Francis graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra and next to this working in UCLA in Filmmaking. I did not expect him to have a degree in drama as he did not carry on this in his career but moved onto making films. When he was doing Filmmaking he was working with Roger Corman a successful Filmmaker known for such films as "The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)" "The Terror (1963)" "The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)". After Francis worked up the chain his made his first movie which was Dementia 13 in 1963, which was about a wife after her husbands inheritance and lying to his family about him being alive after she left him on a boat having a heart attack with the excuse of him leaving on urgent business.
After Francis made this movie his career started and carried on successful for many years. He worked with many famous people after such as, Tennessee Williams, and making Is Paris Burning? (1966) which was based on true story of the departure of the German occupiers from Paris in 1944.
After creating his second movie he then had a masters in 'Fine Arts' and created his company with George Lucas in 1969.They both worked together for a period of time and made movies such as, THX 1138 (1971) and American Graffiti (1973). At this point he was very successful in his career and his future was bright.
Other Movies: The Black Stallion, Kagemusha, Hammett, The Secret Garden .
All together Francis Coppola has won 5 Oscars 40 other awards and 36 nomination in his career
An interesting fact that I found out about his movies is that he adds family members in his films for example, In the Godfather the relationship to Micheal corleone was paralleled to relationship to the Collpola family.
Nicolas Cage is his newphew. They were both very close family members as Francis helped him become the actor he is.
The forth Godfather was never made because of Mario Puzo died in 1999 and he felt he could not finish it off without him and abandoned the project.
He realeased his own line of specialty foods.
Four of his relitives have performed in the series of Star Wars.
Attended the New York Military Academy.
Francis as a young child was sick a lot and had polio during the time he was at hospital and ill at home he practised puttetry.
A few of my favourite quotes of his:
"Happiness is Happiness.
"What the studios want now is "risk-free" films but with any sort of art you have to take risks. Not taking risks in art is like not having sex and then expecting there to be children."
" I bring to my life a certain amount of mess."
" Wall Streets got interested in film and communications, and these are the people who brought you the Big Mac. In the past twelve years, I can't think of one classic they've made"
"In a sense, I think a movie is really a little like a question and when you make it, that's when you get the answer"
"If you don't bet, you don't have a chance to win."
"I'm in a unique situation. I'm like now an elderly retired guy who made a lot of money, and now I can just, instead of playing golf, I can make art films."
"Here's a tip to young directors. They never fire you midweek."
Inspriations: Alfred Hitchcock, Tennessee Williams, Eisenstein, Roger Corman
My Ideas
So far I have found it quite hard to think of a idea so far the ideas are.
Puppet Show.
When researching about him I found out he spent a lot of time in puppetry, so I was thinking on doing my own show and making a video of this as when I was a young child I used to like puppet shows and did it at pre school.
Quotes:
I have mentioned some of his quotesthat he said and words that meant something to him, so everyone individually has words or something they honour or live by so, I wanted to do the same and make a graphical piece that shows the words that mean something to me.
I have gone with the idea with making designs with words and sentences/expressions that mean something to me. The reason behined this is because throughout my research I found Francis made his word personal and parallel to events and situations that has and were happening in his life. I showed quotes that showed or impled something about the society that he was living in. I feel everyone has a set of ethics that they live by like the ten comandments in christianity and I want to make my work personal. I feel if I tried to remake a scene or try to copy/sideline his work it would not do it just but infact mock it because of the level of effort he put into it and the thought process throughout and as a designer I want to create my own ideas. I will be using sentences/Phrases that other family members have told me and that I have learnt to live by throughout my life. The picture above it an example and a starter of what I will be doing. Some of the expressions I will be using are: "No regrets" " Live Laugh Love" "Perfect is unknowable, perfect is right infront of us" "Play the game how you want it" "You only live once, so why live someone else's" These are the main phrases I will be using and hopefully will be able to connect to other people and see what they live by.
These are are final pieces, Throughout doing this I wanted to further my idea and make it a stronger piece of work. The reason for chosing 'I AM?' for one of the pieces was because the quotes people have lived by made them who they are. I got these quotes from taking a small notebook and asking people to write down what influenced them or expressions that meant some individually. It was a nice expierance to do this and release all the different words that meant something depending on the person whether it been said from a family member or a friend or someone random in the street and how it had affected the person.
