Previously, Cory Finley would have been best-known to people as an up and coming playwright. Now, ever since he premiered his Thoroughbreds at the Sundance Film Festival, he has become better-known as a director, which is all the more interesting because said movie happens to be his directorial debut.
Here are five things that you may or may not have known about Cory Finley:
Born in St. Louis and Based in New York City
Finley was born in St. Louis. However, he is now based in New York City, which is a center of theater as well as other cultural pursuits in the United States. Given these facts, it should come as no surprise to learn that Finley has been involved with a wide range of theaters and other theater-related organizations situated in both of these two cities.
Member of Youngblood
Currently, Finley is a member of Youngblood, which as the name suggests, is a collective of up and coming professional playwrights who are under the age of 30. The collective is meant to provide its members with guidance, feedback, as well as the other forms of support that they need to realize their talent. Furthermore, Youngblood provides said individuals with exposure to both the public and the press, thus increasing their chances of becoming a success in a competitive environment.
Thoroughbreds Started Out as a Play
Initially, Thoroughbreds started out as a play. However, as Finley was writing his play, he realized that some of its parts would work much better in a cinematic form as opposed to what he had originally envisioned for them. As a result, he met with some people, made some changes to the play, teamed up with people with established expertise and experience in film-making, and then got started on turning what was supposed to have been a play into what is now a feature film.
Respects Playwright Harold Pinter
Finley has voiced his respect for the English playwright Harold Pinter, who won the Noble Prize for Literate in 2005 for his body of work. In particular, Finley mentioned Pinter’s innovation when it came to the use of pauses and silences on the stage, which is relevant because Finley has used pauses and silences to tell the story of Thoroughbreds. According to him, this approach was effective because of the actresses Olivia Cooke and Anna Taylor-Joy, both of whom had very expressive faces that were nonetheless under excellent control, thus enabling them to tell the story by using nothing but their facial expressions.
Made Extensive Use of Short Siding
Speaking of which, Thoroughbreds has received a fair amount of praise for its cinematography, which is the result of the close collaboration between Finley and the cinematographer Lyle Vincent. One example of the interesting choices made with Thoroughbreds is the extensive use of short siding, which is when the subject of a scene is placed closer towards the side that they are looking at rather than the other side as would be the norm. This choice is interesting in that it produces a sense of disorientation, which contributed to the overall feel of Finley’s film.
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