Directions - Dexter Fletcher - Chosen Directors Research

Dexter Fletcher 

Dexter Fletcher is a British Director and Actor, he has starred in films such as Lock, Stock and Two smoking Barrels, Bugsy Malone and has also featured in major television programmes like Hotel Babylon and HBO's Band of Brothers.

He moved into Directing later in his career and has directed movies such as Rocketman, Eddie the Eagle and he also took over from Bryan Singer directing Bohemian Rhapsody due to Bryan being fired; however due to ruling he only received executive producer credit. Fletcher is also due to be directing the next Sherlock Holmes installment.

Although Fletcher has only directed a handful of credited director roles and films, the majority have been based around music and performance. For example, Bohemian Rhapsody, Sunshine on Leith and also Rocketman. I feel like this is why I enjoy his style so much, because he is very good at creating moments and making performances very realistic. In all films, he uses CGI to create the realistic feel of a big crowd, I think this is what works really well to create the realistic performance.

I also really enjoy how he captures and visualises moments, for example in the clip above, he uses the silhouette and lighting to create the tone which I think works really well. 

Fletcher has directed both Rocketman and Bohemiam Rhapsody which are both film documentaries which follow the lives of Elton John and Freddie Mercury. I believe this is part of Fletchers directing style, he is good at telling a truthful story. I feel when watching his films that I am in the moment and at that present time, it's very engaging and his films normally are heartwarming. I'd like to take this directing style and put it within my own work as I believe this is a way to keep the audience engaged. 

Fletcher also directed Sunshine on the Leith which is a musical surrounding the Proclaimers. In an Interview with the guardian, Fletcher advised he wants his audience to leave the cinema and feel good. He wants the audience to relate to the circumstances and enjoy the visuals. 

As I mentioned above, I really enjoy Dexter Fletchers work as he has directed mostly musicals, or films that heavily feature music. Below is an example from Bohemian Rhapsody. 

This is also a clip of Dexter Fletchers Rocketman.

I really want to use Dexter Fletchers style within my own adaptation. I think you can see from the two videos above that he is brilliant at setting the tone and clearly showing you the characters emotion. In both shots above, the camera holds on the character before the music kicks in. Although, the scene is silent in Rocketman it is still engaging with the movement and the hold. 

I have chosen Rocketman for my adaptation, this is a film I really admire that sets the tone and delivers Elton Johns life excellently. It really highlights the struggles he faced. I have chosen to do the scene where Elton discovers Your Song, I really think this would be a brilliant scene to use to capture characters emotion and use camera angles and movement to tell the story.