One of my favorite features on IMDb is the “Trade Mark” section of director bio pages. It lists out a flurry of features that a director is known for. This includes frequent collaborators, shooting styles, shooting locations, and any other number of things that make directors unique in their field. I’ve put together a quiz using these trade marks. Listed to the left are several trade marks of a specific director. See if you can guess which director employs each list of trade marks. Once you’re done, click on the link below to take you to the answers. Be sure to click on the images for full-resolution versions. Note that all directors are alive and working.
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Here are the answers. How did you do?
NOTE: spoilers/answers in the comments section.
I had a lot of fun doing this, even though I didn’t get all of them right. The Coen brothers and Tarantino ones were a dead giveaway.
Yep, those and Wes Anderson (for me, anyway) were pretty easy to identify. The same goes for Scorsese and Burton.
I blanked on Del Toro and Anderson but I got the rest.
That’s pretty impressive. It’s tough for me to honestly say how I’d do because I put it together (i.e. I knew all the answers beforehand), but my hunch is that I might’ve gotten 7 or 8.
This is hard!!! I only got Nolan right lol
He’s one I would have missed without a doubt.
I know Castor, I’m not as well-informed about directors to do this properly. I did get Cronenberg and Scorsese right though, which is amazing since I’m not into either one of them. Very educational post, John!
How about Wes Anderson, Ruth? I thought the “Futura” thing was a dead giveaway.
I guess I’m not smart enough to get that either, John😦
D’oh! Not a matter of smart or not. It’s just a tiny detail, nothing bigger.
FUN! Missed Scorcese, Lee, Eastwood and Nolan though! Cronenberg and Tarantino were easy as pie, the rest needed considerably more thought.
8/12? Very nice!
I want to revisit this whole thing down the line with other directors and I might do an all-horror one.
Very nicely put-together – fun and, thankfully, pretty easy pickings. You ought to have a round two in a couple weeks where it gets a bit harder, and potentially keep going from there. Or perhaps a Name That Tune-y style thing where you start with just one clue and go from there…hell, I might even use that idea for a podcast game or something.
I’m thinking the next round would focus on classics and/or foreign, or maybe just the heavy hitters in the Criterion Collection.
Dylan deserves the LAMB brainiac award!
You damn right!🙂
I got 8. Spike, the Coens, Scorsese, Wes, Tim, Quentin & Spielberg were easy. And I don’t think I would have guessed Gilliam, had I not watched Twelve Monkeys earlier tonight. Thanks for the quiz… you know how I love ’em!
That’s the group I think I would’ve had, minus Gilliam but plus Cronenberg. The others… I know for sure I would’ve missed Nolan and Del Toro.
10/12. I didn’t get Cronenberg or Nolan and I just watched memento a few nights ago.
Am I the only one who really hates Wes Anderson? You should of put comes off as a huge pretentious dick in his movies.
I’m a fan of Wes Anderson but he can definitely be a polarizing figure.
Six right. Didn’t even have guesses for 5 of the others, wrong on Spielberg fercryinoutloud. >:/
There was a great article on the IMDb Hit List a few weeks back about “The Spielberg Face”, which is exactly what’s described in one of those trade marks. It was really cool- someone put together screen shots of 20 or 30 Spielberg Faces. I think that one would’ve been my tip-off.
I only missed three. Usually I dreadful at these quizzes. Auteurs have always been my forte, however. Spike Lee, Guillermo, and Clint slipped me – certainly not directors I would assume to miss.
I felt a bit guilty about the Clint list because if you look at his trade marks, they’re pretty vague. It could be just about anyone.
The biggie for me on Spike Lee was the “WAKE UP!” trade mark.
HAHA Brilliant John.
I am back from Holiday now so I will be more present again (I bet you didn’t even notice :P)
I was rubbish at this quiz, although with the education of previous posts from this site I did manage to get QT (Boot of a car shot)
Great post matey
Definitely noticed!
For what it’s worth, my friend who’s a filmmaker, who just missed getting into USC Film School when life took him in a different direction… struggled with the quiz.