Report- Francis Ford Coppola

Within my report, to counter the fact that I may not be able to contact professional directors I have decided to add case studies into my report from famous examples of directors that fit what I am trying to show in a given section of my report. The first of these is Francis Ford Coppola, famous director of some of the best films ever made, such as The Godfather Trilogy, Apocalypse Now and Dracula (1992). So this is a very strong example of someone who certainly was at the top of the industry in the past. I am using him as an example of working up from the bottom of the industry ladder and reaching the top, following university graduation

The first place I got my information regarding Coppola from was his IMDb page, which shows that he has held many roles in the industry from Sound Operator to Executive Producer, however, there is a direct correlation from his early days and his upwards progression as he made more and more films before he began directing seriously in the late 60s and early 70s, The Godfather came out in 1972 and basically cemented Coppola at the top of the pile at this time. The second of my internet sources was his online biography which told me the details of the progression I had seen from his IMDb, from here I found that he graduated from UCLA and from here he developed connections with some of the big names in film at the time and as a result he managed to progress quickly up the ladder, which goes to highlight the importance of making connections in this industry. Coppola's first big breakthrough was Finian's Rainbow in 1968 which saw Coppola put the first step in place of his directorial dominance for the next few years.

The final source I used was Coppola: the making of his movies by Ronald Bergman, this book basically served as a glue that held together everything I had learned from the internet sources, it held together what I had hypothesised by confirming it and it served to back up the things the internet was saying to confirm them as fact.