page_title: Darren Aronofsky
section_title: Directing style
hierarchical_section_title: Darren Aronofsky / Directing style
caption_attribution_description: English: Q&amp;A after Black Swan at The Aero, Santa Monica Darren Aronofsky - Director Matthew Libatique - Cinematographer Andrew Weisblum - Editor
context_page_description: Darren Aronofsky is an American filmmaker and screenwriter. His films are noted for their surreal, melodramatic, and often disturbing elements, usually based in psychological horror and drama.
  Aronofsky attended Harvard University, where he studied film and social anthropology, and the American Film Institute where he studied directing. He won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, which went on to become a National Student Academy Award finalist. Aronofsky's feature debut, the surrealist psychological thriller Pi, was shot in November 1997. The low-budget, $60,000 production, starring Sean Gullette, was sold to Artisan Entertainment for $1 million, and grossed over $3 million; Aronofsky won the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
  Aronofsky's followup, the psychological drama Requiem for a Dream, was based on the novel of the same name by Hubert Selby, Jr. The film garnered strong reviews and received an Academy Award nomination for Ellen Burstyn's performance.
context_section_description: Aronofsky's first two films, Pi and Requiem for a Dream, were low-budget and used montages of extremely short shots, also known as hip hop montages. While an average 100-minute film has 600 to 700 cuts Requiem for a Dream features more than 2,000. Split-screen is used extensively, along with extremely tight closeups. Long tracking shots, including those shot with an apparatus strapping a camera to an actor, called the Snorricam, and time-lapse photography are also prominent stylistic devices. Often with his films, Aronofsky alternates between extreme closeups and extreme wide shots to create a sense of isolation.
  With The Fountain, Aronofsky restricted the use of computer-generated imagery. Henrik Fett, the visual effects supervisor of Look Effects, said, "Darren was quite clear on what he wanted and his intent to greatly minimize the use of computer graphics ... and I think the results are outstanding." He used more subtle directing in The Wrestler and Black Swan, in which a less-visceral directing style better showcases the acting and narratives. Aronofsky filmed both works with a muted palette and a grainy style. Part of this consistent style involves collaborations with frequent partners cinematographer Matthew Libatique, editor Andrew Weisblum and composer Clint Mansell. Mansell's music is an often important element of the films.
caption: Aronofsky with frequent collaborators Matthew Libatique and Andrew Weisblum
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