Gomez 1
Nathan Gomez
English 101
Presentation Essay
Final Portfolio
Presentation Essay: "On Finding a Filmmaker's Vision in a Movie"
Abstract: This essay examines the search for a filmmaker's vision in a movie by how a
filmmaker uses the filmmaking process as his greatest tool and why he uses the process to create
his vision in a movie. Inside a movie has a filmmaker's dream, filled with new ideas to give to
viewers watching in the cinema. Focusing on Steven Spielberg involves the filmmaking
techniques filmmakers use to make their movies into reality. Extending Kathleen Blake Yancey's
claim on spreading screen literacy, Paul Heilker's framing concept on genres as ways of being,
Andrew Sullivan's concept of blogging, and Nancy Sommers' concept of uncertainty in writing
leads to the understanding of analyzing the visual background of the movies based on the artistic
process created by filmmakers. In contradiction to learning the filmmaker's vision, viewers find
what is most interesting about watching a filmmaker playing his imagination in adding
something new to the cinema.
Keywords: Filmmaker, movie, vision, Steven Spielberg, Paul Heilker, Andrew Sullivan, Nancy
Sommers, Kathleen Blake Yancey, viewers, filmmaking process
Gomez 2
On Finding a Filmmaker's Vision in a Movie
Watching movies is my favorite hobby. I experience a sense of awe and wonder that
comes from the hidden fantasy of the movie environment. However, I sometimes feel that the
movie is letting me dwell in its imaginary world. As long as I can remember, watching movies
requires me to know how they work, why they work, and what effect they have on me. Watching
a movie makes me explore deeply into the visual context, study its unknown aspects, and
interpret what the movie means. Furthermore, the filmmakers are responsible for creating an
incredible movie magic that influences viewers. They want to give their contextual framework to
make their movies look entertaining. With the filmmaker's vision hidden in plain sight, movies
may explore superficially on the vision in detail. The filmmakers actually use various
filmmaking techniques and elements of narrative to make viewers react in a certain way and why
it makes them create certain opinions about it. So, what is the purpose of the filmmaking
process? Why do filmmakers use the filmmaking process to express their vision in a movie?
How might viewers react to exploring a movie in detail in a certain way?
I searched for the meaning of a filmmaker's vision when I received inspiration from
Steven Spielberg, who was undoubtedly one of the most popular and influential film directors in
the history of cinema. His movies include E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Jaws, Close Encounters of
the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Ark,
Munich, and Lincoln. At the beginning of his film career, his science fiction and actionadventure films are archetypes of blockbuster filmmaking. Then, later in his career, he moved on
to addressing humanism. His success came from the filmmaking techniques and the form of
storytelling he used carefully in his films. Spielberg and other filmmakers try to express their
own visions in movies by using the filmmaking process as their greatest tool. Although
filmmakers have their own visions to express to the audience, how can exploring the message
help viewers understand how movies work, why they work, and what effect they have on them.
Learning a filmmaker's vision in a movie seems mysterious, but viewers are trying to find why
filmmakers want to fulfill their dreams by showing movie entertainment. Filmmakers have the
filmmaking process as their greatest tool because they want to turn their dreams into reality for
the viewers to see in the cinema.
Gomez 3
Kathleen Blake Yancey in her essay "Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New
Key" suggests literacy may be taught in different fields of reading and writing such as screen
literacy. Yancey uses Professor Daley to support her claim when Daley observes, "both in
metaphorical analogy in use, the screen has become ubiquitous... Think about these everyday
terms: close up, flash back, frame cut to the chase, segue" (183). Here, Yancey says that Daley
interprets the cinema screen has become "ubiquitous" that it moves in different directions by
watching a movie either a scene is a "close up", "flash back", or a "frame cut" to another scene.
When a screen moves, it expresses filmmakers' attempts in framing the movie with the work of a
camera. The cinematography frames different scenes in a movie production and it is up to the
filmmakers to decide how they are going to set up their scenes. Filmmakers use cinematography
by putting in certain camera angles, movements, and shots. Interestingly, setting up the scenes
for the camera conveys the foreshadowing of events in a story because viewers do not know
what events are going to happen in a movie. The cinematography is important for filmmakers,
including Spielberg, because they want to express their vision visually on the screen to expose
their dreams to viewers, just like using a brush to create a painting.
