Authors Voice: Wes Anderson

For this prompt I have watched, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. And I liked the class discussion we had on this segment. Mainly because we had a room full of artists and designers who all strive to be unique talking about how other artists achieved that status. Usually artists become distinguished when they produce a number of works that all have similar tones, points of view, or visual consistency. Wes Anderson in particular is a good example of a distinguished director for a lot of the same reasons.
It's easy to see similar editing techniques and shot progressions in his films. One of the most obvious and well known is his use of symmetry. He takes a design composition that is usually frowned upon by artists and makes it his own. In The Grand Budapest Hotel he uses that type of shot on Gustave to give him a sense of balance and composure. Even in prison he walks the prison symmetrically and balanced. His shots are also extremely clean for the most part. Everything feels like its in it's place. Which is impressive because in films everything in the shot is intentional, but in his shots the viewer can feel the intentionality. His environments aren't designed to be real, they're designed to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible. I've worked at a summer camp, I can guarantee you no 12 year old would pack a suitcase like Suzy packed hers in Moonrise Kingdom. But his design choices add to his distinguishability and overall tone of his films.
Aside from visuals Wes Anderson displays a similar tone and feeling in his movies. His movies make me feel nostalgia for events I've never experienced. Moonrise Kingdom in particular feels like one big nostalgia trip. His movies feel like this partly because most of them are set in reality but have certain whimsical attributes to it. For example I noticed Anderson likes to have characters that are strong leaders and bring a special talent to their universe, but go under appreciated because of the situation or world they're in. Gustave is a polite man in an un-polite world, Mr. Fox is an excellent robber in a world that doesn't give him an opportunity to use his skills, and Sam is smart young kid without guidance or a place in his world. All of his characters are unique and gifted but don't exist in a world where they can excel. This always leaves us rooting for the protagonists in his films. His protagonists always have a unique and usually insightful world view.
So overall it's easy to pick out Wes Anderson's films from the crowd because of his unique visual style and preference for special characters who don't really fit their world.