Careers of Directors

When one studies film, one watches films—a lot of films. After a while I came to appreciate the works of individual directors; looking for their trademarks is a great way to compare otherwise unrelated films.

Directors have a hand in every aspect of the filmmaking process; some have a particularly deep involvement or significantly diverse expertise, while others might devote their talents to just a few parts of their films.

This visualization looks at the career paths of 25 different directors from all over the world and from different times. We could compare contemporaries, like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, both champions of the Silent Film Era, or you might notice similarities between directors that you might not have seen before—for example, Ethan Coen and Robert Rodriguez.

Ultimately, this is a tool. There is no amount of data, no algorithm, and no visualization that could capture what makes these directors artists. I see this as an opportunity to engage with film, to see that film has a rich and diverse history, and that one can look for artistry in data.

Charlie Chaplin was a busy man. We see he acted throughout his career, and also dabbled quite a bit in directing, writing, and editing, but only started producing films later on in his career.

Something to keep in mind is that nearly all of these films were made between 1915 and 1920, a short period of time. This might be because Chaplin's films were short, and making films was easier at this time.

Buster Keaton, another pioneer in Silent Film, had a much different career than Chaplin. Mostly an actor, he had a few runs as a director and writer, often both at the same time. His career was also spread across a longer period of time.

Explore the visualization to learn more about individual directors. As we saw here, we can compare directors quite easily, and the comparison only enhances our understanding of their careers.