In addition to using cinematography to frame scenes, filmmakers use special effects,
music, editing, and production design by enhancing the movie's appearance. However, creating a
movie using different technologies takes time for the filmmakers to organize their imagination
into place. Andrew Sullivan in his article "Why I Blog" states that he believes writers and
bloggers use the time to gather their thoughts by "synthesizing these thoughts, ordering them...
seeing how his views evolved in the writing process itself, and responding to an editor's perusal
of a draft or two" (139). Here, Sullivan states that writers and bloggers use brainstorming as a
prewriting tool to figure out how they can express their thoughts in a particular order.
Filmmaking is a similar process to write because it uses "time" to make the scenes and special
effects before the movie releases in the cinema. First, the filmmakers take shots of the entire
production design with cinematography based on how they frame their movie in an imaginary
environment. Second, editing comes after finishing filming, so all the scenes compile the movie's
story in a particular order. Third, visual effects involve integrating live-action footage and
generated imagery to create environments that look realistic. For instance, Spielberg uses visual
effects to express meaning in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park. In Close
Encounters, the colorful structure of the UFOs, the Mother ship, and the cute little aliens look
Gomez 4
fascinating. The artistry emphasizes that the aliens are not hostile, but they are peaceful beings
searching for new intelligence. In Jurassic Park, computer-generated imagery and animatronics
help create dinosaurs for the first time and viewers react to what dinosaurs look like 65 million
years ago when they "ruled the earth". Finally, John Williams (the composer of Star Wars)
composes his music in Spielberg films because he emphasizes thrilling or sometimes teardropping moments to let viewers feel sympathy on Spielberg's vision. Filmmakers need time and
integrity to use filmmaking technology to convey their movie's story and appeal. With the
visuals, the editing, music, and production, they invent a particular style of a filmmaker's vision
visually, rhythmically, and emotionally.
Perhaps for most filmmakers, Spielberg tries to bring something new to the cinema.
There are important examples of Spielberg's films that describe Spielberg's skill and imagination
in filmmaking. Andrew Sullivan explains how a blogger evolves his thoughts through blogging.
Sullivan used Montaigne as a perfect example that Montaigne "was living his skepticism, daring
to show how a writer evolves, changes his mind, learns new things, shifts perspectives, grows
older" (135). Here, Sullivan states that to blog is to express thoughts with emotions and receive
scrutiny from readers. The evidence suggests that Spielberg's filmmaking techniques evolve him
into a successful filmmaker. In addition, Spielberg shows his intention in inspiring viewers with
his filmmaking techniques to express his vision. In most cases, his films break new ground in
subject, special effects, and style because they usually look optimistic in outlook or outcome.
Spielberg is responsible for expressing his dreams carefully in the cinema to let his viewers get
an idea why he uses the filmmaking process as his greatest tool, and that goes for most
filmmakers who are using the same process.
There is the filmmaking process that filmmakers use to create a movie, and how they can
express their vision to let their viewers interpret on what they are trying to do. Watching a movie
requires how they work, why they work, and what effect they have on the viewers. However,
exploring deeper into the visual context of a movie may seem hard. How could viewers analyze
the highlights of the filmmakers' cinematic vision using the filmmaking process? How did
random ideas originate for filmmakers to create their movies? Viewers determine why the
filmmaking process helps filmmakers fulfill their dreams. Paul Heilker in his essay "On Genres
as Ways of Being" comes into question what readers interpret when applying assumptions and
Gomez 5
demands on written genres. Learning a genre may look mysterious, but people use a particular
genre for multiple uses: "We have to embrace uncertainty, to stand naked and clueless in the face
of new data and experiences, and to foreground that uncertainty in our writing" (99). If I
compare analyzing a movie to embracing "uncertainty", viewers learn what the filmmakers are
trying to do and the filmmaking process they use to express their visions. For instance, movies
contain themes filmmakers create to let viewers dwell on the subject and check the movie's story
and style as an ideological meaning behind the aesthetic discourse of personal imagination.
