The reason I draw inspiration from a director like himself is because of his distinct visual style. A viewer can watch an Edgar Wright film and know that it was him who directed it.
I personally love Edgar Wright because of his originality and his ability to take something that has been done a million times before and create something completely new and original out of it. For example, this scene from Hot Fuzz has the character relocate from London to Sandford.
This is a type of scene that has been done thousands of times in the past, particularly in comedies. The reason this scene is different is because of how unique and original it is. In most comedy films in which the character needs to travel to another city; the film will usually have some helicopter shots of the car the character is in and some shots of familiar landmarks that are recognizable to the viewer whilst being accompanied by some up-beat cheery pop-song.
Whereas in Hot Fuzz, the transitions between scenes are very quick and jarring to the viewer. The scene is also only 36 seconds long, it uses each of those seconds effectively by showing important things to the character. For example, the characters emotion, The character is clearly shown to be disappointed/depressed by his move from the city (this is much more effective when the viewer has context that he is a very dedicated policeman who loves where he works). The scene also shows a number of props/landmarks that are important: the plant that the main character is holding is often reincorporated into the story and is used multiple time throughout the movie, the phone shows the character's transition from a city to a more rural area (as seen by the phone losing signal throughout the scene), and the camera show important landmarks that are reincorporated into the story throughout the movie. For example, the model village sign shows the area's most famous landmark (this is important to the viewers impression of the area as a model village wouldn't be that much of an attraction to most people and would seem boring to most individuals). The model village is also shown later in the film during a fight scene where the village is used as a weapon of sorts. The giant clock tower is also shown during the scene, this is another landmark that is later incorporated into the film in a way that I won't mention in order to not spoil the film. I believe that theses are all effective uses of screen time as the viewer is unaware that these things will be incorporated into the film at a later time, as opposed to many films which show or tell the viewer something for the blatant reason of using it at a later point in the film. Like World War Z for example, the first scene has to shoehorn the fact that one of the children needs an inhaler, I believe this can ruin certain moments of the film as it is extremely obvious to the viewer that the child will need an inhaler later in the film (which she does). Furthermore, the landmarks that are shown actually have some kind of importance to the story, whereas in most other comedies/films, the landmarks are usually shown just to take up screen time and to show the viewer something that they will recognize.
Edgar Wright often creates a layer of originality within his films that make them instantly recognizable to the view and makes them realize that it was Edgar Wright who directed the film (or the scene). For example, Edgar Wright was signed on to write and direct Marvel's Ant-Man, before he was replaced (due to creative differences) with the director of Peyton Reed. It is clear to the viewer of Marvel films that the director has little creative freedom as Marvel clearly has a winning formula that they do not want to stray too far from. However, what makes Edgar Wright a great director is his originality which is clearly recognizable to the viewer; this is shown in a few scenes of Ant-Man. For example, there are a number of scenes that definitely explore the ideas that would have been expanded on by the previous director/writer Edgar Wright. More specifically there are two fight scenes and a story-telling scenes that create new and original ways to expand upon the types of scenes we have all seen before.
While most movies/directors would usually have this type of scene shown as a flashback where the editors/directors would use the actors dialogue, Edgar Wright has Michael Pena's character voice over all of the actors while they talk, this is a very original and entertaining scene where in classic Edgar Wright fashion, a scene that we have all seen before has been altered to be new and refreshing.
Furthermore, this scene also from Ant-Man uses the environment in a very interesting and funny way that still manages to stay relevant to the story.
This scene has the two characters fight around a miniature toy train-set. This manages to perfectly blend comedy and action as there are moments in which the camera pans out and shows that they are fighting on a toy set and provides a brief moment of comedy in what, in other films, would be a tense fight as the whole movie has been leading up to this fight with the main antagonist of the movie. I believe that this fits the tone of the film, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe perfectly as it blends comedy and action in the perfect way (similar to the rest of the modern Marvel films). I believe that Edgar Wright knows that, ultimately, this film has no stakes to it and everybody knows that the main character is in no actual danger, and therefore he makes the final fight scene entertaining rather than making it tense for the viewer.
While most movies/directors would usually have this type of scene shown as a flashback where the editors/directors would use the actors dialogue, Edgar Wright has Michael Pena's character voice over all of the actors while they talk, this is a very original and entertaining scene where in classic Edgar Wright fashion, a scene that we have all seen before has been altered to be new and refreshing.
Furthermore, this scene also from Ant-Man uses the environment in a very interesting and funny way that still manages to stay relevant to the story.
This scene has the two characters fight around a miniature toy train-set. This manages to perfectly blend comedy and action as there are moments in which the camera pans out and shows that they are fighting on a toy set and provides a brief moment of comedy in what, in other films, would be a tense fight as the whole movie has been leading up to this fight with the main antagonist of the movie. I believe that this fits the tone of the film, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe perfectly as it blends comedy and action in the perfect way (similar to the rest of the modern Marvel films). I believe that Edgar Wright knows that, ultimately, this film has no stakes to it and everybody knows that the main character is in no actual danger, and therefore he makes the final fight scene entertaining rather than making it tense for the viewer.
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