A Guide to Hollywood Film Practitioners - Michael Mann essays

A Guide to Hollywood Film Practitioners - Michael Mann essays Michael Manns life is not as open and public as many of his colleagues and rivals in Hollywood, but over the last few years he has been brought into the forefront through his increasingly impressive work, which will hit a peak this year with the release of his latest offering, Ali. Mann was born in Chicago on 5th February, 1943. After High School, he attended the University of Wisconsin, from there he moved to London, and the London International Film School. All in all, Mann spent 7 years in London, attending Film school, and also directing commercials and documentaries. Mann moved back to USA after his time in England, and in the 70s began writing for American television, working on shows such as Starsky and Hutch. In 1979, Mann directed his first TV movie, The Jericho Mile, which won him an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Specials, and acted as a springboard for his move away from television, and towards Hollywood. Manns first foray into film directing was Thief (1981). Even though this was a critical success, the relatively unknown director, caused Thief to be a box-office failure. One of the main things that Thief did was introduce many tropes that run throughout Manns work to this day. Mann, in many ways, is an old-fashioned director. He likes to create the right atmosphere for all his films, and scenes within, and there is more than one example of this in Thief. Attempting to recreate rush hour at 2am, complete with rain, Mother Nature failed to provide this, so he ordered a 60,000 gallon water truck to keep both the streets and actors soaked, for 12 hours. This among other examples in Thief, such as the scene where Caan blows up his characters house, a real house was used and the immediate neighbours were moved to a hotel for the three days of shooting, which showed that Mann was and still is a Alt...