Heilker states that learning genres is to discuss evaluating writing in terms of what the students
will do and will be able to do because fulfilling a point of view, that is, "we learned to talk about
our writing assignments in terms of observable and easily assessable behavioral objectives"
(102). Here, Heilker thinks that genres invite and require writers to inhabit new ways of thinking
in understanding the nature of the world and the knowledge it contains. Learning the filmmaking
process is somewhat similar, in Heilker's perspective, knowing a movie's relationship to reality,
the other arts, individual viewers, and society in different ways. Embracing the complexity of
learning movies may seem hard, but viewers are trying to create their own opinions how
exploring the aesthetic perspective of filmmakers feels like to them.
If filmmakers have their own unique aesthetic perspective on movies, what defines
filmmakers as artists? Most viewers care about filmmakers giving them something interesting
that they cannot find elsewhere. Secondly, and more importantly, defining filmmakers as movie
artists is their level of creative satisfaction. Will it make viewers happy if filmmakers create
interesting movies? Not necessarily. Unfortunately, not all movies guarantee a satisfying dream
of awe and wonder, but it would allow viewers to keep in touch with something deep inside the
filmmakers' works and feel a sense of purpose in life. Filmmakers play with their own
imagination to create new ideas visually, rhythmically, and emotionally because they want to
give out their creativity to viewers who care about finding something interesting to watch.
Viewers can use their own approach to figure out just what filmmakers are trying to say in a
movie. Different approaches may embrace or totally ignore other approaches to come up with
similar or opposite ideas about what a movie really means to the filmmaker. Therefore, there are
as many different interpretations of a movie, which would result in studying the meaning of other
movies even more.
Gomez 6
Nancy Sommers in her essay "I Stand Here Writing" talks about her writing experience
with the use of symbolism. She described her life experiences that led her to learn writing by
emphasizing her mother's bracelet and its missing parts, but she says, "When I look at the
bracelet now, I think about the Prussian matriarch, my grandmother, and my whole primordial
family drama... The bracelet is but one of many sources that intrigues me. Considering them in
whatever order they appear, with whatever gaps, I want to see where they will lead me, what
they tell me" (93). Here, Sommers uses symbolism to express her theme of writing as a living.
She requires translation of interpreting symbols that look complex and how do they relate to her
topic. What does the symbol mean? Why is her mother's bracelet important to the writer?
Perhaps the bracelet means Sommers lives her life to embrace uncertainty because the facts of
her life lead her to make connections with new ideas. Like Sommers, Spielberg seems to have a
good ability of symbolism to nurture a relationship with his themes. In Schindler's List, the
movie appears to look black and white; however, there is a girl in a red coat to have some color
and the way Spielberg used it to send a message that I have never seen before. I realized that the
girl in the red coat symbolizes the Jews' cry for help during the Holocaust. She also mirrors the
inaction of the Allied powers in saving the Jews. Schindler, however, represents the girl as the
innocence of the Jews slaughtered by the Nazis. The moment when he saw the girl dead, he
confronts the horror of Jewish life by rescuing 1000 Jews because the spirit of the Jewish
religion lives on. Schindler's List is also a powerful idea that one man can save the life of
another, which are the Jews. It seems that most filmmakers have some interesting techniques
they add to the filmmaking process such as symbolism, in which they make the meaning of their
movies complex for the viewers to find their vision. Interpreting complex aspects is what
filmmakers usually do to emphasize their vision in an interesting way. Therefore, the filmmakers
want to add something new to their movies by using hidden techniques in the filmmaking
process as part of embracing the complexity in learning movies.
Another powerful message is Spielberg's recurring theme of broken family relationships.
In Sommers' life situation, she tries to find the missing facts that lead a meaningful life, such as
loving her daughters more: "Maybe it is that "Love (as well as writing) involves a radical loss of
certainty" (124). When she looks up at the facts, she cares for making close relationships with
her daughters as part of being a writer. In the same way, Spielberg felt heartbroken by his
parents' divorce and he comforts himself using that autobiographical aspect in his movies. For
Gomez 7
instance, E.T. The Extraterrestrial frames Spielberg's family theme because it captures the
touching tale of a homesick alien finding his way back home by befriending a human boy.
