Director One- Ben Taylor

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Ben Taylor is predominantly a director but has also been a producer a couple of times. He is best known for directing the Bafta winning "Catastrophe" (2015) and majority of the episodes from series one of "Sex Education" (2019). The thing aspect of Taylor's work that interested me most was the originality to it. The visual style alone such as colour palettes and location make his shows stand out. For example with "Sex Education" it follows a year group of British Sixth students and how awkward teenager 'Otis' helps his classmates to overcome their sexual fears/ problems due to his mother being a sex therapist. Even though it is set in modern day in England there are many aspects that do not represent this. For example he uses extremely bright and contrasting colours throughout the episodes that almost add a 1970's/80's tone to it. There are also elements such as the size of houses and set up of the school that make it feel American. Taylor made these decisions in order to "reach out to different audiences" as well as it portraying how audiences are blending together to watch Netflix shows as it is accessible to all. this is evident in the image below from a scene of the show. The costume choices are very bright and the wall behind the characters appears very 70's, this would give it a nostalgic feel to older audiences. I do like this technique of using visual styles to portrays different eras and places mixd together however when first watching the series I found this a litte confusing at first therefore it is not something that I would wish to recreate.

A technique of Taylors that will influence my work is using interior angles to make audiences feel involved and with "Sex Education" especially it makes the audience feel part of this unique world. I really like this as when watching I felt more of a connection to the story and characters than I would if the scene was shown with an exterior angle such as a wide shot from the window. An example of Taylors use of exterior angles from "Sex Education" is shown from the first 19 seconds of this clip as the camera is placed behind a gas tap where a student would be sitting.  


 https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a25884999/why-sex-education-american-high-school-uk/

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