service because of his obesity but he signed up to a cadet regiment of the royal engineers in 1917.
After Henley in house publication ' The Henley telegraph' was founded in 1919 Hitchcock often submitted short articles and eventually became one of its most profound contributors with pieces such as 'gas' and 'the woman's part'.
During this period Hitchcock became interested in photography and started working on film production in London. He later gained a full-time position at  Islington Studios.His promotion from title designer to film director took five years.

Stanley Kubrick Biography jamie ward

      

   Born: July 26

   New York City

   Died: March 7 1999
   Nationality: American

   Religion: Jewish

Occupation: Director, Producer, Screenwriter,
Cinematographer, Editor

Most Famous Kubrick Films:

‘Spartacus’ (1960)

‘A Space Odyssey’ (1968)
‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1971)

‘The Shining’ (1980)

‘Full Metal Jacket’ (1987)

Stanley Kubrick is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers in history. His films described as ‘dazzling’ were often adaptations of Novels or short stories, he was renowned for his unique cinematography. Kubrick’s films covered a variety of genres, including war, crime, romantic and black comedies, horror, epic and science fiction.

After living in NYC as a photographer he began to make movies on shoestring budgets before his Hollywood blockbuster of ‘Spartacus’. Despite some of his films being regarded as controversial they are today described as masterpieces placing Kubrick in the top 5 film directors of all time along with Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese.  Kubrick Won 1 Oscar along with 40 other awards and 49 other nominations before his death in 1999.

Mis En Scene for our Preliminary task: Jamie Ward

Mis-En Scene Ideas For Our Piece PlatinumProductions

in our preliminary task mis-en scene is important in depicting the scene and audience response to character. The costume for the main character was used to create mystery and suspense. We decided as a group to keep the main characters face hidden. Concealing the characters identity creates tension and mystery as it allows the audience to question who this character Is? and why he doesn't want us to see his face? In order to reveal as little as possible we decided to keep the characters hood up and also covering up face and hands. The idea of covering up hands resembles the idea the character doesn't want be discovered and wants to move without a trace.

Character number 1 who informs the main character that the target is at the location is wearing a suit. This is used to suggest authority and formality. The smart look also contrasts to the main characters costume of casual to allow the audience to see who is more important in the scene.

Character number 2 is the target who has been tied up in the pavilion. She is wearing a sack on her head to show vulnerability and keep her identity enclosed. She is also tied to a stool with her hands behind her back showing her to be in a serious predicament and further depict vulnerability.

The use of the map to show where the target is suggests that the task is organised and the reference to the clock tower show that this has been set up and getting conducting the operation correctly at the right time and the right location allow the audience to perceive this as a serious matter.

Jamie Ward

Survey (Audience research) - Group

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KL8CXQT

Alfred Hitchcock:

Psycho influences (isabelle smith)

Childhood:

  

Alfred Hitchcock was born in London on the 13th of August 1899.He had a very strict upbringing from his parents who were Catholic. As a child he felt sheltered because of his upbringing and he was also quite lonely, which was mainly due to his struggle with obesity as a boy.

Some of this strict upbringing and punishments given by his parents where somewhat of an inspiration to some scenes in Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘Psycho’. One punishment in particular which was featured in the film was that as a child his mother would force him to stand at the foot of her bed for several hours as a punishment, these punishments which were seen as unjust by Hitchcock, had a huge impact on him as a person  and this idea of unfair punishment was often reflected in his films in later life.

In his younger years when he got his first job draftsman and advertising designer (before this he had studied engineering at St. Ignatius College in London) he started writing and submitting articles for the in-house publication. Even in these early short articles Hitchcock explored themes of false accusation which he felt he had experienced many a time in childhood.

Preliminary task. (story board by Isabelle smith)

As a group we decided on the scenes and techniques we would use in the Preliminary task of making a 30+ second opening to a thriller film. we came up with a rough story board together then i made a more detailed final piece,which would help us considerably when structuring and filming our Thriller. I also annotated the story board with use of props and costume (Mis en scene) camera angle shots,use of different camera shot techniques and the lighting we would be using (particularly in the final scene) which we would be using.

detailed coloured story board