Spielberg's characteristic theme of communication along with the ideal of mutual understanding:
he has suggested that the story's central alien-human friendship is an analogy for how people can
learn to overcome their differences. Themes are the universal aspects behind the filmmakers'
imagination in movies. Either they can come from influences in culture or from experiences
filmmakers enjoyed or struggled in life. Most viewers are interested in seeing movie themes
come to life as they relate something important in culture, society, the other arts, or their reaction
of watching movies as cohesive wholes.
I may have shown a few examples from Spielberg's visions of his films, but the way he
expresses them show that his filmmaking skills and imagination evolve with his cultural
influences and life experiences. Like Spielberg, filmmakers could have a multitude of
approaches and perspectives, and some of them could relate to their way of living. Anyway, how
can viewers search a filmmaker's vision in a movie? Well, use an analogy from Sommers' life:
she struggles taking care of her daughters as a mother and she kept a bracelet with missing parts.
Sommers' writing ability supports her to become a writer and embracing complexities in life
when she says "life is our dictionary, and that's how we know that the wind can beckon use to
open the door" (130). Although Sommers is uncertain to live, she has her own insight to come up
with ideas and make connections in her writing. Likewise, filmmakers have their own ideas to
develop a particular cinematic vision. They give themselves time, energy, and focus during the
filmmaking process to fulfill a dream with many ideas they have. Their vision means a special
understanding of what filmmakers want to do with their movies, setting them apart from any
personal or moral judgments. If the cinematic vision looks suitable in a movie, then is it
deepening? Is it true to itself? Is it reaching its full potential? Most viewers may become
ambiguous what a movie means, but they could interpret the vision of filmmakers as a
mysterious exploration in examining personal imagination. Each filmmaker has their own unique
style with inspiring the audience with movie entertainment and viewers still want to learn more
about the essence of cinema. With many ideas in place in the film industry, movies may become
deepening, may become true to themselves, and try to reach their full potential to entertain the
audience. The role of the film industry is to express filmmaking creativity using technology and
rendering the movie full of new ideas to the screen for distribution to the public.
Gomez 8
Spielberg is my inspiration for deepening the contextual framework of watching movies
because he motivates viewers with his incredible movie magic. In addition, Spielberg's success
led many viewers to learn the cinema in a way that watching movies introduces change. What I
mean by change is that filmmakers use the filmmaking process and the narrative to evolve their
way of being in the film industry. Paul Heilker believes that a writer's journey is to experiment
genres being carried out in public. For instance, Heilker states that rhetoric, a writer's tool, is "a
way of being in the world through language, through invention, structure and style... [we are]
always creating structures of meaning and generating a style, a way of being in the world" (93).
Here, Heilker suggests that the rhetoric, a genre of language, is a "way of being" based on how a
writer would be able to use rhetoric in multiply ways "through invention, through structure and
style" to discuss authoritatively about a topic. Similarly, by emerging into the world of the film
industry, filmmakers are capable of using filmmaking techniques as "genres", or methods, to
carry out their goals in expressing their vision in a movie. Heilker also states his experience in
writing "was going to call me up and out of my previous way of being in the world, that I would
need to be more than I was in order to complete this writing assignment, that I was going to have
to be bigger and bolder and more significant than I was used to being, than I liked to be, than I
wanted to be" (94). Here, Heilker introduces a significant change in finding a passion in writing
because he wanted to immerse himself in the "world" of writing fundamentals and become
something more, something new. Heilker's change of being is similar to filmmakers looking
forward to creating movies with filmmaking because working in the film industry is their passion
to express their cinematic vision of awe and wonder and evolve into something more, something
new. Spielberg impresses me because he brought the film industry some of the most iconic
moments in American culture and history while pushing boundaries of style, special effects, and
storytelling. Although Spielberg is one of the most recognized directors in film history, other
filmmakers want to give interesting ideas to the cinema for viewers to consider why movies are
important and satisfying to discuss.
Gomez 9
Works Cited
Heilker, Paul. "On Genres as Ways of Being." Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading:
Bedford St. Martin's, 2011. Print.
Sommers, Nancy. "I Stand Here Writing." Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading:
Bedford St. Martin's, 2011. Print.
Sullivan, Andrew. "Why I Blog." Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading: Bedford St.
Martin's, 2011. Print.
Yancey, Kathleen Blake. "Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key." Participating
in Cultures of Writing and Reading: Bedford St. Martin's, 2011. Print.