David Yates - An Unsung & Great Director

I've seen some of his TV work.

State of Play was excellent, but The Girl in the Cafe was awful.

That was written by Richard Curtis though, who always seems to divide audiences markedly.
 
I consider Order of the Phoenix not only the worst Harry Potter film by miles (which is saying something) but one of the worst films in general that I have had the misfortune to sit through, and I lay the blame entirely at Yates' door. He did a better job with Half-Blood Prince, but not good enough to redeem his total butchering of Phoenix and I'll be amazed if I think the next two are any better. If anything I think he's overpraised.
 
But why blame just him? You didn't like the film, that's fine, but don't blame just the director. It's a team of people who are involved, such as the cinematographer, editor, composer etc.. If you are unhappy about the changes and cuts, then Michael Goldenburg (the screenwriter) is the man on which to lay most of the blame.

Personally, I think he is a great director. Obviously not in the same league as others such as Del Toro, Nolan, Cuaron, Burton.... but he is a very good, versatile director who has produced stunning pieces of art (HBP) and expressed a political theme which mixed in with the magic (OOTP). Considering he had a 800 page book to adapt and only had experience with TV films when he entered OOTP, he did a pretty good job.
 
I blame him because he's the one who was all over the press and DVD talking about what a "great film" they'd made. Believe me, I'm unhappy about the thing as a whole but I've never seen the scriptwriter boasting about what a good job he did, unlike Yates. And I've seen better adaptations of books twice that length, which managed to fit more of the story in. Half of OOTP's story was missing and what was left was done badly.
 
Boast ? Excuse him for being confident that he had made a good Potter film and was proud of what he had done, which is always a positive sign. Good god, what ever happened to the freedom of speech ?

Oh and you should know that he had originally filmed a three hour Order of the Phoenix, but Warner Bros. told him to cut out roughly 50 minutes due to the studio thinking that audiences wouldn't sit through a three hour film. Not his fault. Scenes excluded, but were filmed and finished, include Minerva's Stunning, Hagrid's Thestral lesson and more of the Battle at the Ministry. I, for one, hope an extended edition will be released one day.

Given what they had to deal with, he did a darn good job fitting in the essential details of the book into a film with time and budget constraints. JK even approves of these changes, stating "it's simply impossible to incorporate every single one of my storylines in a film which as to be kept under 2.5 hours"
 
As if he'd be all over the press and DVD talking about what a terrible film they'd made.

I think you're maybe barking up the wrong tree. When a film turns out lousy, especially in big franchise cinema, the blame often lies with the producers and the studios backing it. They have influence and say on every decision regarding what goes in the film, how it should flow and what direction it should take etc. Most importantly, they are the ones who decide on the final edit you pay to see. Blaming the director and writers is foolish, because if every decision was solely up to them, you might well see a very diferent film.
 
If I don't like the film, I'm not going to nod along with a guy saying it's brilliant and I'm not going to think he should be proud of it, am I? It has nothing to do with "freedom of speech" for God's sake. He can say what he likes but if he's prepared to go round saying it's great he has to be equally prepared for people who didn't like it to disagree.

And I think the directing was bad. I'm sorry, but I do, and that's a large part of the film, and presumably solely his responsibility so I'm entitled to dislike him for it. I also think the production, script, editing, the lot, was just terrible for the most part. Maybe I had a shit Media teacher but I was under the impression a lot of that was down to the directors. If I got that wrong I apologise but I still think the directing was awful.

It was better in Half Blood Prince, I'll give him that, but like I said it doesn't excuse the fifth film.
 
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